My Clothes Horse

.........is a horse!

Left in the corner for when the grandkids come to visit, this rocking horse was a handy place to drop my jeans at night.  I had to chuckle when I realized the horse had become my clothes horse.

Winning Is Time Consuming

I swear I'm going to win the battle of the garden this year.  I told that to my neighbor when he saw me out there digging in.  He said "it takes work".  Oh, I know that.  And I don't have a problem with the work.  It's just so time consuming. Translation:   more yard work = less sewing.  All together now... AWWWWWW

Last year I think I started too late.  The weeds got a huge head start and I was chasing after them all summer.  The flowers got a late start and just couldn't compete with the weeds.

This year... WINNING! 

 Lots, lots, lots of flowers planted.  These impatiens should spread and fill this area with color.  Can't wait!

These fill a huge section all by themselves with no work from me.  I just can't figure out how to keep them blooming all summer the way they are supposed to.  I followed the gardening advice I found.  Didn't work last year.  We'll see what happens this year.

There are still weeds scattered here and there that have to be eliminated, but they are separated and can't gang up on me.

I need to find out what to do with all the green that's left over after the daffodils and other bulbs are finished blooming.  In the meantime, more impatiens.  And isn't my froggie cute?!  Thanks, Parisi family!

Next I have to tackle this honeysuckle and these bushes. 

 And clear out this area so you can actually see the flowers.

So I haven't won yet.  But I'm putting in the time and I WILL!

Next year I'll tackle the lawn.  And by that I mean the dandelions.

Mini Quilts For Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative

Miniature quilts are a fun break from making larger quilts.  Near instant gratification!  And they are soooo cute! 

So when I heard about The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative I joined their Quilt-A-Month group.  It's a commitment to make and donate one mini quilt, or to purchase at one, per month for six months. Any guesses as to which I'll do?

Spring Trio was donated for February...

For March, After The Rain...

Fun. 

Done.

Sew Blue or Possibilites

Project Quilting Season 3 has begun!

The first challenge:  Architectual Elements

Our inspiration needed to come from architecture, it had to be a quilt (i.e. three layers), and it had to be constructed completely in the challenge week.  Other than that we were pretty much given free rein.  There were no limits on size or methods or material. 

Here's my inspiration:

I'm a contast new home window shopper.... always searching for the next best home. I love looking at the floorplans and drawings available on new home sites, imagining what could be added, detracted, or moved around to suit me and what I percieve as the ideal living conditions. It's only a drawing so it holds infinite possibilities for the end product!

My quilt is a whole cloth, small quilt with a plain white base and only blue stitching. To me, it feels full of promise and is calming to view. I'm re-doing my sewing room and this will hang on the wall after I paint..... this may have helped me decide on the color blue for the walls :)

 

New for this season of Project Quilting:

• no judging (this was one of my favorite parts - I was never a judges' favorite but I found their critiques to be extremely helpful and inspiring)
• no voting for viewers' favorite
• ANYONE that enters has several chances to win a prize.... and the prizes are pretty good!

Sewing Room Blues

After a flurry of quiltmaking, I took some time to clean up my sewing room. 

It's definitely neater than it was, and a little more organized but I think some major changes are in order. 

My poor ironing board with the sock to cover the rusty foot needs a paint re-do, or a pretty sock at the very least. I guess I could buy a new ironing board, but that just seems wasteful.

For a few months my sewing table was our 54" square dining room table.  Going back to this sewing machine table now feels like I have my machine balanced on a wobbly stool.... no fun!  I need a large sturdy table that sits a little higher. 

Inspiration struck.  Those orange-ish dressers are going to be pushed back-to-back, the lower one will be raised, and a sheet of mdf will be "installed" over the top.  That will make a giant workspace with room for my machine AND a cutting board will room left over (hopefully).  All of it will be a comfortable working height.  Some bright white paint on the dressers will be an improvement, along with new (fun looking, colorful) drawer pulls.  If the dressers aren't touching, but have a foot or so in between the backs, there'll be storage space betweern them.  Win/Win

I've already purchased the white paint and lined up the emptied drawers on a drop cloth.  I can't wait to use my new table!

And I think it's time to finally paint the walls. 

If only I could decide on a color.