Smoky Mountain View

There is snow on the tops of the mountains.

The snowy tops of far away mountains that can barely

be seen through a smoky haze.

To barely see the snow click on photo to enlarge

After working all day on the gardens and greenhouse

going out for something to eat sounded like a good idea.

Lucky me got to have this view and a meal.

Tom said the smoke had come down from a fire up North.

I guess?

Someone else said there was a fire on the other side of a ridge out there.

Maybe?

I couldn't find any fire news about a local fire.

But there is smoke out there.

And it was doing a great job of hiding the snow.

Too bad.

I was hoping for a good photo.

I'll remember to take garden photos tomorrow and post them.

~:>

Smiles

May Flower Birdbath

Pink flower birdbath.

My Mother's Day present to myself.

I'm going with pink...

and there are the pots waiting for soil and seeds. 

All the starts are planted except for those two tomato

plants that will grow in the greenhouse,

If they survive the night outside.

Sunflowers.

Seeds will be planted here and in pots.

Seeds will be planted here too.

There are lots of pepper and tomato plants,

Even some corn starts.

A pumpkin, a watermelon and a cucumber plant even.

I would have planted seeds today but

we had to drive down to the nursery and give them some

more money because I made out a check incorrectly.

Worked out though...

I got to go back to the garden center!

Got some more flowers!

~:>

Smiles

End Of April Garden Planting

The first thing that happened

was the scarecrow was banished from the garden.

He is now guarding the woodshed.

There is no room!

Only room for plants and not much of that.

I'm planting a mix of flowers and veggies... seeds and starter plants.

Some of the tomatoes will be in the greenhouse and some outside.

Nothing planted here yet.

Tomorrow!

This year's herbs in the little green garden.

Hope there are no more freezes!

Tom jokes about snow in May.

Oh dear!

Could and has happened up here.

Hope it doesn't this year.

The oaks are getting their Spring leaves.

This tree is near the the garden and drops huge branches now and then.

It is windy tonight... hope the branches fall out now and not when I'm in the garden.

~:>

Smiles

Broken Dishes Quilt Finished

If you click on the photos they will enlarge.

The quilt is all hand sewn and quilted.

Morgan is outside on the porch/deck laying in the sun.

The back is made up of lots of pieces of leftover fabrics I love.

I love the silly chickens!

The blocks were the most fun to sew.

I miss working on the quilt.

This quilt has a self binding that was easy to sew.

It is a soft happy quilt!

Not a show quilt... just a fun quilt for me to use.

 I have been spending time working in the garden

and have still more planting to do tomorrow.

I'll take garden photos to post tomorrow.

~:>

Smiles

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Nails, Feet And Borders

Today there was a couple of firsts for me...

I got my nails done for the first time with acrylic...

and polish... and flowers and butterflies.

And

I had a pedicure for the first time.

Wow... how nice that was!

The manicurist put gel on my nails for a few weeks

to help keep them in one piece while they grew out a bit.

Never had nails to speak off.

This is a new thing for me.

What fun!

I'm 72 and I figured that it was about time

I took the time to be nice to myself.

I also had my hair done.

Well, back to the quilt top in progress...

I have been trying to cut borders for the quilt top

and keep running into problems.

The quilt strip I cut out first was a loss because

when I turned the fabric over the fabric had a hole in it

that I think happened when the fabric was made.

Not a nice surprise.

I finally got the first side borders cut out.

I'll sew them on and cut the rest of the borders tomorrow.

~:>

Smiles

Broken Dishes Progress Report

Today I laid out the blocks and came up with this arrangement.

I ran out of the dark fabric on one of the red blocks

but the block still looks ok.

Morgan was very careful and didn't walk on the blocks.

This stack below of half square triangles waiting to be pressed

is my little trick.

I really don't like picking up each square, pressing the seam and

then opening and pressing each HST.

Too much stopping and starting.

Little stack of HST's.

So, I open all the HST's and lay them in a pile.

Then I pick up and hold each square by the darker color

and press the seam

then still holding the darker color open the square

lay it down and press it flat.

The process goes much faster for me that way.

Top right corner is the block I made when I ran out of the black fabric.

 The pattern I found online at the

Missouri Quilt Co on YouTube was for 20 blocks.

But that made a quilt that was a bit too large for me so

I decided to opt for 12 blocks.

Now I need to stitch these blocks together and

start thinking about choices for the sashing and borders.

I think I have been sewing for too long because

when I took Morgan out earlier today

I forgot to put on her muzzle

and didn't notice 

until

she ate something that she found under the leaves.

Yikes!

I hope she is not going to get sick again!

Smiles!

5 x 4 = 20 Squares Ready To Cut

All of these 20 squares are sewn together

and ready to cut into half square triangles.

Then I can cut them apart and start sewing the HST

into 

Broken Dishes Blocks.

~:>

Smiles

More Than Half Way There

7 blocks!

5 more to go.

1 more of the green and then 4 chicken blocks.

The 4 gold blocks have stars.

The 2 pink blocks have stars and moons.

The green block has bookworms reading.

When the blocks are finished then the fun part starts,

when I can start sewing sashing and borders!

Sunny today!

The chickens were happy!

~:>

Smiles

Broken Dishes In Pieces

After all the photos I posted yesterday,

I thought just one would be enough for today.

Here are all the HST 5-1/2" squares ready to be stitched together,

then cut into half square triangles

and then sewn together again into blocks.

I didn't sew any blocks today

but I did get all the material cut for the blocks to be.

Gray old rainy day.

Good day for me to stay inside and sew.

The chickens liked being outside just fine.

They hide under the trees or the house.

I used some chicken print fabrics for the broken dishes blocks.

I have at least four blocks with chicken themed material.

The other fabrics are ones I like the color or pattern.

I like sewing on material that makes me smile.

Best to be a happy quilter.

~:>

Smiles

HST Conquered - Easiest Way To Make Half Square Triangles

Well, this is the easiest way for me to make Half Square Triangles

since I am sewing them by hand.

I didn't realize how tedious it would be to make so many HST.

No drawing of cut lines like this...

Strips marked with cut and seam lines.

I will only be drawing 1/4 seam line on four sides.

Yay!

I didn't want to mess around with dealing with math

so I laid out 4 HST that I had cut from the earlier pattern
and measured... which made about a 5 1/2" square.

So, I cut out a 5 1/2" test square and made some HST.

And the half square triangles came out to be 3 1/2".
Yay!
Well, close enough for me.
I am not going to quibble about 1/16".
I'm not a perfectionist quilter and I don't count threads either.

My first 5 1/2" square made with quilt material.

One light, one dark, right sides together.

After sewing 1/4" around the four sides I cut the square on the diagonal.

Wow!

How easy is that!!! 

I am not an exact quilter so if my blocks come out within 1/2"

of the finished size

then I'm happy and the quilt goes together

and the fabric does a little adjusting and everything still looks great.

I think I have enough of the light material to use as sashing

around the blocks.

I'm aiming for 12 finished blocks.

Then I can start adding sashing around the blocks.

Well, back to sewing.

---

Update:

Click on link to see

Finished quilt.

Finished Broken Dishes Quilt

P.S.

Morgan is fine... she is sleeping.

~:>

Smiles

Two Broken Dishes

If I could end up with one block a day I would be happy.

Today I managed to cut out and sew together

another broken dishes block.

Two more blocks with these two fabrics to go.

Kristine said that instead of Broken Dishes

Tortilla Chips would be a good name for this block

since the triangles look like blue corn and regular tortilla chips.

A Tortilla Chip quilt is a great idea!

But this quilt is going to be made from scrap fabrics

and will have many colors.

A real barrel of broken dishes!

More rain and cold weather is due this week.

The late afternoon sun light was lighting up the tops

of these tall trees.

I can't see any tiny green buds yet.

On my google searches for different ways to make

half square triangles

I found 10 different methods

and there was mention of at least 16.

The method that appeals to me is the one where two squares

of fabric right side together are sewn together

around all four edges with a 1/4 seam

and the the square is cut apart from corner to corner.

That method seems it would be the easiest for hand sewing.

Less marking up of seams and no marking of cut lines.

I'll have to try it out but first I need to

figure out the size square I need to start with

to end up with four 3 1/2" half square triangles.

Quilting is such an adventure!

~:>

Smiles

Stew And Broken Dishes

The stew was something of an experiment because

when I added flour to coat the stew meat it turned out that I had

dumped in oatmeal instead of flour

and when I reached for the four and poured that on top of the oatmeal and

 meat what I was adding was pancake and waffle mix.

I finally found the flour and added that to the mix

and found that the concoction tasted rather good.

(all the packages look the same)

When the stew was almost done

I added a bunch of chopped kale on top

and popped on the lid for about 6 minutes.

Surprise!

All in all it made for a good dinner.

The broken dishes blocks are coming along slowly.

I'm piecing them by hand and marking the fourth inch seams

takes up more time than the sewing.

But I've got one block sewn together

and four more in the works.

These blocks are made using 31" x 3 7/8" strips.

Next I'm going to try the 8" square method to get 3 1/2" blocks.

I'm going to keep looking for other ways to cut/make 3 1/2" blocks.

Hopefully easier?

Gray rainy day today.

Watched Jeeves and Wooster while I worked on the blocks.

~:>

Smiles

Catch Up!

Well, this is as caught up as I'm gonna get today,

which is really tomorrow already.

Here is Genevieve Rose with the little knitted rattle

that her Aunt Kristine sent from Australia,

which Genevieve lost at Disneyland.

But good news!

Disneyland found the rattle and mailed it home

Pretty neat!

Here is another photo of the kids on the porch.

So cute!

I'm working on a Broken Dishes quilt.

These are the first 16 blocks.

Now I need to sew them together.

I think I'm going to like making this quilt.

I have several other quilt tops to quilt.

Getting back into blogging again is going to take some effort.

Since it has been so cold I've been staying in the house

and not doing much.

Hope warmer weather will get me moving!

~:>

Smiles

Welcome March!

March came in like a lamb...

supposedly March 2013 is going to be cold and dry

if the forecasts can be believed... maybe?

I'll have to do a wrap up of February stuff tomorrow

but to tide things over here is a photo

of the

February snow.

I think I jumped the gun hanging that flag hoping for Spring weather.

But the flag is cheery and bright.

The snow is gone... well mostly.

Photos of the March sunshine tomorrow.

I hope!

And February photos I didn't post.

I need to catch up to March.

Smiles

~:>