Glorious Springtime

 

Here we are almost at the end of March. Time just seems to fly past, doesn't it? I had never seen the redbud have flowers all up the trunk of the tree before. But, there it is! My Buddy is well and happy and the sweetest boy ever! And on the bottom right you can see some pretty new eggs.

 

These are some of the new girls who laid those eggs. The two on the ends are Cuckoo Marans. Don't you love that name? They lay a very dark brown egg. The middle girl is a Black Australorp. There are four more of the new girls out there, and as nearly as I can tell, they are all laying! The eggs are on the small side right now since they are so young, but they will soon be regular size. I wish I could send you some of the surplus eggs!

 

I had a message from our niece not long ago. She said that her son had outgrown the quilt I made for him when he was a baby and would really like a new one. Well, of course I had to get that request answered right away!

 

I had so much fun making this one. The tumbler quilt is really quick and easy to make and I love all the fun fabrics I was able to include. I've sent a picture and she says he loves it already. Hopefully they can come and get it soon for him to really enjoy. He is such a sweet boy. It was a joy to do something for him. 

I had pulled a lot of fabrics for him to approve before I started on the quilt. He surprised me because he liked all of them! So I used some of every one! There are so many fun fabrics, and you KNOW I like sock monkeys!

 

 

I did not make this pretty jelly roll quilt. My friend Sandy made it for a raffle quilt for a friend of hers. I quilted it for her. Isn't it pretty! I hope they raise lots of money. It's for a scholarship of some kind.

 

Meanwhile on our table I have once again been playing with some of my toys. I guess I could grow up and stop, but I don't want to do that! 

Mr. Muddling's older brother passed away the middle of the month after a very long battle with COPD. There is nothing fun about a funeral service, but. It was truly one of the most touching and respectful funerals I've ever attended. Paul had worked in law enforcement for a very long time, and was an Army veteran. His wife recently retired from law enforcement, too. There was a Sheriff's Department Honor Guard at the funeral home, a motorcycle escort to the cemetery, a Military Honor Guard there and a bagpiper in full regalia. 

Sorrow, sickness and death touch all of us sooner or later in one way or another. I am so thankful the Lord is so merciful to those who grieve. He is truly the Comforter.

I hope all is well in your world and that you have the joy of the Lord in full measure!

Hugs and kisses,

Elaine

 

Still

 

We are still here and it is still very hot. Nevertheless. You know, nothing is forever. These days with both their good parts and their bad will pass. In the meantime, we will continue to do the same things we always do - our best!

The garden has been such a blessing this year. Although we have not had a huge harvest of vegetables, we have had a massive amount of zinnias, and they have been so pretty out in the garden and in here in vases. We have enjoyed them tremendously.

Right now the cleaning crew is taking care of clearing the area. And in the process, they are getting rid of whatever insects may be lurking in there!

 

 

And this is just part of our crew! They look like they mean business, don't they!

 

I have completed another quilt for the USO Lounge. This one will go in the next batch. I had some parts to this one left over from a similar one I made earlier which you can see here.

 

The border, backing and binding are all the same blue and white print. 

 

 

I finished this little Christmas panel, too. I had a lot of fun playing with small designs in the quilting of it. This one will be displayed here for Christmas.

 

There have been many of these units made recently. I started this quilt, I believe in 2018. It is Bonnie Hunter's "Blue Ridge Beauty" from her book Adventures with Leaders and Enders. This is the only place I can find I mentioned it here.  If you look at that blog post you can see that I had already made a good many of the blocks. There are still a lot to make, but they are easy blocks!

I hope you are not having too difficult a time with your weather. I've been praying for the people who have been impacted by the terrible fires all over the place lately. My heart aches for them.

We ARE living in perilous times right now. But our Heavenly Father knows all we're going through and He is always watching over us. He is a very present help in time of trouble! 

My thoughts and prayers are with you, too!

Hugs and kisses,

Elaine

 

 

A Green Quilt

We had such a bad time with the cold weather recently I just had a craving for green. This is the result. It is posing nicely on my fig tree, which is beginning to leaf out!

Here it is posing in several other spots, because. You know. A finished quilt just needs to be photographed.

Here is a little look at the Land of Muddle today. Chickens continue to assemble to get their instructions for the day. (That is a joke!)  The jasmine on the upper right looks really sad. It may be done. We'll see.  Lots of things are beginning to show signs of recovery, and for that I am extremely grateful.  The black cat supposedly lives next door, but he goes wherever he pleases and whenever he pleases. That was his reaction to my taking his picture in our flower bed!.

This one Christmas cactus is blooming again and it is really showing out. I love it!

In case you missed the bread box in the collage above.

Inside is my little rabbit with her pretty bed and quilt. I know. I'm silly. But I do have fun!

I hope you're having fun, too. There is always something for which to be thankful!

Hugs and kisses,

Elaine

I Seem to be a Little Scattered

This is the design wall directly behind my sewing machine. This is what I see while I'm sewing. As you can see, I have jumped all over the place with my sewing lately.

This is how it looked a few days ago. I had seen that picture of the maple leaf on Pinterest. I know. Big mistake to linger there at all. Anyway, I figured out a pattern to make the block. So far I've made ten of them. They take forever. For me, anyway. My brilliant idea , which you can see on that design wall, was to make another block to put between the maple leaf blocks. 

So far, I've made twenty-one of these 49 patch blocks. They take forever, too. At least for me. Then I notice that these blocks are not the same size. Actually I noticed it several days ago, but I kept on making them. While I make up my mind what to do. There is a reason my blog is named "Muddling Through". That is what I do just a whole lot of the time. I muddle. Usually it turns out pretty well if I keep at it. We'll see what happens with this one. At any rate, it has kept me occupied here at home, and mostly out of trouble. Of course, there has been more fabric purchased online. Have I mentioned lately that I have the best husband in the world? He never complains about me buying fabric. I am truly blessed! 

In other news, it is HOT here, but that is nothing new either. Houston in the Summer is always hot, and it seems to be Summer here for at least three quarters of the year. 

The baby chicks are not babies any more, and they are getting along just fine with the big girls. And they are all hilarious! I love watching them. There is always something new to laugh about with them.

We've bought some really good peaches lately,, more than we could eat, so I've been drying some of the excess. I can see some fried pies in our future. After it cools off some, of course.

Today, I decided I would cut something new to play with, and I noticed the clamshell GO! die. I have no idea how many I've cut so far, but I've put these up on the other design wall, and I'm liking the look a lot! I did sew three of them together, just to see how hard it would be. It's not. So far, anyway.

With all the bad things going on these days, and there are plenty, there is still so much for which to be thankful. We are so blessed as a nation, and there is still so much that is right about our country, even though there are things that are not. Perhaps the very best thing we can do in these times is to talk to God about it instead of complaining. I am talking to myself here, I hope you know! And I am trying to do better.

I hope all is well with each and every one of you, that  your family is healthy and happy.  Because I love you!

Hugs and kisses,

Elaine

Patriotic Rail Fence and Nine Patch

This one is complete and will also go to the local airport USO Lounge. I had some leftover nine patch and rail fence blocks in a project box and those "quilt seeds" as Wanda calls them inspired me to make this one. I had no idea until I looked just now that the original I made was in 2015!

Those of you who have been with me for a while know of our daughter, Miss Ru. Or Ruthie. She had a lot of online friends, one special one Dawn, who lives in London. Dawn has become a very good friend of Mr. Muddling and me, and for Ruthie's birthday this year she sent this stone for Ruthie's Garden. Oh,  how we love it!

I really loved seeing that bee in the pure white Althea, too! 

I finished quilting this queen size quilt last night. It will live here. I'll post more about it later. I am NOT happy that the block in the lower left inside the first inside border is turned the wrong way. Not changing it.

I've made a lot of mistakes in my life. Those I can, I have fixed, but there are some that cannot be fixed. This one could, but it's just not that important to me.

Isn't it good that we don't have to rectify every mistake we've made or to continually beat ourselves up about them? I am so thankful for Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

I hope you're having a wonderful weekend with lots of things to make you happy!

Hugs and kisses,

Elaine

2018 Recap

I seem to have had a pretty productive year making quilts. Which is a really good thing, because from the looks of things there will not be much production going on this year.

Knee replacement surgery is nothing to underestimate. I'm finding it much more challenging than I thought.

Enough of that. I will recover. I just hope it doesn't take forever.

I do hope you are having some fun where you are. I am extremely blessed to have the best husband in the world to take care of me. Thank God he is patient!

Hugs and kisses,

After Harvey

This picture was taken out our front window at eight o'clock Sunday morning, August 27th. The street in front was already flooded.

This was taken at 4:55 that afternoon. As you can see, the waters had continued to rise. It was a little bit scary for a while, but thank God, we had no damage at our house. No water came into our home and we didn't even lose electricity. We were extremely blessed and fortunate.

This was taken Monday, August 28th at  2:48 p.m. The street at that point was no longer flooded. It took several days for the water to go down enough to get out of the neighborhood, and several more days for stores to be open and stocked. 

There are LOTS of people who have lost everything in this storm, not just here but all along the Upper Gulf Coast. There are have been so many wonderful stories of people who came from all over the country to help in our time of need. Many of them are still here. However, I am pretty disgusted at some of the big name charities who have raised millions and will take most of it with them when they leave. May God have mercy on them. 

I haven't share these two quilts that my friend Sandy made for the local airport USO lounge. They are made with the same pattern, different fabrics, and of course different backings. Aren't they pretty!

Here are three of our little girls. They are growing up! I think they will probably start to lay eggs sometime around the first of November. I'm really looking forward to that.

I've been working on this one for a dear lady at our church. There's a border yet to be added and then it will be ready to quilt.

And this is another of rail fence blocks being sewn together. It will be going to the USO lounge, too.

Thank you so much to those of you who have inquired about our safety. I appreciate your care and concern. There are always so many things for which to be thankful, aren't there?

Hugs and love,

Pinwheels and Zig Zags

Believe it or not, I'm back with a finish! I'm calling this one Pinwheels and Zig Zags. It is for a very good man we know. This quilt is made with half square triangles cut by me with the Go!Cutter and sewn together by my friend Phyllis into squares. Then I muddled this together. I like it!

Here it is after a wash and dry. I do love that crinkly cuddly look and feel. 

It is backed with a tie dye design fleece and the binding is a shades of blue stripe. Mr. Muddling tested it for me and it is just perfect for our friend to enjoy as he lounges in his recliner. I hope he enjoys it. (And I hope he realizes how hard it was for me to get Mr. Muddling to give it up after testing!)

Thank you so much for all your sweet comments and emails after that last post about my mother. She moved off to heaven on the 12th of September. It's what she's been wanting to do for a while now, so I can't really be sad, though we will all certainly miss her. As I said, she was ninety years old and she had lived a long good life.

Still lots of pretty stuff out there in the yard. I just wish I felt more like getting out there and working. I've had some health issues I'm working through. Nothing major, just got to get all better! You know how it is. Getting older is not for sissies!

Buddy had the first shot to kill those pesky heartworms on Tusday and stayed overnight at the vet's for observation. He has to have absolute quiet and rest (yeah, right!) for a month, then another two shots and another month of rest. He is being very good about it, but he really wants to run and play. However, since it could be fatal to him if pieces of one of those dead critters in there migrated to his lungs, he'll just have to behave.

It's been a tough couple of months, but as our favorite pastor told us years ago, we are not meant to float through life on billowy clouds of ease! We have to fight life through. I've found that is true. Not always fun, but still true. And life is worth the fight!

I hope you've been well and happy and healthy while I've been AWOL from my blog. I'll try to do better, because I like to stay in touch with you. Because I love you!

Hugs and kisses,

Winding Down

This is a picture of my sister Sue and me with our mother. I am the blonde, and though you can't tell from a black and white photo, Sue always has had gorgeous auburn hair. Mama is ninety years old now and has been having some health issues. The last week in August she had another stroke and fell. Her right arm is fractured and she has lost a lot of her memory. Mama will probably be transferred to a nursing home/rehab facility next week. My heart is heavy, but at the same time I know she has lived a long, good life. She has had many struggles, but she has been an amazingly strong and determined woman when she wanted to be. 

At the age of forty, she went back to college to finish her degree in elementary education. She went on later to earn a Master's Degree. She taught at the local elementary school for many years. She has never thought of herself as exceptionally strong or intelligent, but she is. I pray that the great God who has taken such good care of her all her life provides for her exactly what she needs now. I am very thankful for my brother who has lived right next door to her for years. He has also taken very good care of Mama and is still doing that to the best of his ability.

Meanwhile, here in the Land of Muddle, Summer is winding down. It is still hot, don't kid yourself! But there are hints of Fall in the air here and there. Buddy is such a good boy. I am thankful for him. Those two chickens are the only ones left! I don't think I will get any more. 

My friend Phyllis sewed together many half square triangles I cut with the Go! Cutter from some of that last batch of fabric I was given by my sweet sister in law Gloria. I'm thinking I may do a simple zig zag design for this one. We'll see. 

I'm still making more blocks for the Scrappy Trips quilt. I got six of them put together in the last couple of days.

And here are six more ready to sew together.

I got all the 2 1/2 inch strips cut for the Christmas quilts that Sandy, Phyllis and I are making. Now I need to cut sashing strips from these whites. (Millie, do you see your Christmas strips under these? I won a giveaway on Millie's blog several years ago and made this quilt from them.)

It seems there is a lot of pain, anger and sadness in our world now. I know that it's there, and in a lot of cases it is valid. However, giving in to those feelings usually only makes things worse. I choose to look on the good things, the things that make me happy. Many of you who read this are people who make me happy. Your positive attitude, your talent, your willingness to share your knowledge all make this world a better place. I'm thankful for you!

Hugs and kisses,

Bruno and Buddy

We have had a rough couple of weeks. My Bruno finished his time here. I don't think I will ever stop missing him. He was my faithful friend and constant companion. When no one else was there, Bruno was. I know that a lot of people don't understand and think we are foolish to care so much for "just an animal". They don't understand. He was so much more to me.

And now I'd like you to meet Buddy. I do not think it was unfeeling of me to get another dog so quickly. It's more of a testimony of what a good dog Bruno was. And this one needs me fully as much as I need him. His owners boarded him in a kennel three months ago. They had some misfortune and couldn't keep him. Eventually they told the lady running the kennel to just get rid of him.

Our son is the one who found him for us. I told him I wanted a male Rottweiler puppy right now and like the good son he is, his answer was, "On it." That same day he called and gave me the info on a one year old male Rottweiler, and I called. Mr. Muddling and I went that day and saw him and he came home with us. He's not a puppy, but he is young enough to still have a lot of the puppy sweetness, and at least he's over the more destructive traits of a younger dog.

We stopped by our vet's office on the way home to get him checked. The bad news is he has heart worms. The good news is, we've already started the treatments and he has a very good chance for a long, good life. 

Maybe you don't believe like I do, but I believe God is concerned even about a woman missing her dog, and even about a dog who has had a bad deal. This just seems like a "God thing" to me. We needed each other.

As for Lady and Ariel, they have mostly accepted him as a very big new member of the family. The cats - not so much. But they will all get used to each other with time.

I do hope you are having a good weekend and that there are things in your life for which to be thankful. There always are, even if sometimes you have to look a little harder.

Thank you for reading about my dogs and my life.

Hugs and kisses,