An Excuse to Sew

I have had a perfect excuse to spend a few days with my sewing machine.  I have a shadow that will not leave my side and makes cleaning the house impossible. 

I can't imagine why he thinks the world revolves around him.  He is incredibly curious and has his nose in everything.  Cleaning the windows on the glass doors is also senseless so I might as well sit and sew.  I just have to be careful when I move from the sewing machine to the ironing board as there is a GREAT BIG detour.   His family returns home tonight.

The Great Granny blocks have peaked my interest and I joined in on them.  I had a jelly roll of Nature's Notebook and this project is perfect for the 2 1/2 inch strips.  They go up so quickly and are really fun to make.  I think I will probably make mine 4 X 5 blocks which will make it about 63x76" when it is finished with borders.  Only eight more blocks to go. 

I also caught up on the last couple of blocks for the Temecula Summer Star QAL.  These are such cute little stars and I am using some of my Civil War fabric scraps. 

Sharon at Vrooman's Quilts recently had a giveaway that I was lucky to win.  There are so many wonderful prints and colors in this  Petite Odile jelly roll and I am excited to make something with them.  Thank you so much, Sharon.  I love it.

The hummers still continue to flock to the feeders.  It seems like there are more than ever this year, but it won't be long before they head off for the winter. 

One last picture that I thought was cute.  Can you tell that this little guy's sister wants to take care of him and share her dolls?  He looks a little distressed and is wondering where his baseball is instead.  ;-)

I think my shadow and I will work on my Just Takes 2 blocks today so I can get caught up before the next blocks come out on the first of the month.

Take Me Home Country Roads

Before I go there I will show you some of my plumeria that are blooming.  I just love walking out into the wonderful smells of the plants in bloom.  It makes me think of the warm air and beautiful colors of the waters of Hawaii.

As with all big families, there are celebrations of all sorts.  This week was a celebration of a life well lived - my aunt and mother to eleven beautiful adult children.  I traveled back to Iowa and to the country roads.  It was a heartwarming time to see all of the children, the numerous grandchildren and many great grandchildren all together to honor her and recall their memories of her. 

I managed to experience the heat that many of you have been writing of in your blogs.  Many of the cornfields are in sorry shape with the heat and lack of rain.  The future forecast does not look great either.  We will all pay the cost of this with the icrease in the price of foods and meat over the next few years.

I hope to get back to my regular blogging this week.  See you then.

Another Week Along...

Wow!  The summer is just zipping past.  I should be used to it by now, but it never ceases to amaze me the rate that time flies.

The Fourth of July in the middle of the week just really played with my mind.  I kept thinking that Friday was Monday since DH took Thursday off and it got worse from that point forward.  I am glad that it is back to a normal Monday today.

I enjoyed the jam and bread making with the grandaughters, followed by some good games of jacks.  Does anyone else remember playing jacks by the hours when you were young?  It's a lot little tougher to get down on the floor in the right position at this age.

We got 6 batches of strawberry and one batch of peach jam made.

This past week we've had birthdays and a wedding - all fun family times filled with happiness. 



Such fancy red boots!



We had a terrific celebration on the 4th with the families all here.  Our crowds are quite large, but everyone pitched in, brought food and helped to clean up afterwards.  Our youngest son and his family were here for a few days so that kept life jumping.

While many of you have had terrible heat, we have been exceptionally cool.  Notice all the sweatshirts at the party on the 4th of July?  This was our forecast for the week and I have to say that we were thrilled to actually see a couple of 70s in the forecast.  Our high on the 4th was 67*!!

The weekend was rather quiet and allowed me time at the sewing machine.  I'm still working to catch up on the Takes 2 blocks.  I have put off the applique long enough and the last two blocks that I needed to catch up were both applique.  One is now finished and one more to go.

Yesterday we went to see the new Coke machine at our son's restaurant.  It is called a Freestyle machine.  Have any of you seen it before?  It is like a smorgasbord of selection for your drinks.  You can get well over 100 drink choices all from this little machine.  It is whatever your mind can imagine.  He was telling us that people are coming in to the restaurant just to try it out and to take pictures of this fancy machine.  Fascinating!

This is a crazy week ahead for us.  Our son and DIL are off for a few days in Hawaii and we are helping out with the ten children.  It will be fun and busy at the same time.  Let's pray for no broken arms this year!!!

I'll leave you with a picture of the baby quail waiting to jump down and devour the garden sprouts.  See what a good daddy the babies have?  He watched until each one had managed to get into the garden.