Gardening news

My Silver Fox !

The squash plants just exploded with growth after a week of flooding rains.

They put out TONS of baby squash, and then about 3/4th of the babies rotted !  But we have picked 7 or 8 or so beautiful big squash and shared them already with family and neighbors.

I'm having trouble getting my fried squash to stay crisp this year, though.  By the time I get them onto my dinner plate, they're soft and floppy and I have trouble swallowing them.  If they were crisp, they would break up better with my teeth, and swallowing would be easier, I think.

The cucumbers don't look great AT ALL, but they're covered in blooms, and I did pick one that was about 6 inches long today.   I couldn't chew it, so I hope to pickle some and give some away.  I also picked one of the MANY bell peppers that are covering those plants.   The tomato plants are loaded, and have yielded one red small one and one nearly red medium-sized one thus far.  The okra plants are slow but steady.

I tried to use the alphabet characters on the new sewing machine to write something on a t-shirt, but I guess that solvy stabilizer was not the right choice for backing it, because the machine's throat plate ATE the t-shirt.   Very disappointing, but difficult to get much information on procedure online.

Otherwise, the only sewing I have done is to make a strip and flip style toilet rug for my little bathroom.

 I used a towel as a backing, and started with a half-block (these were all from my scrap basket).

Then I just started adding a strip at a time to the two sides of the half block, working my way up the drawn outline of the shape that I wanted to finish with.  After all of the piecing, I cut out my final shape and then bound the edges with bias binding.  I used my old dependable Singer machine as this became quite thick in places.

I hope to be able to make a matching rug to go in front of the tub.

The prizes are for REAL !

It's been a LONG, nearly 3 weeks, ESPECIALLY considering all the 'poor, pitiful, foolish woman' looks that I've received from my husband during that time, but my Melody BabyLock sewing machine that I won from Amy's Bloggers Quilt Festival arrived yesterday !

I was getting ready to go and work at the church like I do each Tuesday afternoon, and I looked outside to find that a truck had just stopped at my house and left a big cardboard box on my front bench !

  I could tell from the labeling what it was,........and while grinning at my husband from ear to ear, I rushed around the house, trying to keep my mind on the afternoon's work ahead.   I went off to the church and told everyone who would give me time and their ear,.....all the time thinking of how much fun I was going to have when I got home to 'play' !

Well, I was tired when I did get home, but I got the box opened this morning and spent about 4 hours just learning the basics and playing around with the features.

  She's a beaut !

I don't see myself using her for piecing, as I never even got around to making a quarter-inch seam, but you never know !  But I did find that she has a beautiful serpentine stitch that I can't wait to use to quilt something, a wonderful,what I used to call, 'buttonhole stitch' for applique, and she came with a walking foot and extension table.  And the 3 alphabets are fun, too.

Soapbox speech welling up I always get my back up when I hear people talk about how 'lucky' they were, so I'm going to squash that little expression right here...........God blessed me with winning a new machine at a point in my life where I figure I'll never again consider that a necessary or wise expenditure.  And I think that's just GRAND........and maybe even GLORIOUS !

 Yes, .......praise and glory to God, my father, my provider, my JOY !

just couldn't wait.......

......I printed some equilateral triangle paper from an online source and started playing around with a design, hoping that it would  be my first project on the new machine that I won in the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  But, Amy hasn't let me know when to expect it  yet, ANTSY, ANTSY, ANTSY, and I just couldn't look at the laid-out design and NOT piece it !

So, here's what I've done.....

My own totally original design........as far as I know !

I was aiming for another big couch quilt, around 60 x 80 inches, but I miscalculated on the needed triangle size, so it came out measuring about 44 x 64 inches.   Just as well, I think, because I feel like the design would have been hard to make out, up close, if the triangles were much bigger.........they're about 4 x 5 inches, each.

I like it !

  Maybe it will be the first thing I QUILT on the new machine !

Really? Me ?

I got a very interesting email in my inbox this morning and followed this link .

Found my name down at the announcement of the BIGGEST  PRIZE -- Melody Baby Lock Sewing machine?

Whoa !

Wow !

Praise the LORD !

Congratulations to all the participants and winners.......it was a fun 2 weeks full of beautiful quilts to peruse !  Thanks Amy and sponsors !  You rock !

Life outside !

Things just get ramped up and busy this time of year and I find myself spending all of my time outside, and very little in front of the computer.

Things are blooming, late but beautifully.......

my painted Lillies (I bought them at an after-Easter sale 2 years ago, but I don't know the name of them)

my Asiatic Lillies

my bigger Daisies that Rose shared with me (these come down from the originals in her mother's garden in the 1960's)

You can just make out the smaller Daisies off to the left side of this photo.  These are easily twice as big !

and another treasure that she shared.....a double Poppy.  She's given me transplants several times that didn't make it, but this time she gave me seed and I finally have my blooms !

The vegetable garden is doing very well,

especially the squash and tomatoes.  As you can see, I tied fluttering strings around it and piepans that clank in the wind.....I've had no more problem with fence-tearers, praise the LORD !

I tried to make myself start a quilting project, but just couldn't get anything going.

Also, after much prayer, I decided not to go through with the second injection into my vocal chord.  I can see small changes taking place in my eating ability and sleeping, so I'm leaving it to God to heal me directly.  If He nudges me back toward another procedure, so be it, but for now, I'm trusting in the Maker to know how to fix His work.  In the meantime, I'm sure He can teach me a few lessons in patience, humility, and empathy......and those are very good, but sometimes hard-learned lessons !

Be well, be blessed, and enjoy the day !

A baby quilt of faith -- Blogger's Quilt Festival second entry

Linking up to the 2014 Spring Blogger's Quilt Festival, this is the second quilt I'd like to share.  This one is entered in the 'hand-quilted' category, and I would appreciate your vote if you really like it.  The actual name of the quilt is........

Dandelions Near The Steps

This is a baby quilt made from the simple desire to sew !  The design is my own, just something to showcase the solid-colored fabrics, picking up the ones that are featured in the dandelion print.  The finished quilt measures 36 inches square.

The batting is Hobbs' Heirloom Premium 80% cotton/20% polyester.
I used Connecting Threads solid strips and a Valori Wells dandelion print for the top of the quilt.

I regret to say that I don't know the maker of the backing fabric, but I am thankful to my friend, JoAnn, in Oklahoma, for continuing to send me her scraps (big scraps!)

 I pieced a few of the gradating solids from the front of the quilt into the back, since I needed to piece it anyway.

I decided to hand-quilt this one since it would show up so nicely against the solid fabrics.  

I love how the light coming in from the window shows all of the contours of the quilting lines.  

Once again, Lottie-dah wants to claim the quilt for her own.   Can't believe I haven't made this girl a quilt yet !

  The quilt has been gifted to a beautiful young woman who is believing God for a baby girl, and has already named her, Abigale Marie Hope !  God IS hope, isn't he..........praise God for all our babies, no matter how old they are, or how long we have to wait !  God is faithful........why can't we be FULL of FAITH?

Thanks for stopping by .   I hope you enjoy the festival and that you find lots of interesting, new-to-you blogs to follow !

Diamonds in the Dirt

I'm linking up to Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival, and I hope to share this quilt with interested quilters that haven't run across my blog before.

This quilt can be found in the "Home Machine Quilted" category,
 if you wish to vote for it.  Thanks !

This quilt








 was made for my older brother, John, in appreciation for helping me through a difficult year.  You see, my husband is disabled and can no longer drive, which leaves all of our normal driving to me.  When I had to schedule surgery to have a (benign, thank GOD) tumor removed from my vocal chords, John agreed to drive me to the hospital and back home again, a nearly-two-hour-drive in each direction.  It was supposed to be an overnight stay, but turned out to be 5 days, during which he drove back and forth to make sure that my husband also got to visit.  Then, he stepped up and drove me for all return trips, which turned out to be quite a few.  But he would never accept any money for gasoline, causing me to hide money within his car on a couple of occasions.

So, a couple of months later, I had just finished this quilt top, which I just 'threw together', trying to use up older fabrics from my much ignored 'brown drawer'.    Falling in love with it, I realized that it would make a perfect couch throw for John, and I started concentrating on finishing it for him.

I basted it outside under my carport on such a windy day that the wind picked up the basting frame and tossed it off of its corner supports !  After that, things went smoothly, and I machine-quilted it on my old Singer model-15 cabinet-model machine, using an open-toed walking foot.

I followed the ditch on the long seams, and then used a soap sliver to mark the cables from a stencil, and stitched them.

Here, I had quilted the first cable with white thread, and found that it
created too much contrast.  I removed these stitches and changed
 to a medium brown, which let the contours stand out rather
 than the thread.

  I switched to my nearly 30-year-old White sewing machine to use a triple zigzag stitch for the wavy lines running down the light strips.

The batting is Hobbs' 80 cotton/20 polyester batting,

and the backing is a Riley Blake print purchased from Fabric.com.

 I used triangles that were trimmed from the front 'diamond-squares', to make the arrows on the back.  The label was signed with the scripture, "The steps of a good man are ordered of the LORD".

I surprised him with the quilt at church one evening.  He took it home and started downstairs to his basement 'study', to leave the quilt on his recliner.   Seeing him heading down, his wife quickly suggested that the quilt might do better duty upstairs where they BOTH could enjoy it.

 Hearing that relayed to me, I decided that it was the right decision, praise the LORD, to make him this quilt; and, I must have done alright, as they do me honor by using it to grace the living room of their beautifully decorated home.

This is me, comfy in p.j.'s in my own little home,
 with the just completed quilt top back in February,
I think.

The quilt started out measuring 56 x 80 inches, but shrunk a bit in the dryer, to finish at a measurement of 53 x 76 inches.  That's a LOT of shrinkage......John is a TALL guy....hope it still fits !  He hasn't complained, anyway !

The pattern was derived from making a few changes to a design that I saw in a quilter's catalog.

Feel free to follow my blog if you don't mind a whole lot of normal life mixed in with bits of quilting and knitting !  Enjoy the rest of the festival !

So tired.

Short but sweet catchup.

Cucumbers, squash, and okra showing seedling activity.  Rough tomatoes improving.

Tried to straighten shed today in preparation for a yard sale.  So much work !   Really just rearranged.....more to do, so much more.

Doctor said Monday that the good vocal cord has not moved over any to compensate for the lack of activity in the paralyzed one.  He offered to send me to another doctor who performs the same collagen injection that I had once before, but this doctor does it from the outside of the neck, eliminating the need to be put to sleep.  I'm praying for guidance.  This procedure didn't last more than a week  before, and when it does last, it usually only lasts from 2 to 6 months or so.

Still......God is good, He knows what I need, and He will not tarry.  I must wait and see the goodness of the LORD.  Praise God !

Pride goeth before a fall.....

.... and I was so proud of the job I did re-erecting my garden fence with all new stakes, driving them into the ground by hand.  I repent.  Today I discovered that some rascal, most hopefully four-legged, decided to rip a huge hole in that beautiful fence in one place, and tear several other places.

   Being the lifelong seamstress that I am, after repenting of my pride, I grabbed my curved needle and some polyester reinforced quilting thread and stitched up the holes.  I've since tied selvedges all around to flap in the wind, and added aluminum pie pans to clash around and generally scare the bejeebies out of my nocturnal visitors (I hope).  I even stuck a yard flag out there to flap in the breeze, and hung my favorite kitchen-utensil wind chimes on the fence.  Yep, it looks less than beautiful now, but (again with the HOPE), HOPEFULLY we'll have a nice harvest like last year.

I  pulled dirt up into a row and planted one row of Okra before I realized that it was too much work to do by hand, after the rain having packed the dirt again.  Maybe tomorrow I can loosen it up a bit again with the tiller, and then rake it into a semblance of rows, hills, and walkways.   A raised bed garden is looking better to me all the time.   Sounds great to be able to go out to a lumber-enclosed, raised bed, bend at the waist and plant !   Surely it has it's own aggravations too?

  Anyway, beyond that, the good news healthwise is that my hemoglobin levels were finally high enough yesterday that I was able to donate blood for the first time in about 2 years or more.  I was happy !
  Monday I go for my 6 month post-surgery checkup.  Small things, that make a big difference, have changed, but I still have very little volume to my voice, cough alot, have difficulty sleeping, and MISS SINGING !  But, God is my healer, and time is my friend.  Anesthesia and surgery, on the other hand, are not things I want to tolerate again, so if my surgeon offers to make my voice better, I think I'll just tell him that I'm waiting on God to do that when he desires.

Yard-wise, my bronze-rasperry Irises are blooming down the driveway on either side of the mailbox.

Iris

And I couldn't identify this greenery when it came up, so I left it alone, and it turned out to be Sweet William !   I bought seed and put it out SOMEWHERE once, but I don't know if this is from that or from Rose, or from the birds/wind sharing her garden with mine.  But it is a very happy surprise for me, and I hope that they reseed themselves and hang around for years !

Sweet William

Also, the Purple Salvia that I planted last year have come back as they are supposed to (never had them before and I shaded the area when we built the carport, so I had my doubts).

Salvia

And my newest visitor to our bird feeders is this Indigo Bunting.  I've never spotted one around here before, although this time I thought he was a Bluebird for days before I actually saw him AT the feeder.

Indigo Bunting

And, an interesting thing that I noticed was that a black and white Grosbeak, like I noticed last Spring, showed up on the exact same day as in the photo that I took of one last year.......April 25 exactly.  God is so amazing !  "A time for every purpose under Heaven" !

Grosbeak and Red Finch

A nice visit

Yesterday, our son-in-love, Tim, stopped by on his way further east.  He and our daughter and grandchildren live in Oklahoma, and he is stationed at Ft. Sill army base.  He is attending a month of school at Ft. Lee, in Virginia, and our home is approximately the halfway point for his trip.

He arrived at 3 in the morning, and only got to sleep over and get ready to move on.  But we got to visit for a few hours and it was so good to see him after nearly 2 years.   Hopefully, when he gets back home, after a little bit he AND the rest of the family can come back out and stay for a few days.

Praise the Lord (by Chris Chistian) - A powerful song of Encouragement

Just documenting the seasons of change

First off,........PRAISE for my saviour, Jesus, who gave his life for me, and rose again to reign as my King !  Oh, how I love you , Jesus !

I spent this Good Friday doing my first real mowing of this year.....I got the entire front and alot of the back mowed.  Before that, I mopped the kitchen floor a couple of times with Mop N Glo, which I have neglected to do this winter.  I've been using Pine Sol, and didn't realize how UNSHINY my floor had become until I moved the washing machine looking for a leak.   What a beautiful shiny floor I found hiding underneath it !  (And no leak there.......it must be coming from the connection, inside the wall or below floor....YIKES).  Now the place smells so good (from the Mop N Glo) when you walk in from outside....love that smell !

Pausing to catch a second wind, I had some yummy Cheddar Broccoli soup for a late lunch, and then I got the tiller.  After having difficulty getting it to idle, I adjusted the carburetor and reset the idle screw (sounds all smarty, doesn't it?)  What really worked was praying, "Father, please let me get this thing going so we can be blessed with a good garden to share again !"  And HE did !  I tilled about 4 passes and emptied the gas tank, so I hope to start again tomorrow.

Cable guy came and did some rewiring and stuff yesterday since my phone was dropping calls.  He's the one who discovered the dripping underneath the trailer.  I've called a guy to come have a look at it next week.

So, that was my day.......and I had a lovely date night with the hubby tonight,---upon HIS request !  Can't beat that after 37+ years !

Oh, and 15 Irises bloomed this week along the front of our home, all purple blooms, just the way I like !  On a couple of mornings, the temperature dropped down to the high 20's and nipped the newly opened leaves on the Maples and on the Crape Myrtles and Rose of Sharons.  I hope they come back okay !

Have a blessed Easter weekend, everyone.  Look to the Lord !

Feeling better, and showing off a finish !

I've been silently lurking around blogland for a week.....a crazy week.

I started throwing up last Friday, .........and had family/company on the way here, from out of state, to spend a few days !  Needless to say, I wasn't the best hostess, but we got by and hubby enjoyed seeing his nephew for the first time in nearly 40 years.  They grew up almost as brothers, so that was nice.

After checking with a local doctor, I found that the sickness was caused by acid reflux, not the creeping crud that everyone else has had.  I totally lost my voice off and on for days, and it's still not stable (not that I ever have MUCH voice anymore).  And, I couldn't eat, so I lost ANOTHER 5 POUNDS......not good !   I'm looking emaciated now.

I've scheduled a checkup with my surgeon for Monday afternoon, and am asking him to refer me to a gastroenterologist up at Vanderbilt.  I hope I can get some kind of solution to this aggravation.

Meanwhile, we've had some beautiful Spring days here, and I've been working in the yard again, now that I've recovered some of my strength from last weekend.

  Rose gave me a whole bunch of different styles of buttercups/Daffodils, and I spent most of today setting them out in various places.

While I didn't have much strength, I was able to do enough handwork to get the brown quilt bound. 

I present.................DIAMONDS IN THE DIRT........finished !

Before washing.  All of the quilting was done using my Brother walking foot.  I drew the cables with a stencil, and did the wiggly by using the 3-stitch zigzag.


Since I had to piece the backing, I inserted red diamonds, like the front of the quilt, and the arrows just came to be because I liked them.  I used the half-squares leftover from trimming the diamond-in-a-square units on the front.

Also before washing (check out how the center quilting goes right through the center of the  backing !)

 I machine-quilted it until I got sick, and then finished the last of it a few days ago.  Today I washed it and threw it into the dryer before I went out to do the yardwork.   I FORGOT all about it, and pulled it from the dryer when I came in around 5:30.

It did the cotton-shrink/crinkle-up more than one has in a long time, but it looks good.  That USED TO BE my favorite thing about a cotton-battinged quilt.

Picture's a bit fuzzy........quilt's nice and crinkly.  This design is my own adaptation of a quilt I saw offered as a pattern in a catalog.  I made a few changes but can't totally claim it as MY design.

 I have a recipient in mind for it, but I have to admit that I like this quilt more than anything I've made in a very long time.  My hubby does too !   If it had a flannel back I might have had to give it to HIM.

Nice and wrinkly after washing

I can't believe it lined up that well !  Good thing, too, with the arrows pointing it out !

The quilt started out measuring 56 x 80 inches, but shrunk a bit in the dryer, to finish at a measurement of 53 x 76 inches.  That's a LOT of shrinkage......I was making this for a TALL guy to nap under....hope it still fits !

Maybe I can get a full length shot of the quilt on the clothesline next week.

And, now, .......... I get to think about a NEW PROJECT......... YAY !
Have a great Sunday......and don't forget to thank God for this week !

Praise God for gifts of talent, busy hands, and peaceful days !