Flowers

Some of the fern peony bud's are opening. They resemble a rose when it's opened up.

Iris' we moved earlier this year. I didn't think they would make it, but they are so pretty. They are more purple than they look in this photo.

These are the flowers that won't climb the trellis. They are so wound up in a ball I couldn't even
untangle enough of them to start up the trellis. Guess next year I'll have to start working on them sooner.

This is the right side of the trellis with the flowers actually climbing like they are suppose to!!

Left over Easter eggs

Dad's Gift of Love

My parents built their house in 1980. They are both gone now and we bought their home. These are pictures of the back yard. My dad loved gardening and doing yard work. He worked outside every day in the summer either mowing or gathering food from the garden. This year Mother Nature has blessed us with beautiful flowers and plants.




My tribute to Mom and Dad.





I tried to get these pictures in order, but they didn't post the way I wanted them to.

This is the left side of the yard when we are looking out from the patio.






This shows part of the right side of the yard. And you can see the steps in the middle. Can you see the fish on the garage?













This is the far left side of our lot. Above the wall is another family's back yard.









This is a Fern Peony. The buds are about 1 inch across. It is just georgous when it's blooming. Look at all the buds!












Bleeding Hearts are blooming on both sides of the steps. I didn't realize how fast they spread. We had to dig up some of the plants and move them to other areas because they were getting so thick.

Hostas are wonderful. No work and they grow like crazy! These are along the side of the house.

More Hostas. I love the white on the leaves. These are along the garage that is at the top of our lot. You can see this garage in the picture where is the fish is. These Hostas were planted just last year and look how good they are doing.

I don't know what this pink bush is, but it is so pretty. The colors don't show up very good in this picture. There is another one beside it that we moved when we enlarged the garden. The blossoms look like pink popcorn.

And finally, little bits of sunshine. Aren't the flowers beautiful. We are so lucky that we haven't had a freeze since everything started blooming.

to my friend

To one of my best friends: May you Rest In Peace in the arms of the Angels.

3-30-2010

My Dad

The first man I have loved. Rest In Peace, Dad. I miss you more every day.

Everyone can be Irish for a day

May your blessings outnumber

The shamrocks that grow,

And trouble avoid you

Wherever you go!

One Thing

I thought I would try something new and decided to join Amy in her One Thing Challenge. I was going to finish borders on a baby quilt but my sister called with a "need it now" project. So for this last week I have been working on a First Communion wall hanging for my youngest nephew. His teachers do this every year for the second graders. The kids get to pick out their favorite fabric for the sashing, and he loves soccer so his choice was obvious. I am sure the teachers do a lot of work on the blocks helping the kids ironing the cut outs on the fabric and working with the paint for handprints.

The second photo shows a picture of my nephew, Collin, and his family. I think it's really a neat idea to include a family photo. I made one of these wall hangings for each of his older sisters and it's fun to see the changes as the family grows.

My pictures aren't the best, but I was in a hurry to get this to her and almost forgot to take a picture, so it was a rushed photo!!

Bright baby quilt

I like to make baby quilts cos they are small enough I can quilt them on my regular sewing machine. And I have lots of nieces and nephews who will be having babies. So far this year there will be 3 babies born on my DH side of the family. We were counting all the children, grandchildren, spouses and great grandchildren on this side and when the last baby is born in July there will be 100 of us!! I wish his mom was still here to see her family. She was so proud of all of her children and their families.

Back to the quilt, it is a lot brighter than it looks here. My DD said she though it could glow in the dark. I haven't quilted it yet, but at least another UFO is in 1 peice.

3 finished quilts

A Row by Row quilt our guild did about 8 years ago. I finally had it quilted and did the binding. The green border print was what I picked for my focus fabric. I added some of my fabrics and asked people to add from their stash if they wanted. I love the row of baskets. They turned out so cute.









I might have posted this before but it is finished now and I have a new niece who will be receiving this as soon as I can get it ready to mail. I used a charm pack and a paisley print for the border. The backing is a multi-colored green. And I found a striped binding. I love using stripes for bindings.













This is made with flannel. The border is a printed strip of fabric. The backing is printed with penguines. It turned so soft after it was washed.

Brotherly Help

Isn't he going to be lots of help next summer. When he saw the bottle the first thing he did was try to drink from it and he hasn't had a bottle for over 6 months! Mostly he poked the bottle at the baby's face. I'm afraid his mom is going to have a very busy summer!

Winner

Diane H. is the winner of my patterns. Diane please email me your address and I'll get these in the mail.

Giveaway

I have some extra patterns and some are doubles that other people have given me. A few are pictured below. If you'd like a chance to win them, please leave a comment for me! I will announce the winner on Wednesday.

Be my Valentine

giveaway

My granddaughter making a very important phone call to her papa (grandpa).

Let's celebrate the end of January with a giveaway. We are getting so much closer to Spring and haven't had much snow! Even if we get snow now it won't last more than a month or two!! Yah, I love spring. The giveaway is a charm pack of A Morris Garden by Barbara Brackman. Just leave me a comment and make sure I have your email address. I'll draw on Saturday morning and notify the winner. I will also include a pattern of some kind, and maybe something else if I have time to go thru my stacks and piles of stuff!
Have a great week. Tomorrow is hump day. Woo Hoo!

Edited to add: Sandie at CrazyboutQuilts is the winner.

What happened to 10 in 10

OK so doesn't he look like he's a little upset? Well that's how I felt the other day when I went into my sewing room and started organizing things. There are way too many projects that need to be finished. I could probably use from my stash and not need any more fabric for as long as I live. I won't even tell you how many UFOs I found. Then to make it even worse, I started reading old posts from my blog. There was the 10 in 10 post mocking me!! I think it was more like I got 2 of them finished in 2010. That's 2 whole years ago! So even tho I don't make New Years resolutions, this year I am going to make one and stick to it. I am going to finish UFOs!! Now I suppose I'll have to say 12 in 2012. I am going to do a giveaway of a cute charm pack in a few days. I haven't taken a picture of it yet so that's why I am waiting.
And I learned one very important thing....don't go back and read your blog cos then you realize how much you didn't get finished ; -)

Giveaway

5 fat quarter giveaway....plus a pattern! I'll draw on Friday the 20th of January.

Edited to add: The winner of my giveaway is Happy Cottage Quilter.