A little work...a little play

 First off...I completely forgot a guild board meeting today. I had my usual routine; coffee, cereal and banana and watch the news. After getting dressed and taking the dog out for a run, I went to the studio and started working. At 2:30, I remembered the meeting. Oops. It was at 10:00. Sometimes time gets away from me and I forget everything but the task at hand. I blame it on old age...

Back to the studio! I had a baby quilt for a customer that I wanted to get done, so I loaded it up first thing. The customer said the pattern is really simple and quick. I'll have to give it a try!

The colors are soft and sweet. The recipient didn't want "bubble gum pink" but it is for a girl.

This is a nice way to have pink without blinding anyone. ha ha

The panto is 'P.S. I love you.'

She found this glittery unicorn fabric for the back. 

While I quilted the baby quilt, I added the borders to my frog quilt. That was easy. The back took an hour or more to put together. I used up a bunch of my jungle type fabrics making it, though. 

I chose an orange batik for the inner border to accent the frogs in the quilt and outer border.

Four of the blocks have the frog fabric in them. The rest are from a jelly roll called Parakeet.

Here's a better look at the whole shebang.

After finishing the back, I loaded it up and got it done before 6:00 quitting time!

All quilted and ready for binding.

Panto: Jungle leaves

Here's my wild and crazy back! There are five different fabrics from my stash.

I used to buy fabric like this for the quilts I made in Florida. 

I'm happy to move them along into a quilt instead of languishing on the shelf.

I made a quilt years ago for Mr W with this fabric in it. 

Our dog ate a hole in  it where the man had spilled something yummy on it.

I repaired it, and still have it!

Here is a horrible photo of the quilt taken at show and tell in 2005.

Everything old is new  again, I guess!

Good to be home!

 Because there was no quilting to show, I'll show you the fruits of Mr Wazoo's labors. We arrived home yesterday in the late afternoon and found our little oasis bursting with new flowers. It sure did lift my spirits!  

The Sears man comes today to fix the stove. It conked out the night before we left. Normal problems for our normal life. The car has to go to Cumming for service, and I desperately need a haircut. Life moves on.

Coming home, I always feel better when I see our mountains in the distance. Twenty more miles, and we were home.

Some of the peonies waited for me to get home to see their glorious blooms.

I almost caught Bigfoot sauntering past in the background! He is so elusive..

The scent is wonderful, permeating the garden with sweet perfume.

OMG! These blooms are about 7 or 8 inches ac ross!

I spy an un-bloomed bud... More blooms to come.

The roses that hide our propane tank from the road are doing their job nicely.

Mr W's Japanese maple and hosta are also showing off at the bottom of the side yard.

In the flower bed, the roses are awake and happy. I wish the color would be right in these photos. They are actually deep red, not bright pink.

Still look pink...they are red.

The new salmon colored variety are doing great! We just put these in a couple of weeks ago.

They don't look as salmon as they are, either.

The mountain laurel is bursting with blooms, too.

Pots outside my studio. Thanks to our friend, George, for watering them.

The new mandivilla in front of the generator is doing well. 

Our deed restrictions say that all the mechanicals must be hidden from the street view.

The rose bush behind the generator is the one hiding the propane tank.

Mountain laurel flowers.

Up close mountain laurel. I love the delicate look of these blooms.

The rock garden in the sloping front yard.

Lots of shades of green and burgundy foliage punctuated with floral color.

Bigfoot nestled in the roses.

The clematis is starting it's show along the side of the walk to the studio.

In the back, the new flower box is filling in nicely

I planted it just over a week ago.

Penny's run needs a mow! The deer have eaten the top half of the shrubs. Mr W says he is going to take them out and plant something deer won't eat. This garden is always a work in progress, trying to find plants that don't require  attention and will grow in the hard red clay.

Meanwhile...last night was the total eclipse of the moon. I tried in vain to get a picture with my phone. Sometimes you just need a great camera with a telephoto lens...I don't have one anymore.

When it was fully eclipsed, the moon was a rusty red color! Here, it is about half covered in shadow. I can't believe I stayed up late enough to see it. I woke Mr W to see the fully eclipsed moon, and we watched it while the fireflies blinked and the millions of stars proved again just how insignificant we really are. 

Here in there boonies the sky at night is always a wonder. It is so beautiful here.

Going home

We had a good visit here in Texas, but it is time to go home. My Dad is in good shape and getting along okay in his new digs. We took him around town on a car tour and out to lunch at a nice restaurant. I face timed all the kids and everyone was happy to see Grandpa and say hello.

Mr Wazoo is anxious to get home, so we leave at dawn's early light. I'll be back here on the blog on Monday.

Day one, Dad was perky and ready to roll. 

He is 99 years old, and able to get around well.

Day two we found him snoozing in his recliner.

It looks like he's ready for a ski trip, but it is 98 degrees outside!

He really feels the cold, and the AC where he lives is cranked up.

Once he was up and about, we had a good visit and  called the grandkids. 

Mr W snapped this just before we said goodbye.

Then I snapped a very funny looking selfie of all three of us!

We're packed and ready to go.

Until Monday...

 

Sewing and packing

 A day without sewing is a day without sunshine... I may have borrowed the sentiment, but its true. No sewing for the next week, but we'll be traveling and visiting. The studio is buttoned up and a neighbor is watching the house and watering the plants. We're ready.

I finished making the blocks for the tree frog quilt, and sewed the rows together, making sure I had them in the correct order! I didn't want to have another surprise when quilting it later.

There was a lot of trimming going on before the blocks were ready. 

The fabric next to the blocks will be the border

Here is the interior part of the quilt.

I also trimmed the QOV and steamed the wobbly border. It may not be perfect, but I did what I could.

The border hangs okay, so I think the quilt is fine.

I used the simple Rounded Squares panto because I didn't want to chance a bunch of star points getting caught on a quilt with raised motifs all over it.

The backing is very soft and cozy.

I only sewed until 2:30, then I did the grocery run and prepared dinner. We'll be on the road early tomorrow, so look for an update from Baton Rouge!

The gardens are coming to life! Roses, iris and peonies are displaying their finery

What a beauty, There are loads of buds ready to pop open.

I hope some of them wait until we get home!

This one is not quite fully open. Why are there always ants on peonies?

Happy Mother's Day!!

 I hope all you mothers out in blogland had a wonderful day. I sure did! We started with French toast for breakfast, and then I spent the day in the studio. 

I began by loading a Quilt of Valor, and getting it started on the Handi Quilter. Everything went well considering the quilt had large appliquéd stars that were three layers thick. The scoop foot glided along as if the top was flat! The only problem was the bottom border. It was exceedingly wavy. I spritzed it with sizing and carefully ran the iron over the waves, but there were some big ones that wouldn't be tamed. The row quilted okay, no tucks, only some lumpy fullness where the fabric was just too much. I think when I get it off tomorrow and give it another steam press, it will look better.

Oh dear! This isn't what your quilter wants to see at the end of a quilt.

All quilted, but a bit lumpy. I hope I can get some of the fullness tamed.

On a happier note, I worked a while making blocks for my next quilt. I'll work on it tomorrow morning, but I'll have to quit in the afternoon to make a grocery run and pack for our trip to Texas to see my Dad. We leave on Tuesday.

I left off sewing right here because I had to go get the dinner going.

The blocks are coming along nicely!

There are three kinds of blocks; dark/medium, medium/light and dark/light. 

The way they are laid out will make the overall pattern. I will be extra careful sewing this time!

See you later!