It's time to get back to my blog. My Dad passed away and there's been so much to do and so many people to talk to that I have been totally drained.

I spent all day yesterday catching up on yard work--pruning trees and bushes and roses, mowing the lawn, planting seeds and plants (some cute little petunias) and watering. Enjoyable but tiring. I spent last Saturday working in my Dad's yard doing the same thing except for the planting. I have some honeysuckle that I need to plant but I haven't had the time to go out and get the horse manure to mix with the soil. Have you ever tried manure tea? It's great for the plants, especially in our hard, dry dirt.

I'm down to the last three rows on Nate's quilt. I am so anxious to work on some other quilts but I'm determined to get his done first! Debbie Mumm's new book looks good!

I read The 8th Confession by James Patterson. It was a very good, fast read. I also read Committed which was just the book I needed right now. Light, funny and very enjoyable. I'm also enjoying Tea at Glenbrooke and I can't wait to try out some of the recipes.

I want to thank everyone for the wonderful comments about my Christmas quilt. I'm glad you are enjoying it. It was a challenge for a beginning appliquer but it was so much fun!

I discovered an online quilt festival! What fun! Click on this link to look at all the entries.
http://parkcitygirl.blogspot.com/2009/04/quilt-festival-spring-2009.html

This is my favorite quilt. I had so much fun hand appliqueing it. It's called "Welcome to the North Pole" by Becky Goldsmith and Linda Jenkins.

A good friend taught me to applique and we each made this wall hanging. We started in March 2003 by selecting the fabrics for each block and placing them in ziploc bags. Our first block was the "North Pole Carryout."

The window panes were a pain!

The "Sprinkles Ice Cream Shoppe" was next. I renamed it "Nessa's Ice Cream Shoppe" for my granddaughter. This one was so much fun! It looks like the ice cream is dripping onto the tree. The fabric for the cherry and the white scoop of ice cream came from scraps of Nessa's quilt.

"Nate's Cars and Trucks and Reesa's Doll Shoppe" block was next. It was renamed for my grandson and other granddaughter. The truck wheels are little snaps!

The "Slick Sleds" block was a challenge with the curly roof!

I decided to do the Santa and the reindeer block next. We used a loosely woven fabric for the beard, moustache, hat and sleeve. That took some work, especially the moustache. It's so tiny! Surprisingly, the reindeer antlers weren't as hard as I thought they would be! Can you see Rudolph's red nose?

I'm not happy with the fabric I used on the Reindeer Barn's roof but decideded to leave it. That N took forever!!!

I love the fabric in the Marble Shop! Circles are hard to make round!

We made the "Welcome to the North Pole" block with an elf in green instead of another Santa.

I like the door on the "Elve's Recreation Center". The window panes are getting easier!

I made the "Trees and Reindeer" block next. I love making all the different trees.

The "Stars at Night" block was fun too! They look like they're dancing!

The "Elve's Bunkhouse" was different because of it's shape. This wasn't my favorite block. We were going to use red for the candy canes but the green ones look better. The roof was supposed to be three pieces but we used a print fabric and made it one piece instead.

I love the fabric for the "Mr. and Mrs. Claus's House.' It's seersucker! The little dormer windows were a challenge on this block.

The "North Pole Bakery" is made out of fabric from New York City and the flowers are buttons.

The "Three Trees" block was the smallest, fastest, and easiest block of all.

The last block was the "Royal Toy Works/Candy Cane Factory/Hats and Mittens." I don't know how I kept the white stripes on the candy cane so clean! I think the roof of Hats and Mittens looks like a Hershey's Kiss and don't you just love the door!

The blocks went together a lot easier than I thought they would. I was afraid of puckering or that they wouldn't line up.

I finished the top in one year, then I had to add all the beads and embroidery and then, hmmm, should I tell you how long it took me to hand quilt it? Okay! I finished on May 22, 2005! Hand quilting is definitely not my favorite thing to do, especially since other quilts were waiting to be started!

My friend's husband even made us some trees to hang our quilts on.

I'm bad! I had to put the other books I'm reading aside. J.D. Robb's new book Promises in Death came in to the library and I just had to read it! It's very good! I just love Eve's reactions to everything! What a ride! Wouldn't you just love to be able to zip up into the air and get around traffic! I have gotten behind so many slooooow people this week. Can't they just at least go the speed limit?!?!
I love her reaction to Mavis's baby too! Hilarious! It's amazing how she can keep coming up with new stories! I think this is #37! Her next comes out in November Kindred in Death and then The Lost Anthology comes out in December. I need to add them to my Shelfari list so I don't forget!
I need to go work in the garden. I have been waiting to rake out the rest of the leaves cause I thought I might freeze again but the weather has been so warm and the roses are starting to bud out so I might as well get it over with. I need to get a Farmer's Almanac to see if it's okay to go ahead and plant my lavender in the flower bed or if I should plant it in a pot for now.
I also bought a honeysuckle and another rosemary bush for my Dad's house and I'd like to get them planted too.
The grass has been so bare the last few years. I need to water it more but we're supposed to conserve water. How can you win? Maybe I need to work some manure into the soil. Won't my neighbors love me?!? The horse manure I worked into the flower beds was very good for the soil and the plants and the grass that loves to grow there (where I don't want it) instead of where I do want it.
No pictures this time but my pineapple sage is starting to bloom and my miniature rose has another bud on it. Oh, I bought some red salvia plants. The leaves are so pretty and I love the red color next to the green leaves. I might buy some blue ones next time I go to town. They're supposed to be good in the sun.
I'm going to be making costumes for two of my grandkids today. One needs to be a walnut and the other needs to be an owl in their school program. We picked out the fabric yesterday. It's going to be an adventure, I'm sure!
Well, I guess I better get to work!

What a beautiful day! I actually sat outside and read for a little while.




The moon was huge on Tuesday. My camera doesn't do it justice! It had a beautiful gold color to it.

Monday I planted 3 pineapple sage, 6 snapdragons, an African daisy, 2 lemon thyme, a peppermint geranium, and 2 lavendar plants in pots. I'm afraid to plant them in the garden yet since it will probably freeze again before it gets hot. Here are some pictures!

I'm almost finished reading Wicked and I started three other books - An Irish Country Doctor (very funny), Capirotada (the 2009 One Book AZ book), and I'm listening to The Adventures of Benjamin Bartholomew Piff (a children's book about wishes). And I have at several more on the shelf waiting!

Since I have the day off, I have plans to work on my quilted purse and figure out how the WII Fit works. We'll see if I get that far! I might just go back outside and read while the weather is nice!

I'm still plugging along on Nate's quilt.

I'm getting closer!

It's time to get busy!

Hi!

I'm still reading Wicked and enjoying it but it isn't a book you can read fast. I'm almost finished listening to Deep Lie. I've enjoyed this one but not as much as some of his other books.

I was going to work on my quilts yesterday but I ended up working in my Dad's yard instead. I decided to rake up all the dead weeds that were in what used to be his garden. I had to prune a tree, chop some weeds, and cut out a bunch of sticker bushes that are trying to take over. What a mess! It looks much better now. I didn't realize until I got home that I had gotten sunburned! Ouch! I was too tired to work on any quilting and fell asleep watching TV.
I am making progress on Nate's I Spy quilt. I got another row quilted and started on the next. The squares for my quilted purse are still sitting on the table. I got up this morning and decided I needed to get some cleaning done instead of quilting. Sad, huh?!? Maybe I can work on them this afternoon.
I started some seeds last week and they're already coming up! I want an herb garden and can't find any plants at the stores. I was going to prune my rose bushes today but it's windy and I think I had enough sun yesterday. I did find some flowers blooming. Aren't they pretty?!?

Wow! I've added some new widgets and quilt pictures to my blog. I need to learn how to make my pictures look better but for now they'll have to do.

My miniature rose bloomed!

I found this link on another blog.
http://www.adobecards.com/
It's amazing the things people can do with a computer!
I just finished reading The Presence by Heather Graham. It was a good read, a little slow in places but I enjoyed it. I still like Ghost Walk the best.
I also read Death Swatch by Laura Childs. I love this series! I seem to like books about New Orleans.
I finished the applique work on my second snowpeople wall hanging. I need to get off this computer and get busy sewing the borders on so I can get it quilted, bound and finished!
I'm going with some friends to the quilt shop tomorrow. We're going to make a quilt like the North Pole Village (picture below) only this one will have a different theme. I'm excited about starting a new project!
I'm off to quilt!!!

It's already February and things just keep going full steam ahead! It would be nice if everything would just slow down and coast just for a little while. Oh well, what can we do?
We went to the Renaissance Festival yesterday. It was fun. Not as crowded as when we went last time. Don't you just love the tree man?!?

The grandkids loved the dragon slide and of course we went to the Don Juan and Miguel show. Those guys are hilarious!

I bought a new charm for my necklace at Uncommon Adornments - a baby dragon with a peridot stone. He's cute with his little toes!

Nate bought a cool dragon necklace, Missy bought a butterfly wand and Kenny bought a shot glass, some cinnamon almonds and a cool dragon tshirt. The kids also got their picture taken with the pretty fairy.
Well, I'm off and running again. Never a dull moment!!!