Grandmother's Flower Garden....but not a quilt !

I've been very lax in posting to my blog this year.   I don't know.....I started to feel like I was just posting pictures of my 'pretty work' so that people could tell me how talented I am.....and that didn't feel right.  I am so very thankful for the gift of creating quilty stuff that the LORD has blessed me with, and my desire is to share that with others.   But I find myself checking the blog often just to see if anyone else has commented.  There.......I've put it out there.  Maybe it's a silly thing to share here, but it is what it is.  The Bible says to confess your faults to one another, (James 5:16), and, alas, that has been one of mine that has bothered me.

You know that same scripture says to also pray for one another and you will be healed.  I don't know about you, but I grew up, and grew old, with the feeling that you didn't talk about something good that was happening, because you might jinx it........but the HOLY SPIRIT is teaching me to PROCLAIM the good things of GOD.  So I want to mention right here and now, since the Bible says that about healing, that I run across people ALL the time that are praying for ME.......imagine !  For me !   And I have noticed something the last few mornings.  For months, when I awakened, I would have to do this big, ugly-sounding cough, to clear out the saliva that had seeped into my windpipe while I slept.   Well...............the last few mornings, I haven't had to do that......it just wasn't there.   SEE !   God is restoring that damaged vocal nerve, day by day.  Praise God for HIS goodness, HIS mercy, HIS compassion.  With HIS stripes, I AM HEALED !


Now, having said all that, today I want to share my flower garden that God surrounds me with.  Another gift, a gift of beauty and peace, and a constant reminder of HIS awesomeness, it brings me daily joy !

Tiger Lily

This is my biggest Hibiscus, although it is not my oldest.  It has always been bright white with a deep scarlet eye.  All of my Hibiscus are the hardy type that stay in the ground and come back every year.......I owe their starts to Rose, my friend and neighbor up the street.

This is my original, first Hibiscus, given to me the year that I bought this place, 2011.  A windstorm broke off half of Roses plant, and she gave it to me as a start.

This is the same bush, maybe a week later, but now there's a traitor in the ranks !   I had seen that a new Hibiscus stalk had sprung up about 9 inches away from the original plant, so, assuming it was growing from the roots of the mother plant, I thought, "hooray, I'll finally have another deep pink plant !   I'll move it to where I want it, since I haven't been able to get any of that color when I plant them from seed. 

 Well, ........it bloomed today, and would you just look at that ! ? !  Palest pink !  

 I'd better treasure the mother plant and keep it in good shape, because I don't know how in the world I'll ever have another of that shade !   Actually, the Japanese beetles made a feast of it this year, as always, but it's blooming it's little heart out anyway !

This seems to be my year for Hibiscus.  A new plant started blooming over the mailbox, and is a pale to medium pink, as were two plants out at the backyard-edge garden.

These are morning glories growing in a hanging pot, from my front porch post.  On the opposite side of the porch, the basket contains purple ones, but I haven't gotten a really good photo of them.

Now, this is the three-in-one Rose of Sharon bush that I purchased from Michigan Bulb 3 years ago.  It has finally had a bit of a growing spurt this year and is about 2 feet tall.  They called it red,white,and blue, but it actually blooms in a pale purply pink, and today, a pale true pink.  I don't remember if I've seen a white bloom on it thus far.

This is the purply pink bloom color.  As you can see, they are double blooms.

 This is my favorite of my Rose of Sharon bushes.  It has the same flower as the ones I grew out in Oklahoma, although they SEEMED to grow a lot faster, and grew into small trees.  But, then again, I was in that same location for 19 years, so maybe the passage of time just fooled me !  But, I do love these single blooms !

My Crepe Myrtle bushes were labeled 'dwarf', and they are certainly living up to that name.  

I threw marigold and zinnia seed out all around the perimeter of my garden this spring, and they have really done well on two sides, and not too badly on the other two.  On this side, the tall yellow marigold somehow all wound up down one side WITHIN the fence !  They've just now started to bloom well.

It's a rare thing when I'm able to capture a picture from this rose bush BEFORE the Japanese Beetles ravage the bloom.!  This is the original rose bush that was here when I bought the place.

And this is the little garden that I've built up around that original Rose.  I bought the Knock Out rose on the other side for 50 cents in 2011, and it has really done well.  Too bad that the Japanese Beetles find it so tasty.  I didn't get around to replacing the lures in the beetle bags this year, but I find satisfaction in squishing between my fingers every beetle that I can get my hands on !

Poor baby, bug-ravaged, she's still giving it her all !

These are some of the flowers growing around the base of the roses.  It varies year by year.

These are some type of  Wildflower that God has blessed me with in my shade garden near the woods.  I don't know the name of them, but I welcome them !

Slowly but surely, I am attempting to have bushes planted all down the side of my driveway that borders the neighbor's yard.  It is very rough, gravelly and clay soil, but I keep trying.   This year I took my Rhododendron out of the big pot that you see there on the left, and put it and it's twin into the ground, one here, and the other behind the carport.  There is a Hydrangea there next, and then, in the ground, a Coxcomb and a new rose bush.  Beyond that are some Jerusalem artichokes, and then a Rose of Sharon bush.

I finally caught a sale on Hydrangea and purchased this one.  It was purply pink/blue when it bloomed at Walmart and I know that the color depends on the soil content.   It is a new variety that is supposed to rebloom all summer.   It seems to be acclimating itself to my yard, and is starting to bloom again..........white, right now !

It's hard to tell, but this, on the right, is a KnockOut rose that I started from some of Rose's trimmings.  It finally leafed out, and has even had one bloom.  It should be lovely here at the top of the driveway when it really gets some size on it.......maybe 2-3 years from now.....HOPEFULLY !

Well, if you've hung in there through this entire post, I applaud you.  I really just wanted to document for 2014 just how my yard is changing and evolving.

Be well, and be blessed, and GIVE GOD THE GLORY !

I need a name !

I have finished my first quilt since winning the new Melody BabyLock sewing machine that I won during the Blogger's Quilt Festival.

As I posted before, I pieced the top while waiting for the new machine to arrive.

Then I did part of the quilting with the walking foot (which doesn't have as big a viewing area as the Brother walking foot that I purchased for my old machine)......

and, I free-motion-quilted the background area.  

It took me a while to adjust to this machine..........mainly, getting used to it wanting to make a snarl of threads underneath at the beginning of all stitching.   I learned to try to always remember to hold the threads when I start a new line of stitching.

I used the serpentine stitch between straight lines of quilting in the border.....I was really pleased with the way that looked.

I was disappointed when I wanted to use the alphabet to monogram my name and the year's date on the hanging sleeve.

My fault, there.......I don't keep stabilizer, so I couldn't get it to look right on a single layer of regular quilt-weight cotton.

After trying to finish this quilt exclusively on this machine, I now understand why my girlfriend, JoAnn, who always used new Berninas, had trouble with her  piecing.  Just trying to stitch pieces of binding together, it is difficult to start triangles under the foot.

Let's face it......I've been spoiled.   For me, there's NOTHING on these new machines to compare to the skinny-footed, straight-stitch,

single-hole-throatplate-Singer that I've used for 36 years !

I'm a simple gal, and I love my simple machine.  I'll enjoy playing with the Melody, but my heart belongs to Ernestine !

But, all that said, here she is ......... the finished product....WITHOUT A NAME !

  This is my own original design.  The quilt finished with measurements of approximately 43 inches by 63 inches.

Looking back at this post, it looks like a lot of complaining done by a very ungrateful, small person.   That was not my intention at all.   I only wanted to give a realistic, true-to-self review of this machine, because I went searching for one before I received it and could find very little of value.  I am still VERY thankful to have won such a wonderful prize !

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 !