Creative Quilt Girl

The yard continues to delight me with the change of seasons. I’m pretty sure the tree is a crabapple tree. If you believe differently, let me know. Below are a few things that brought a smile to my face. Click the links to see big better pictures.

1. Crabapple Tree, 2. Tulip - Up close, 3. Varigated Tulips, 4. More Tulips, 5. A Neat Row of Tulips, 6. Crabapple Tree, 7. Red Tulip, 8. Tulip Garden, 9. Lots of Red Tulips

As promised, a post all about 4 tomato plants and a few herbs. Exciting stuff I tell you. OK, before I get into specifics, let me explain or try to explain why I’m so excited. A few years ago, I had a plot in a community garden. This is when I learned to really like gardening. Before hand, gardening was more of a chore. I was amazed that a little plant could grow up and become a big plant with food on it. I guess the process amazes me. So here’s a start to some good food.

Herbs:

1. Genovese Basil, 2. Italian Parsley, 3. Purple Sage, 4. Italian Parsley

Tomatoes:

1. Dagamas Perfection Tomato, 2. Cherry Roma Tomato, 3. Tigerella Tomato, 4. Speckled Siberian Tomato

OK. I know that they’re small now. However in a few months they’ll be full of ripe tomatoes.

Even though it doesn’t look like much, this photo pretty much summarizes my weekend. While I was out buying plants and run errands, Ross dug up this flower bed. Goodbye ugly yucca. Plan A: plant veggies and herbs. After spending the afternoon in the backyard, we decided that it really didn’t get enough afternoon sun. We went for Plan B. Plan:B plant part sun/shade plants. Back to the store I went. In summary flower bed contains:

1. Heuchera ‘Can Can’, 2. Honeysuckle, 3. Hosta, 4. Heuchera ‘Chocolate Veil’, 5. Myosotis Sylvantic ‘ Victoria Pink’, 6. Heuchera ‘Ruby Bells’, 7. Myosotis ‘Victoria White’, 8. Syringa Vulgaris ‘Sensation’, 9. Syringa Patual ‘Miss Kim’, 10. Aquilegia ‘Winky Blue and White’

Not the biggest variety, yet a good start. Now we need to find a trellis for the honeysuckle and taller plants to live in the back.

By the way, no sarcasm in the title. At this point in my life I actually consider gardening a joy. In August I might be singing a different tune when it’s 100 degrees outside. Until then, the fun will continue. Next post: a preview of the tomatoes and herbs.

Almost every Spring, I celebrate the sun’s arrival by buying a new pair of sunglasses. Now I wish I could justify buying an expensive designer sunglasses, but I can’t. I’m not sufficiently responsible. This goes back to the fact that I need a new pair every year. By the time Spring arrives, my sunglasses are either broken, scratched, or lost.

One of the cool things about expensive sunglasses is the special cases that they come with. Since I spend less than $20 on sunglasses, I don’t get a special case. This year I decided to do something about it. I made myself a fabric case for my glasses.

Actually this case is no longer mne. Alisa is now the proud owner of this case. This is my case:

I’m glad I made two. It gave me the opportunity to modify my original design. The second case is square. I think I like it a bit better.

Construction Details:

• Dimensions: 1st Bag - 3″x7″x2″, 2nd Bag - 2″x7″x2″
• Lined each bag with flannel to protect the lens
• Squared the bottom using the same technique in this Basket Bag tutorial
• Made the draw string casing by sewing 1/2″ from the top
• Slit the side seams for the draw string

Every now and then, it’s nice to make some useful and cute. To top it off, it only took me a couple of hours to make both cases.

Yes, I do quilt. Here’s some proof.

I made this quilt top a year ago for a friend’s new baby. The Big Move postponed the actual quilting. As you can see in the photos, I made good use of my shelf basement. It’s a perfect place to baste quilts, at least small quilts. This quilt measures 60″ x 60″ which is a little wide for the space. Regardless I made it work. Until I get a quilting machine, I think 60″ x 60″ is my size limit for machine quilting on my machine. I’ve done larger with less than satifactory results.

I’ll be able to show the finished product or at least close to finished in a couple of days. The quilting is almost done.

I blame the nice weather for all the work going on around here. It makes me feel like I can do anything. Really the work start a week ago. On a whim I suggested to Ross that we should hang the storm door that has been sitting in the garage all Winter. With out thinking too hard he took me up on the offer, and before I knew it I was at Lowes buying some screws. See the nice door:

It took less time than either one of us anticipated. Lesson learned: don’t postpone easy home improvement projects. Of course installing the door led to cleaning the porch, and planning the upcoming weekend.

So yesterday the fun continued with yard cleanup. I really have to credit Ross with most of this effort. While I was out enjoying myself, he was home raking the lawn and cutting up stray tree branches. In the backyard, we decided to rid ourselves of this cedar tree.

And replace it with this lilac bush. Don’t let its small size deceive you. If this bush actually lives and flourishes, it will more than take over this site.

Time to move on to the front yard. In front of our porch we have 2 flower beds. When we bought the house they contained a few plants that all died over the winter. So much for hardy plants. Right now we are undecided on long-term plants. For the time being we planted a variety of annuals with a few perennial. There are a couple of lavender plants tucked in there. I think they got cropped from both pictures. Now we just hope that the weather cooperates. No more snow. Just rain. Ross planted this bed.

I planted this bed.

After we wrapped up the work for the day, we enjoyed dinner on our new bistro patio set.

Next Saturday, we’ll return our attention to the backyard.

Last August, I started to do the whole Encyclopedia of Me thing. I managed to write four related posts, before it all fell apart on my. I didn’t want it to fall apart. Really I had the best of intentions. I blame the falling apart on moving. Six months later, I’m ready to put everything back together again. I consider this a new beginning for the the Encyclopedia of Me. More posts to come.

Now that I’ve figured out the whole white balance thing on my camera, I’ve decided to see what else I don’t know.

The library has a ton books on Photography at the library. Based on recommendations from friends and Amazon, I’m starting with these books.

1. Complete Digital Photography
2. Photography for Dummies
3. Rick Sammon’s Complete Guide to Digital Photography
4. Understanding Exposure
5. Digital Nature Photography Closeup

Before you know it I’ll convince myself that I NEED a DSLR camera to do what I want. Then I’ll need to convince Ross that a DSLR will solve all my problems.

I consider myself a loyal Lost fan. It’s the only TV show that I follow weekly. In spite of my loyalty, I have a few complaint, in not particular order.

• New time, Thursday at 8:00 pm MT. The time and the place aren’t working for me. Last year, Wednesday at 9:00 pm MT, worked so well. OK, I can already hear the rebuttal from my brother. This wouldn’t be an issue if I had a DVR. That’s beside the point.
• Extra scenes. So when I do watch an episode at the appointed time, I’m not getting the full story. Nope! I need to watch Good Morning America or follow some other gimick to get the full espisode. If this doesn’t happen, I can catch the “enhanced” episode a week later. Now I can see why this works for ABC. They get twice the mileage from one episode. However it isn’t working for me.
• No new episodes until April 25. Now I could actually watch an episode tonight (the regular time). This would be the first time this month. I guess I’m going to have to actually work on a project. At least I’m not behind on my episodes. My saving grace? Downloading episodes on the web.

Thanks for listening to this little rant.

As Spring moves along, the yard is getting greener and greener. Picture 1 & 3 are Grape Hyacinths. They’re everywhere in our yard: flower beds, grass, and in between the sidewalk. I’ve been told that pulling them out only promotes reproduction. I don’t mind them in the flowers beds. The grass is another story. They kind of look like crab grass. Ugh!

I’ve decided that the bulbed flowers are tulips. No sign of flower buds. So, I’m patiently waiting to see the color. See picture 2.

1. Grape Hyacinths, 2. Tulips, 3. Grape Hyacinths