Monday, April 26, 2010

Birds

It's my lunchtime and I just went for a walk, like I do everyday I don't keep the car. It's absolutely picture perfect outside right now. The sky is blue, the air perfect for walking - not cold, a gentle breeze, and every single flowering tree is in full show off mode right now. I picked a sprig of lilac from someone's bush, and I picked a couple of beauties from a flowering crab in the yard at school to press into the book I'm reading right now. The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Ford is the lucky recipient of double crabapple blossoms today. They'll live there forever now.
The Snappyfriends assignment for this week is birds and while there is nothing particularly special about a sparrow, this one lives in the lap of luxury in a birdhouse tucked into a corner flowerbed next to the front door of school.


Mr. and Mrs. Sparrow have this beautiful dogwood outside their front door


and this beautiful crab apple next door.


Don't you wish you could be a bee ?


I wrestled with the quilts this weekend. Putting a sun in the corner of the Sunbonnet Sue for Grand-daughter #3 is a problem. They all look too big or too small, with so much white space to fill, I made a dresden plate for the sun and it's good, with muted yellows and a soft apricot, but it looks too big. I had a dyed doily for the sun in first choice but it was too small. I let it go for awhile and worked on another dress for granddaughter #1, Elizabeth's paper doll quilt I'm making with friend Marilyn, who is also Elizabeth's grandma. I've done three outfits and spent WAY too much time on the 4th, trying to get it right. I think I'll have to rip it out for the 5th time. Or will this be the 6th?
My page looks different because I was trying the blogger template tryout pages and somehow lost all of my color and can't figure out how to get it back. As long as I didn't lose all my content, I'll just be pale for awhile. I'm SO afraid to push that button for fear of losing everything.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Matryoshka quilt


I'm taking the plunge. I'm going to show this quilt in the big guild quilt show this coming October. It's adorable and I should have better pictures of it (I took these before purchase of good camera.)
The background is a tone on tone black, "the girls" - which is the name I've given the quilt - are all hand appliqued, as is the top border. The bottom panels are from a printed panel of 6 and I chose these three for the base.


Here is a close up. The art teacher here at school drew the faces on for me because if I did it they would look like gargoyles.


Here's a close up. All scrappy but all have a bit of red.


On the quilt, perfectly aligned with their front bodies is the back view. Just a plain black back with the little ones "walking away."

I had so much fun with this quilt. It was very easy but it's so striking against the black. Granddaughter Elizabeth thinks this one is hers but it stays at Grandma's house. It is very much a use quilt. Maybe I need some better pictures of it!

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Glass, spring and ice cream


This week's Snappyfriends challenge is glass. While we were in Arizona we stopped at the botanical gardens in Phoenix. Recently there had been an exhibit of Dale Chihuly's glass sculptures and this is one that the gardens is purchasing. It was stunning! It's glass, folks!! And it's huge!

Here is a close up:

It's spring here and it's time to hang the wash on the line. I look forward to this every year. The wind snaps the wrinkles out of the shirts so there's no ironing and everything smells so fresh. This was the first hanging of the year and it was such a warm, windy day that by the time the second load was washed the first was dry on the line. Got a lot done that day!

Springtime also means our favorite dairy opens and that means ice cream. The servings at this place are sinfully huge. You don't even want to know! We took our two granddaughters for ice cream last weekend. It was Adelaide's first taste of ice cream and you can see by her eyes she loved it about as much as I do. If she could have crawled out of that chair, across the table and taken the spoons from our hands she would have. We couldn't get it to her fast enough. Is that a "WOW!" look or what?

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Let Them Eat Cake!

I want to share a couple of cakes with you. I'm a pie person, myself. There's no better breakfast than a piece of pie, but every once in awhile cake would be nice. The marmalade cake pictured here came from Orangette and is under the previous post called We Ate This Cake. Friend Marilyn made it for our second grand-daughter's christening Sunday. It was wonderful and I took the few leftovers home....for breakfast!



This one is a coconut cake (and I don't care for coconut) . There's a little restaurant a few miles from home that serves the locals with burgers and whatnot. In fact that's the name of the place, the What Not Inn. Just a little place by the side of the road, but I particularly like going there on warm summer days when we can sit on the porch. I ALWAYS order this coconut cake. I ask for it to be served first, before the meal, because it's so good I am afraid if I died during my meal, my head slumped into my mashed potatoes, I'd miss this part. So, not to take any chances, while everyone else is having a salad, I'm having my coconut cake.

roses


It was a wonderfully gorgeous day yesterday (and another expected today) so I took the rake and pruners and set out for the yard. It's been a little hard to get the gumption up to go tackle some winter clean up tasks but I had the car so I got home early enough and decided no more excuses. I raked out the hostas, trimmed the suckers from the apple trees and dug out some rose shoots to send off to my daughter. These roses are beautiful but absolutely coated in prickers. They're rugosa roses, and they thrive on neglect. I have them as a hedge along the roadway and they send out shoots into the lawn every spring. Husband just mows them with the grass but now people are asking for the shoots. Taking them on requires a suit of armor or I spend days and days tweezing out the hair thin prickery thorns. These go to my daughter for her yard. I put some in the basket of my bike and rode over to a neighbor's and planted some clips for her, too. The lake was calm as glass.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Sunbonnet Sue


OK, I'm thinking a new baby quilt for a new granddaughter coming in early August. My husband wanted the Sunbonnet Sue pattern, but I didn't want what I think is the overkill of all Susies in rows. So, I enlarged the pattern of one of them, saw this darling border print at the store and the idea took off from there. I'll applique flowers in her hand and will try to arrange her in a little more bent over position, I think. I also have to fill up the white space ... maybe a sun?
I'm also planning a green border and will fussy cut the flowers on the border to overlap the green. Like I said, I'm thinking this one through but so far I like what I'm thinking!

Monday, April 12, 2010

Arizona


Tuscon, Arizona - Best fish taco I've ever had!






Gorgeous wildflower blooms in the Superstitious Mountains outside Phoenix, Arizona



I LOVE my new camera!!!

Machines

We are back from vacation. We took a trip to Arizona to visit good friends. Last time I was there I was three years old so I think it's safe to say I don't remember a thing! We were in the Superstitious Mountains on Sunday, hiking the hills and looking at the wildflower bloom - the first in over 5 years thanks to a wet winter. We stopped at an old gold mine and when I saw this stove I decided its bread baking days were over but a post as machinery with Snappyfriends would give it one last hurrah!
More later and more pictures, too. I am absolutely LOVING my new camera!

Monday, April 5, 2010

E!


Well, I had a huge smile when I saw the Snappyfriends photo challenge for this week was something beginning with E! Meet Elizabeth! She is our sparkly first granddaughter.
We are off on a vacation visiting friends this week. Having a wonderful time seeing things we've never seen before, so until I get home, rest up!