Then There Were Five

Five months, five colors, five blocks......the May color for the RSC14 is green.  I’ve now finished the green Soul Searching block and have added it to the others.  It is growing so quickly.




The temperatures here have been absolutely scorching here this past week.  The fires down in San Diego have been terrible and have come at a time of the year where we normally have cool and foggy conditions.  Even the beaches are abnormally hot.

We have spent the last five months remodeling a beach house that has been in the family for about 35 years.  It has consumed A LOT of my sewing time, but it is now coming to a close.  We are pleased with the way it is coming together and are looking forward to now enjoying our labor.  Here is a glimpse of the new kitchen. 



I’m thinking it would be a great place for a quilting retreat!!!  As well, the local quilt shop is Roxannes and is highlighted in the newest edition of Quilt Sampler magazine.


Look at this cute little gift that I received.




….but look what it is.  Is this cute or what????  It will be perfect for the embroidery machine.

Onwards and upwards…………………..  May is already half over.  

May Crazy

Our Mays are always a crazy month with seven birthdays, two anniversaries and Mother’s Day – lots of mothers - in our family. This month we have also added two First Communions and one Confirmation …always cherished times.  The calendar month seems to roll around faster and faster each year and I find it hard to grab a few minutes of quiet sewing time in between all of the celebrations.  I think I need to give up housekeeping!!!!!
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This is as far as I got on my Disappearing 4 Patch (D4P).  It finished up at 40” square which I think is a great size for a baby quilt. 



 I needed a quick gift for a friend so I did another frog on a lily pad mug rug.  We have a running joke about frogs so I thought she would get a kick out of it and she did.



Although I am holding out no hopes of accomplishing my goals I set this month, I would like to finish the next four blocks of my New York Beauty project.  Have you set your goals yet?



Lots of time has been spent in the garden as well.  My first plumeria is just starting to bloom.  They do not normally bloom until July.



My favorite orange orchid is also blooming.  I LOVE the color of this one.  Wouldn't this make an incredible corsage?  My dad had a greenhouse filled with orchids when we were teenagers.  I used to make and sell  orchid corsages for the boys to give to their dates when they went to the prom.  I'll have to dig out a picture of the bouquet that my dad made for my wedding.  It was stunning.
 


I know that several people lately have been having a problem with comments going to their e-mails.  I have noticed that my some of my comments are being returned to my spam mail as "unable to deliver".  My settings remain the same so I am not sure what is going on with blogger.  Most of the mail seems to involve yahoo accounts.  Has anyone figured out a way to solve the problem?  The comments still show up on the posts, but they don't not show up in the inbox.

AYOS–Schnibble Finish

I really haven’t been very good at doing the monthly Schnibbles this year, but I couldn’t pass up the idea of a mini one this month.  We were to choose a Camille Roskelley mini pattern and my choice was Thimble Blossoms.




The batting was a little thicker than what I normally like to use, but I like the way the quilting shows up on the piece.






Be sure to check out the Schnibble Parade tomorrow at Sherri and Sinta’s blogs.

As Promised

As promised, I did manage to get a little sewing in this weekend.  It seems like my weekends are the only time lately to get any sewing done.  I needed to get going on a baby quilt for an upcoming baby shower.  This is the Disappearing 4 Patch using a novelty print and various blues.
 
I’ll be linking this up with Kim for SEWJo Saturday.

We had an exciting week with the arrival of our newest grandson.  He was due next month, but made his arrival a tad early much to the excitement of his sisters and brothers. 





Our lives have been so blessed.

From the Land of No Sew

Greetings from the Land of No Sew.  Life has been busy in other ways than sewing.  We've been busy celebrating family times with birthdays and Easter while enjoying house guests.  It doesn't get better than that.

Any spare time has been spent in the gardens.  One of the nice signs of spring's arrival is the blooming of the cacti.  I love this very prickly cactus with it's heart shaped paddles and stunning flowers.



This cactus was started two years ago with a single paddle.  It is almost to the roof now.



The flowers on it bloom in yellow.




This pink cactus is one in a pot with giant and showy flowers.






We had several birthdays in April including these three grandchildren.

The active little one with a pink cast for Easter!!!!

Easter was celebrated at our son’s home with the extended family – aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.  It was a spectacular day filled with fun and joy.  We took lots of photos, but here is a shot of the grandchildren all together (minus 1).




This is a picture as we were trying to round everyone up for a group shot – not an easy task when there are around 150 people. 




I’ll try to do a better job of showing some sewing projects in my next post - if I remember how to use the sewing machine.  ;-)  

Scrappy Saturday

Being that it is Saturday, it is time to post on my “purple” work for this week for the RSC14.



That brings the blocks to four now.  Being such a large block, the quilt is growing quickly.



I met a high school friend for lunch this week and we started our visit off by meeting at a quilt shop.  The shop is incredible and a bit overwhelming with so many bolts of fabric.  I really only needed some black and white stripes for bindings, but I saw some fabric that called my name as I walked past.  It was in the “food” section – macaroni and cheese.  Well…..one of my grandsons is a mac and cheese fanatic so I had to make him a bib with it.
 




I think he approved of it.  High five anyone?????

The blocks for my Goodnight Irene quilt are now finished.  I made it a bit larger so it can be used as a lap quilt.


I’ll be linking this to SEWjo Saturday.


I’ve done a wee bit more sewing this week, but can’t show that yet.  As well, I’ve had a large order of shirts and hats that have needed to be embroidered.  The machines have been kept busy.   Using a cheap wine rack is a great way to store stabilizers for the machine embroidery.



The rest of the week has been pretty boring – thank goodness – with semi annual checkups (dental cleaning, dermatology checkup, etc.) 

A Crazy Week

Some weeks are just a bit more crazy than others and this past week was one of those.  I had little ones here off and on while one of our grandsons was in the hospital and had four days of IVs due to dehydration from a bad virus he picked up somewhere.  It is tough to see little ones so ill and it broke my heart when he so politely asked “no more needles please” as they were starting the third IV.  Geesh!  The good news is that he came home last evening and is doing great. 


As time permitted through the week I worked on finishing my Japanese x&+ quilt.  I rearranged a few of the blocks from the last photo of them and am quite pleased with this arrangement.  I’d better be happy because I am not taking it out!!!



We were suppose to send a name label with our blocks, but not everyone did so.  With the ones I did receive, I added a few more blocks and made scrappy blocks using the name labels for the back.  I really like the total scrappiness of this quilt.

I love the sun coming through from the back.

  
With the spring season the hummingbirds have returned in mass.  I’ve had several that have flown into the house (thanks to small children and open doors) and have needed rescued.  They seem fearless and grateful to be free once again.



Onwards with the week……….