TGIF

Gosh....remember how Fridays were always such a big deal when you were in school?   Working in nursing there really was never that Friday joy since hospitals are open 24/7.   Now that I am retired the Fridays aren't that unique either, but it is a TGIF day.

Since it is also Flag Day, I will show you my red, white and blue finish.  I love the way this came out and will look forward to decorating with it over the many patriotic holidays.  Since it was my scheduled project for finishing this month I will be linking it up with A Lovely Year of Finishes.

Another project that I have been working on was a pattern tester for Emily.  I finally have a completion to share with you.  I just love Emily's border idea and I know that I will be using this technique again sometime.  Sorry about the indoor picture, but it was too big to hang on the line.  Isn't it a great pattern? You can see Emily's version HERE.

I had a dear friend, Peg, come visit for a few days.  We've know each other for over 40 years and always enjoy each other's company.  Her granddaughter had drawn a quilt design and and Peg wanted to know if it was possible to sew it out.  She arrived with her fabrics and we sketched it all out.  She does not sew, but I think she really enjoyed the process and also did all of the FMQ on it.  She was very adventurous with her FMQ designs, including special names, hearts, flowers, stick people and a Grandma signature.   The backing is Minky so it crinkled up nicely and had such a nice drape to it. 

Drawn quilt and finished quilt - the colors matched perfectly.

My Japanese x&+ bee blocks continue to arrive and my layout is growing because of it.  I really like the way it looks - so scrappy and bright.

Isn't this a great card?

It seems like I spend a good amount of time these days filling up my bird feeders.  I now have seven 4-cup feeders for the orioles and hummers that get filled AND emptied every day.  We have two different types of orioles at the feeders - a Hooded and a Bullock oriole.  The Bullock orioles are much more talkative.  The babies are also now at the feeders.

In closing I will show you what happens when you give sidewalk chalk to little ones.  I'm not sure whether the sidewalk or the bodies got decorated the most.

I hope everyone has a great Father's Day weekend.  We will have the whole gang here on Sunday.

The Joys of August

I have decided to count count the many joys of having and endless winter-summer.

1. A greatly reduced power bill when your air conditioner has gone only for less than one hour all summer.
2. A much lowered water bill when you do not have to keep everything well moistened.
3. An early appreciation of the autumn colors when the trees are already changing into their gorgeous yellows and reds.
4. A full on turkey dinner with all of the trimmings so you can heat up the kitchen.  Trust me...it smells and tastes wonderful in August!!

    5. A garden that is so slow in coming around that we will still be enjoying tomatoes in December.

    6.  Weather reporters having lots of statistics to share with us and endless reports on our record cool summer. 

Can you tell how happy I am that we are having such a wonderful summer this year?  Can you sense my happy face?????  I am rejoicing because we do have a forecast of highs in the low 70s for the next seven days.  We haven't seen a 70 in the forecast for weeks now.

 Certain things say summer to me and one of them is sunflowers.    DH always plants a row of sunflowers for me to pick and bring in for bouquets during the summertime.  Don't they just look happy? 

They are always wonderful to have inside the house as well.

We are really enjoying the orioles this year.  We have had so many of them and between them and the hummingbirds we are going through five pounds of sugar a week.  They are at the feeders from sunrise to sunset.  Next to one of the feeders we have a wind sculpture.  It is hysterical to see the orioles sit on it as it goes around and around.  I wonder if they ever get dizzy.

The colorful male.

Two females.

Several of the males have now left for their long journey South and the females will be following shortly.  We will miss them when they are gone.   Some mornings I will have more than a dozen hummers at each feeder as well.

We took some more of the grands to see Toy Story 3 in 3D.  I enjoyed it as much this time as last - maybe even more.  I apparently missed a few of the good lines last time.

Sewing this week has been one of those frustrating events.  I would love to sit and sew for hours at a time, but it seems this week was more sewing in bits and pieces.  It is just a good thing that I have a room designated to sewing so that I don't have to clean it up each time I sew.  I finally tackled the large mending stack and finished that off.  As well I managed to get the last block finished on my Jelly Roll Quilt Along.  After putting all the blocks together I decided to change a few of the blocks. 

I absolutely love this quilt top now.  The colors are so perfect for our home and will be a welcomed covering for the cold bones.

I have also been working on my seemingly endless pile of blocks for this months Schnibble quilt.

Then there is also this little pile of pinks for the newest granddaughter. 

Blogger is not allowing me to center some of my pictures on this post so I apologize for your eye having to wander here and there.

Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers regarding my cousin.  They seem to have come to the conclusion that it was a heart attack.  It is a shame and such a shock that an athletic young man should be struck down like that at forty four years of age.