I wide variety of things today – first the Dear Jane blocks for “Insanity Revisited”
Row 13, Block 8 why can I never get the lighting right LOL
Row 13, Block 9 made this one today the other one last night. Next one is so easy I just might make it tonight - a simple 9 patch - what was Jane thinking - maybe she got tired of the hard ones after all these many blocks that came before it?
From my nice big blue hydrangea bush - but they are forgetting they are supposed to be blue - the soil conditions have changed I do believe - last year I had a couple lilac color flowers on it, this year a couple more of a pink tone and about 1/3 of the flowers are lilac color - I love the mixture all coming off of the same bush!
a close up
Now on to the blueberries. First thing – well almost first thing this morning I got the blueberries ready for the dehydrator and they have been in it ever since. The book says 10 to 18 hours and it has been 12 hours and they are still going. I have a feeling I might be up late tonight. I do not want to go to bed with them still drying as I do not want them to be hard as rock when I wake up in the morning – hopefully they will be done in a couple more hours? I was hoping it wouldn’t take that long!!
my dehydrator - 4 shelves and they are all full
what the shelves look like full
cheesecake - I cheated instead of completely making it from scratch, I had pie crust in the freezer left over from what I bought for Thanksgiving and thought I better use one of them, a refrigerator carton of cheesecake filling - but the blueberry topping is homemade!
Blueberry muffins -- I have been busy the last couple of days 
I have been working on my Star Crazy BOM June blocks and will have them finished to show tomorrow but today I took more photos of the flowers as they are looking good right now.
This lilie is called a "Crinum". I don't know how many of you are firmiliar with it. In the south it was very popular in years gone by and I read that now you can rarely find them in nurserys and have to be special order. The best place to find them is in old estabished gardens. My gardening friend who died 5 years ago gave me about 10 of these bulbs. She had been cleaning out plants in an old yard - (same friend I got a lot of my plants from that I mentioned a month or so ago). When she found this plant while cleaning up the yard she started to dig it up and kept finding more and more of a bulb - it was huge. She finally had her husband come help her. When they got it all dug up she laid the back seat of her station wagon down and they managed to get it in the back of it somehow without damaging it - it was over 3 feet wide and weighed about 40 pounds. She drove to every nursery in town and showed it to them asking if anyone knew what it was. Finally someone recognized it. They told her about it and said it was safe to divide and replant and how to do so. She gave me about 10 or more pieces and I don't know how many other people got bits of it too. I planted them and left them alone for about 10 years. Last year I decided to redo the garden it was in and dug them all up and had close to 30 bulbs. Only problem with digging up and dividing this plant is that they usually do not flower well for the next year or two. This year they are coming back but not near as many flowers as they have had in the past.
Butterfly Weed. A reader - I don't remember who - identified this for me a couple weeks ago when I posted a photo of it first starting to bud out - it looks really pretty now and to think it was free and just flew in somehow and landed in my garden. I have 3 of these plants blooming this year.
another one
wild daisies - sunflowers - what ever you want to call them, they look a lot like black eyed susans but the leaves are different from them. These grow wild and I managed to scatter enough seeds that took and have taken over this area.
The purple coneflowers are starting to flower, I have a lot of them too scattered all over the place - all originated from one plant about 15 years ago that I started from seed.
No Dear Jane block today – I was bad and took a day off. I will get back to them this weekend I am sure. But today I was trying to finish the Star Crazy blocks due but only made 2 of the star blocks although last night I had brought a bunch of pieces that needed to be cut apart and now I need to trim all of those half square triangles (48 of them) and put aside until needed at the end of the year. I also have one Irish Chain block to make this month – then they can be put aside and I will get back to work on other things.
I really and truly want to get finished with all of my Insanity Revisited blocks before the end of June and I’m going to try hard to do it. 19 more blocks to do.
Row 12, Block 7 - such a nice and easy block what a break after some of the ones done recently.
Now excuse the quality of the next couple photos – I was wandering the yard this morning and didn’t have my camera with me but I did have my new cell phone with me so I snapped some photos with it.
These purple flowers are from a plant called "Mimosa Pudica" some consider it a pest and others like it. I have seen them before but we never had them growing freely before on our land. These are growing in our wild garden area so for now they are welcome - I will see what they do and if they over take the area too much they will be banished!
I don't know the name for this wild flower (weed?) I like it though, we have three clusters of these orange flowers growing in the wild area also - I didn't plant them they just grew - does anyone know what they are? When they fully open I will take another photo - I need to get my wild flower book out and see if it is listed.
the lilies are starting to open - I have several varieties that are blooming now. This is in the wild garden also. When I was trimming out some of the trees that were growing in this area a couple weeks ago I found a new red bud tree growing - it actually wasn't new as it was already about 4 feet tall but it was spindly as it was so overwhelmed by all of the other trees growing in the area. I will need to stake it up as when I went over there today I noticed it has not popped up as I had hoped it would - the other trees had it bending to the ground which is why I had not noticed it previously. It is on the opposite side of the hill from these lilies.
I have been managing to stay in the mood making my Dear Jane blocks lately. I started another last night and finished it today. Moving right along! I compared my time from making my first Dear Jane at 138 blocks to the second Dear Jane quilt and I have found that I am a heck of a lot faster making this one – 60 hours faster right now – I guess that means I really learned a lot making that first Dear Jane quilt. But maybe it also means I should have finished the top by now!! I would have I guess if I could keep my interest just on one quilt at a time.
Row 11 Block 9 "Insanity Revisited"
I got my patterns and instructions printed out for the BOM Star Crazy (located on side bar if you want to see it) but after working just a little while on it I decided to put it aside. My cold is improving each day and a couple more days and it will be gone but I was feeling just a little light headed I guess you could say and couldn’t concentrate. I didn’t want to start cutting wrong so called it a day. I might get to it tomorrow.
Instead I read a book – the book was not all that great and couldn’t hold my interest – it was an author I hadn’t read before and probably won’t again This evening I wandered around the yard and took more photos of the plants that are growing.
Yucca flower spikes - these will be opening within a couple weeks. This is in the wild garden area and these yucca plants all grew from roots that we had missed. They are 3 years old and I was amazed to count 15 flower spikes. I will get a photo when the flowers open in a week or two.
This is one of the 10 Scarlet Maple trees that I planted last month. They all began as 1 1/2 foot tall twigs I guess you could say. Three of them are looking like this one, the others are not as good although 5 more are now budding out way down by the surface but not at the top. I will need to do a little pruning I think.
I dug about 10 ferns up from down in the woods last fall and planted them among the hostas here and there. They have grown larger than some I planted in the past. I'm not sure why they appear to be the same variety - only thing I can think of is that my shade in front is more dense than it used to be.
Back to quilting – I picked up the baby quilt earlier and did about 15 minutes of quilting and think maybe I need to get back to it. I will look and see if anything is on the tv tonight.
I don’t have anything new to show in quilting. I am getting another Dear Jane block prepped to sew on sometime today (maybe) and I actually have my “Little Brown Bird” book back out and I am looking through the blocks picking out the next one to prep and maybe take along on our camping trip this week to work on. But maybe I shouldn’t and just bring the baby quilt to work on! Maybe I could actually get done with it if it is the only thing I bring along besides a book or two to read? I really do not need to take much along we will only be gone for a week and we will be busy in the daytime and the sewing will be for in the evening if the bugs drive us inside at night.
I walked around outside for just a little bit this morning and it was the first morning this spring that I was bothered by insects – darn I knew that would happen sooner or later. But I managed to get some photos. My first rose is in full bloom.
I do not know the name of this rose. One time years ago we had some friends of ours that did odd jobs to supplement their income and a job they had was clearing out all plants by someones house. The people decided to open a daycare center and wanted no plants in the play yard area as children put things in their mouths and might get sick. They asked us to come along as they had permission to keep whatever plants they wanted while they cleaned them all out!!! Couldn't believe our good luck. We dug up this rose bush - who knows how old it was. We got so many good plants for free that day and still have a lot of them blooming to this day.
When Mike decided to build a new workshop about 4 years ago the rose bush among other plants were in the way. We decided to dig as many up that we could and replant in other areas. I put the rose bush in another area - or so I thought - we didn't get all of the root system. Mike had rented a backhoe(?) and moved a lot of dirt to an area a distance from the house and it was a bit - a big mound. Didn't think anything about it as it is away from the house and we moved the plants! LOL well there was a lot that we missed. The next spring low and behold we had a new garden on that mound of dirt. A rose bush grew, lilies, daffodils, yucca plants, Queen Ann's Lace, and of course since then trees have taken hold and many weeds. I need to decide what to do with it but each time I finally think about it I know the weather will get too hot to deal with it. This fall (I hope) I want to mark the plants to keep and start getting rid of the weeds and try to clean it up somewhat.
another section of the "wild area". I do not want to loose the wild look to the mound but I want to get the weeds under control so that I can possible plant some more actual plants. The weeds get quite high in the summer and block out the flowers.
the first of my clematis flowers
Now I need to get off of the computer and get busy with something – at least I have the laundry already started and vacuumed already!
I don’t have anything to really blog about today so I thought I would share some pretty blossoms:
The dogwood with the fully mature blossoms much whiter flowers now than they were in the last photo taken
wild violets that grow all over the place here. I did not have any violets here when we first moved here almost 30 years ago now. About 10 years or so ago they washed in I guess and now they grow all over the place. Some people do not like them over taking their yards but I do not mind - our soil is not good and anything that grows = except actually weeds - is usually welcome.
this azalea had been given to me 22 years ago - it was a miniature but I had no place to really keep it in the house. I did not know if it would stay a miniature or not, but after after 6 years outside it took off and now is almost the same size as the other azalea plants that we have. This one has a salmon pink blossom that will be fully open next week I bet.
I mentioned awhile back that I love tulips but here in Arkansas if we do not get a cold enough winter they do not always come back in blossoms in the spring. This winter was colder and longer than normal and I have 5 tulip buds this year - one more red one is a way off to the side and not in this photo. 5 is better than none but I think I originally planted about 20 of them several years ago.
I have the flowers on the baby quilt all appliqued in place. I marked a grid on it off and on today and it is now ready for quilting. I had a wonderful pink and white plaid fabric that was so soft that I thought it would be perfect for the backing. I bought it last year on sale someplace in the world of quilting fabric on line and knew I would eventually use it for something. I will be using pink thread to quilt it.
First of all Happy Easter to everyone. We do not have any children here to do Easter things with but I did put one edible decoration on the table and we are munching off and on – candy doesn’t last long around here so I don’t buy a lot. It briefly got up to 76 degrees then some clouds and wind came in and dropped it 71. Here are some photos of our spring.
Flowers for Easter and some candy! A three tier candy dish and since I took this photo candy has been eaten and it is now a 2 tier dish!
The small red bud tree. This tree grew from seed. We have a larger red bud tree a distance away from this one about half of that tree has died though and doesn't look as well as this small tree does. It started to grow about 4 or 5 years ago.
The small dogwood tree we didn't plant this one either - well I should correct that we did plant this one but we dug it up from the woods when it was about a foot tall. We use to have several dogwood trees in the woods that have since died. We noticed this small one growing beside them and wanted one closer to the house so we dug it up about 10 years ago when it was barely a twig and here it is now.
Awhile back Jackie from Canton Village Quiltworks had a giveaway of two of Karen Griska's book "Quilts from the Selvage Edge" I won one of them!!
Jackie let Karen know who won the books and she autographed the books and sent them out. I like how she autographed mine - coincidence of names - Karen G. to Karen G. how cute is that!
Seeing as I now have a book on how to make quilts from the Selvage Edge - I guess I better start to save my selvages. Here I have three to start with. One day I will have to start going through my fabric to cut off the edges. If anyone wants to donate to the cause if you are not going to use your edges - send them to me!! they need to be about 1 1/2 inches wide.
I have had so many people compliment my quilting recently. I say “thank you, thank you.” Working by hand is very satisfying to me. It goes so much slower by hand than by machine but there you go. Sometime if I get way too many tops piled up I might resort to having some machine quilted but not unless I have to. It is possible sometime down the road I might try to machine quilt a baby quilt just to see if I can do it, but I might not I do not stress over perfect tiny stitches. A lot of hand quilters want to have about 10 or 11 stitches per inch or more!! I have heard of some that do 14 stitches an inch how they do that I do not know – nor do I care to learn how to do that!! I do not even try for that. Normally I get about 7 to 8 stitches per inch I try to have them all the same size but they aren’t always the same, if it is really obvious I will pick the stitches back out and re do, but only if really noticeable. If I try really hard and pay attention to every stitch I take I can get 10 — BUT — it takes too much energy on my part!! I have to watch what I am doing constantly to achieve that and I decided sometime back that I just didn’t care that much. I have over the years become satisfied with what my stitches look like and from the experience it comes easily now.
The stitches up close and personal
More of the same block. Quilting with the smaller hoop to me is more comfortable than the large floor standing frame -- but quilting a big quilt is easier to do on the big floor standing frame. For one thing it gets too darn hot with a big quilt for most of the year. I think that is why I can finished the baby quilts and couch size quilts much faster using the hoop than I do when I have a big quilt on the big frame. It is harder to maneuver on the big frame because you can't turn it this way and that way - you have to twist up your arms and hands sometimes if you are going around curves.
I have been asked do I do a “rocking stitch” – yes I do that is the way I taught myself to do it. Some people do a stabbing stitch but I never have done that – I find the rocking stitch easy to do if you have the quilt loose in the hoop or frame and not too tight – you will get that rocking needle easier that way.
I ordered 10 Scarlet Maple trees awhile back and after a bit of problems receiving them and numerous e mails exchanged I finally got them this week. They are small trees and therefore they were very cheap! Trees grow so fast here and I already have tons of trees so did not matter how quickly they grow. I thought these would look so lovely in the fall that is why I ordered them. Now of course digging through this tough rocky soil is another matter!! I have 3 of them planted so 7 left to do. I could ask Mike to help but he is working on other things – I am not helpless – just not so much in the muscle department my goal is to try to plant one or two a day until I get done – give me a week LOL. Now if they were very big trees Mike would be out there with a back hoe digging the holes!! Seeing as these trees are only 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 feet with very little in the way of roots I can do it. It makes me use some muscle that I’m not use to using. I am scattering them about the property. So far I have put 2 of them a ways in back of the house on the edge of the woods and one over by the back of the workshop. I am not sure where the rest are going – here and there most likely on the far side of our property.
One of the 10 tiny trees.
what they look like when grown.
Still several more days to sign up for the give away http://karensquilting.com/blog/2010/03/give-away-2/ sign up on that post so you are counted – we have 100 comments so far!
I thought for several days about what to make with the charm squares that Teri sent me the other day. I found a book that had something like what I want in it and I am in the process of changing it a bit. I have discovered that I like my dining area so much better for a design area than the sewing room table (more room) that I have moved by big cutting mat to the table in there and go back and forth between the dining area and the sewing room. I get some added exercise to and don’t get stiff. Here is what I have come up with so far:
the charms - I do not work with pastel colors a lot but there was something about these Moda Aviary squares that I loved when I saw them. The fabric is so soft also - love it.
pulling the design together - laying things out, deciding on size - I have some books out for reference to the design that I like, paper to draw ect. I end up like always though and just start cutting and placing and measuring until I get what I want when I am not going by a particular pattern exactly.
there is a piece of creamy butter fabric in each strip. On that strip will be an applique flower or design, there might be a little embroidery on it also.
I will make four "blocks" this size to make one large block. I am going to do the applique first though before I join 4 blocks together. This one measures 23x25. So when the four are joined they will be about 46 x 50 and then there will be a border of some type around it. I am pretty sure I have enough charm squares to do this. If not and I am a couple short I will be searching through the stash to find a couple pieces which I should be able to do with no trouble.
So I will leave all of this stuff out on the dining room table and work on it for the next 3 days – I hope to do one of these units a day and then start on the applique – but if we do any running around this weekend it might end up on the table for a week This took 2 1/2 hours to do – in other words I spent the whole morning on it – which I normally do not do. Normally I am only sewing for an hour here or there in the day and evening.
I did take a break and went outside for some photos:
spring - don't you just love it - but darn all those little bugs are coming back already!
pretty yellow
hydrangea - I planted these last year from rootings off of my big plant - I rooted 7 plants and they all came back.
clematis
the cool weather plants are planted - peas, carrots, beets, two kinds of lettuce, spinach and radishes - we will be gone half the summer so I am not doing other veggies right now. I am going to spread plastic over the fencing to keep it warm as we are to get some cool nights coming up still. When I cut the grass the first time I will have Mike put the mulcher on and I will put mulch over the weed mat to hold it down and take the rocks up then.
Yesterday seeing as I am still waiting patiently (almost) for my batting to arrive I worked up another little Dear Jane block for “Insanity Revisited”. I will get another one prepped today. After running in to the problem of two separate companies out of the batting I use and having to wait for them to send it I decided when I go to Paducah in April to make sure to stock up on several sizes of batting and bring them home and store them under the quilting frame. The packages will be out of my way and there when I need them. I love Quilters Dream 100% cotton batting – it is the only kind I use – I have experimented with numerous brands and just find I like that one the most.
The beginning of Row K (#11) this is block number 1.
Yesterday brought a visit from our daughter Melanie and her husband Ric. This was a visit that had not been planned far in advance but a delight. Melanie and I took a nice walk at the trails while her husband was visiting his mother – who luckily lives only 2 miles away from us which makes visiting easy for them – then we made supper and Ric came over to visit for awhile and eat then they went back to his mom’s house to visit there too. With Melanie’s hours at work not being very flexible we appreciate a visit when they can squeeze us in 
I don’t know how it works for most people but we have found it is easy for them to make a visit to both sides of the family easily because of how close we live to his mom.
It rained last night – we had not had much rain lately so seeing as it was not sever storms and it was at night it was welcome. My little garden plot is ready for planting.
My little plot next to the wood pile. There is a reason for this. I figured because I wanted to plant early - salad type of veggies that grow good at this time of year - but anyway because it is early I want to be able to protect from cold weather. So the plastic over the wood will be pulled over the garden instead and held down and the heat can stay in the area by the plants! Instant green house I still need to get some chicken wire to put a small fence around it too keep out the rabbits. Right now I plan on planted two kinds of lettuce, spinach, radishes, carrots, green peas and beets (not a salad veggies but I like them) all of these should be ready within one to two and half months which works out well seeing as we will be gone for a good chunk of summer. By putting plastic over it part of the time it should encourage them to grow faster (I hope). I would have liked to have tomato plants too but I don't feel I would have enough time to use them all and I hate to waste them.
a little wild area of plants. The little green that doesn't have flowers on it yet are lily's
The big tree in the center of the yard always gets these reddish buds all over it before the leaves come. They look pretty but sure do make a mess in another two weeks or so when they fall off the tree and the leaves grow. I have to blow them all off of the porch and the deck then, but they are pretty. The picture is not as clear as I hoped. In fact a lot of the photos I took this morning did not turn out and were out of focus. I'm still working on that.
