Two Finishes and a Start

I have been trying to finish up some projects before starting new ones, but it's so hard. So many that I want to make.  But I did finish up the pinwheel quilt this past week. Lots of hand quilting, as usual.

I did a simple crosshatching on the border and added a red binding.

I never thought I would say this., but I am loving these bright colors. And it's the fault of all you bloggers and Pinterest!

I also started (and finished) a project from Lynette Anderson's It's Quilting Cats and Dogs book. I have gotten into making bags lately.

Isn't it cute? I have so many darker colored scraps, it was good to use up some of them. 

Now on to the "start" portion. I am still hooked on making hexagons and can't stop making them. I'm not sure what I will make with these pastel colored flowers, but I'm thinking a baby quilt.

 

On to some personal news: Our oldest son, Justin, is getting married in two weeks! We are so excited! They are having an informal wedding at a park in Chicago, followed by a reception at the same location. They are having pies instead of a wedding cake. (Family tradition for us - no birthday cake, always pie.) And Justin has asked me to make some of the pies. I'm happy to make them, since they are doing everything else. 

They are taking their honeymoon before the wedding. They are in Peru right now, hiking around Machu Pichu. (did I spell that right?) And right after the wedding they are moving to D.C. Justin got a teaching position at American University. Lots going on for those two and we couldn't be happier for them.

Have a great weekend, everyone. Here's hoping we all get some rain!

  

I hope everyone had a good 4th of July. We had the whole family plus my niece and her family, here for swimming, fun and food. Lots of food! The next day Rick and I had to work, but the boys went tubing down our favorite creek. It's so nice that, even though they are grown, they still like to hang out together.

Justin and his fiance, Lizzie staying cool in the pool.

Tad loves the water and enjoyed being in the floaty thing we got him.

He's almost walking!

Since it has been so hot this week, I haven't been doing anything in the yard except watering and picking vegetables. This evening we harvested a bunch of green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, and some red raspberries. That's really all I need for a good dinner!

I set aside a good part of the weekend to do some stitching. (I can't do paper crafting right now because my upstairs craft room is too hot.) I brought my sewing machine, etc. down to the family room and made up a couple of things.

Have you seen this book? I bought it at JoAnn's and it's full of the cutest little projects. I've been seeing amazing Japanese quilt magazines online, but I've hesitated to buy any. They're pricey with the postage, and (surprise) I don't read Japanese. But this book gives me a sample of what I might get with one of them.

This is my first project from the book. The construction directions were a little different from what I'm used to and I ended up making a few changes. Even though I would make a few more changes next time, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. 

The other project I made was this little drawstring bag from a tutorial on http://www.aquiltinglife.com/. It was fun choosing fabrics from my stash. I really enjoyed making it and I'm sure I'll make more. It would be perfect as a gift bag filled with.. well, just about anything!

Well, that's it for tonight. A little more quilting, some reading and then off to bed. Have a great week!

Shopping for Antiques in our Barn

Last weekend Rick and I went to a nearby town for a garden tour. After purchasing tickets we were able to walk through eight different gardens, some in town, some in the country. Each garden was unique and we got so many good ideas. No surprise that fairy gardens are huge trend. We saw some amazing miniature gardens!

Fairy garden in a wheelbarrow.

Look at this cute house and a pool!

The owner made the clothesline and hung little sheets.

Another cute house, this one from a gourd.

Another thing we loved about the gardens we toured was all the antiques and fun accessories scattered around. We have a few things in our gardens, but we decided they needed more. So I had my pack rat husband go through the barn in search of items we could use. Now, I don't go into the barn very often. I love it, but don't like to be inside it. I know, weird!

Anyway, it's filled with "stuff ". And here are a few of the things Rick found that we could use. 

I love galvinized metal. He found this big tub.

This box could hold a fairy garden.

Cool rusty farm implement.

Nice a assortment of insulators.

 It will be fun finding places for these things.

We finally put up our birdhouse gourds. Need to plant more.

 What do you like as garden ornaments? I'd love to see! 

Have a great week. We have a very busy one coming up, then getting ready for the 4th!

June Garden

June has got to be my most favorite month of the year. All of our hard work in the gardens pays off as the flowers put on their display and the vegetables beds show promise of fresh food to come.

 This year has been a bit of a challenge because of the lack of rain. The weatherman is saying this is the driest spring since 1988. Well, we know all about that! Our old shallow well dried up that year and we had to have a new one drilled. We now have enough water to keep things going, but I still feel a little leery of overdoing it. 

View of the long border.

Queen Elizabeth rose.

Closeup of the south border.

Zepherine Drouhin (spelling?)

I  love all these different varieties of sage.

Garden ornament bought at Stream Cliff Herb Farm.

Belinda's Dream rose, fennel

The vegetable garden pictures were actually taken about 2 weeks ago and are much further along. We will be harvesting beans, squash, and peppers soon.

Love the fresh salads every day.

The central bed is just for pretty:)

My husband loves pickled peppers.

These squash plants are about double this size now.

And the tomatoes have color on them. Ripe by the 4th? I hope!

 The garden brings me so much pleasure and I especially like to share it with people. I hope you enjoyed seeing it!

A B C D.. Embroidered Quilt

The gardens have been keeping me pretty busy these days, but I have finally finished a project I've been working on for quite awhile. You might remember the embroidered patches I showed a few posts back. I got a couple of good ideas as to what to do with them from my readers. But I decided to put them all together in a little wall quilt. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

My husband doesn't like that I left off the X. But I wanted to have each row even, so I did it:)

Sorry the pictures are so bad. I just couldn't seem to take a good one of this. It might help to actually hang it up, but I need to put a sleeve on the back. Then I'll try again.

I'll be back soon with pictures of the gardens. So many things are blooming and the vegetable garden is looking very lush. Have a great week!

Anniversary Get Away

Last week my husband and I went away for a few days to celebrate our 31st wedding anniversary. We went to southern Indiana and stayed at the Clifty Falls State Park Inn. We had a great time hiking, shopping and eating some good food.

We saw lots of turkeys on the park roads.

One of several falls in the park.

View of Ohio River from our room.

We took a very, very  long hike. Thought we were going to die!

 Part of the reason we chose this destination was because of an herb farm that is nearby. I had read about and wanted to check it out. And I just have to say OMG! It was amazing! It was in the middle of nowhere, along the banks of a creek, with a beautiful brick farm house and out buildings.

The display gardens were beautiful and full of inspiring ideas to take home.

And it was neat and weeded. We have been to many herb farms and gardens that advertise "display gardens", only to find weedy, messy beds and hoses to trip over. I've gotten to where I don't expect much, but this place really lived up to their web site descriptions.  There was a tea room, several shops and farm animals to pet. I can't wait to go back. I bought a couple of garden ornaments, but need to take some pictures. I'll be back soon.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend!