Spring Beauties

I wanted to share some pictures of the spring beauties that are blooming in my yard. I used the free tool Picnik to soften the edges of this pretty pink iris.


My peonies are also getting ready to bloom.


And, oh joy! My hydrangeas look like they are getting ready to bloom this year for the first time in about 2 years! This year I fertilized my plant and put lime around the bottom hoping to get a pink flower. It'll be interesting to see what color they are.


Oh my, I want a white hydrangea so badly. They are so pretty. We used to call them snowball bushes when I was growing up.

Hawaiian Applique

This week I've been reading a book by Jennifer Chiaverini titled The Aloha Quilt.


One of the characters in the book takes a trip to Hawaii to help a friend start a Hawaiian quilt camp. She decides she wants to learn to make a Hawaiian quilt as a momento of her stay in Maui. After reading in the book about the quilts and their meanings, and how they are made, I started thinking about trying one of my own. I've done applique before but not with very successful results and it wasn't that enjoyable. I've never been able to figure out which technique I wanted to try to make it easier to do. All those little pieces to be placed and appliqued and so on. So, I did a little research and found a web site that has a few free patterns and some basic instructions for how to make a Hawaiian applique quilt. The web site is here. You can choose one of the free patterns that are on this page, then if you click on "Quilting Instructions" it will tell you exactly how to cut out your block, quilt it, etc. This is the best web site I've found with all this information in one place. Then, for eye candy, I started doing image searches in Google for Hawaiian quilts and found these:






This was enough to get me started, so I printed off one of the free patterns from the web site and decided to start small with a pillow size block to get hang of this applique thing. It wasn't too bad and I know that with practice I will get better. When I finish this pillow I want to make another one, but a little larger, maybe a small wall hanging size.

Here is my block. I finished appliquing it last night. I haven't quilted it yet, but that's the next step. I'll post progress pictures later on.

Yesterday

It's really unusual I know for me to post twice in one day, let alone once a day, but I was reading my blogs and I came across this beautiful video that my piano teacher made of her singing "Yesterday" by the Beatles. She's playing the piano and her daughter, who is an awesome photographer, took the pictures that go with the video.

Spring Time

Yesterday at work some of our staff went to a luncheon. Corsages were given to the ladies and they had a few left, so one of my coworkers brought them back and gave them to those of us who stayed behind to hold down the fort. I think they are beautiful.


This morning I was looking out my kitchen window and saw all these beautiful wisterias.




At last, but not least, are my azaleas that are blooming right now.

Just for Fun

Last weekend Eddie and I went to our friend's house to a party to celebrate her baby's one year birthday. My friend told me that she had looked at one year old birthday decorations and didn't find anything that she liked. She said she decided to make some tissue paper flowers. Well, after I saw them I had to know how to make them, so she showed me how and I made these. It's amazing what you can do with tissue paper. I had another friend show me how to make some carnatins out of toilet tissue.

Nostalgia - These Boots Are Made for Walkin'

I've been thinking about nostalgic things lately. When I was in junior high school, there was a popular song by Nancy Sinatra called These Boots Are Made for Walkin'. I thought I would put the video here for you to see. And, my girlfriends and I each had a pair of those white "go-go" boots. Thought we were hot stuff walking around in those things.

Madeline's Sweater

A couple of months ago I knitted a sweater for a friend's baby girl. Her name is Madeline and she has just celebrated her first birthday. I miscalculated a bit and this sweater is much bigger than I thought it would be, but her mom says that she will grow into it soon, so I'm happy about that. I hope Madeline likes it when she's big enough to wear it.

I found the pattern on the inside of a yarn label. I bought the yarn at Hobby Lobby and the yarn is I Love This Cotton yarn. I'm not sure if the pattern is in all of the labels, but it was in several of the skeins that I bought to make an afghan with. It was a very simple sweater and lots of fun to make.

New Dish Towels

Thanks to a sale at Kohl's I got some new dish towels yesterday. They are so bright and pretty and remind me of Spring.


I'm also thinking about painting some terra cotta flower pots to plant a Christmas cactus cutting that I have rooted from another plant. These photos that I found on the Internet are very inspiring. I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to paint them, but these photos will help give me a few ideas.

Who Do You Think You Are?

I am excited about this show. I have been working off and on on my family genealogy on my mother's side for several years. I have learned lots of interesting things about my mom's family. If you watch this show, it might spark your interest in finding out your own genealogy. I hope so.



Who Do You Think You Are?

Sewing and Quilt Themed Cakes - Part 2

Here are so more of those beautiful cakes.

Sewing and Quilt Themed Cakes - Part 1

I am in absolute awe of what cake decorators can do. I watch Ace of Cakes and the cake decorating challenges all the time. I never thought about sewing and quilt themed cakes, but when I saw these photos, I just had to share. I found about 30+ photos of these wonderful cakes, so I'm going to post them all, but in 3 parts. Here are the first photos. I hope you enjoy them. I know I did.

It's Snowing!

It started snowing today around 1 p.m. and it's still snowing. I just snapped this picture looking out toward the road from my front porch. This is the first time we've had any significant snowfall in several years. It's beautiful and it's always so quiet when it's snowing. Just like a winter wonderland.

Robert B. Parker Dies

I was so disappointed to hear that Robert B. Parker passed away on Monday. He was one of my favorite authors. I read all of his books and could hardly wait for the next one to come out. A coworker of mine feels the same way. When we found out, she said, "What are we going to do?" For reading, I mean. There are other authors that we like, but he was one of the best by far. I'm really going to miss him and his books. His webpage: Robert B. Parker.

Afghan and One More Hat

I wanted to share another hat that I made using my Knifty Knitter. This one is the blue with furry black brim.


I have some more of this yarn and I'll be making some more of these hats in adult and children's sizes. I'm going to put them in my Etsy shop at some point very soon.

I've also been working on an afghan to put across the back of my sofa. I finished it about a week ago.



I have to give my piano teacher credit for this pattern. When I was at her house taking my lesson one day, she showed me some squares that she was working on for a small afghan. I thought it was so pretty I decided to make one too. We used Hobby Lobby's I Love This Cotton yarn in Ivory. I can't remember the size of the crochet hook, but whatever size is on the yarn label is what I used. To make one square, you chain 25, then single crochet in the second chain from the hook, and in each chain across. At the end of the row, turn, ch 1 and repeat the first row. Just keep crocheting rows until you have a square. Then we decided to put some of our tatted medallions in the middle of each square. It was a fun project and to tell the truth, I'm surprised I actually finished this. I so often start a project and then, for whatever reason, lose interest and put it down for awhile.

Right now I'm working on knitting a child's sweater. I got the pattern from the inside label of the yarn I used to make the afghan. I'll try to take some pictures of it and post them soon.

Knifty Knitter Hats

We've had some snow here, and being snowed in I decided to make some hats using my Knifty Knitter round green loom. I decided to bling them up a little bit by putting some fun fur type yarn on the brim. I think they came out really cute.

The black hat was made with Lion Brand Wool Ease, and a Hobby Lobby brand of furry trim. I think it was Yarn Bee brand. For the brim I held one strand of the furry yarn and one strand of black Wool Ease together and knit for 5 inches. After making the brim, I dropped the furry yarn and held together one strand of black and one strand of a dark gray of the Wool Ease to make the remainder of the hat. I knitted for about 8 inches and then gathered the top. It couldn't be easier or faster and it made a warm, pretty, stylish hat.


For the blue hat, I used Lion Brand Homespun yarn in 368 Montana Sky color, and Fun Fur stripes in Deep Sea color. To make the blue hat, it was basically the same thing as with the black hat. For the brim, I held one strand of the homespun and one strand of the fun fur together for the brim. After making the brim, I held 2 strands together of the homespun for the remainder of the hat.


I couldn't believe how well these hats came out. They were both quick and really, really warm. I think I'll be making some more.