24 posts tagged “weather”

Small homespun quilt

Here's the picture that was supposed to be in last night's post.  Right before I went to bed last night, I took out some of the dark colors and added more red and blue. 

I was banned from the computer today because my hubby was waiting for a phone call!  So I made two table runners with the squares I took out of this quilt last night.  I wanted to try a couple of different ideas to see which I liked best. 

We did get an inch of much needed rain last night.  Yeah!  I won't have to water anything tonight.  And it has been much cooler.  I do need to refill my hummingbird feeders.  I bought another one the last time I went shopping because I couldn't keep the other two full.  It looks like a busy airport out there!

Navy blue and off-white table runner

Here's my first sample of one of my ideas.  This one is made with a navy blue and tan check homespun and an off-white solid on top, off-white flannel on the back, and batting in the middle.  The border is off-white flannel.  This is the way I usually make my runners, except I use muslin for the backing and border. 

Dark olive green and off-white table runner

And here is my experiment.  This one has a dark olive green homespun check and off-white top, an off-white flannel back, and an off-white muslin piece of the same size in the middle, with a muslin border. 

What do you think?  It is for the small homespun quilt that will be about 40 inches square when it is finished. 

I will list both of the table runners on Etsy, so you can go there if you want to see more pictures. 

Moda Friends and Flowers

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Here's the second table runner that I have finished using the Moda Friends and Flowers collection designed by Mary Engelbreit.  The first one was red and yellow.  This one is blue and green.  I tried to post it this morning but couldn't get the picture to load.  It is listed on Etsy. 

I received notification that a couple more of my photographs have been accepted by iStockphoto.  I've been trying all week to get some more loaded, but couldn't make it work out.  Did manage to get one of the daylillies loaded today. 

We had a couple of brief thunderstorms move through this afternoon.  Ended up with 3/4 inch of rain.  The second one came with a lot of wind.  A lot of my vines in the garden got blown around, and three of my nice, big nasturtiums broke off right at the ground.  The second corn patch got blown over, but it should straighten up by itself. 

Fresh picked green beans

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I seem to be on a bit of a tangent!  Here is a bunch of just picked green beans.  We have been enjoying fresh green beans and beets from the garden for a week or so now.  That is the best part about living in the country and not working in the summer time! 

Red bowl with green beans

Here's the green beans ready to pop in the boiling water.  I love the way you can tell that the bowl is red from the way it shows through the glass

The wedding yesterday was very nice.  It was one of my youngest daughter's classmates, so I got to see a lot of people that I've sort of lost touch with. 

We are having a Seattle day here in the midwest weather-wise.  It is cool, rainy, and windy.  I did go out and work in the garden - pulling beets, picking beans, tying up tomatoes, and hoeing.  It is a full time job trying to stay ahead of the weeds and the grass that wants to grow where I don't want it to.  I put the beets on to cook when I came up to the computer, so I'd best be checking on them.  Later!

Img_5642 - iris in the country

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Can you bear one more picture of iris?  These are out by our mailbox.  I like the way they are back-lit by the sun. 

It was an absolutely perfect day today.  Started out a bit chilly, but by noon it was sunny and warm.  Lovely!

Got everything taken care of today and was back home by 6:30.  Fixed a frozen pizza for supper and ate quickly so I wouldn't miss much of my favorite show.  I can't explain why, but I love "So You Think You Can Dance".  Maybe it's because I can't dance!  Although, I think I could do at least as well as a few of the ones that they showed tonight.  I hate to miss one single minute of the show. 

A lot of my neighbors posted on Vox today, and I don't have time to make comments to everyone that I would like to.  It is past my bedtime, and I still have a couple of things to look up.  Sorry if I missed you.  I love reading about what everyone is up to. 

Close up of light pink iris

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Here's one of my favorite close up shots of the iris I brought  in on Sunday.  It was taken with the lights in the room turned on and backlighting the iris.  The flash was turned off. 

We were bumming around all day yesterday.  It started off rather cool but warmed up nicely.  It was after 7:00 pm when we got home and we still had to eat, so I didn't do much after that.

The sun was shining at 6:00 this morning, but the clouds quickly took over and it was raining by noon.  Didn't last too long or amount to much.  Hubby was able to mow grass late this afternoon. 

I had to go over my menus and lists for camp for the last time and place my orders for bread, fresh produce, and dairy products.  Also had several phone calls to make and a couple of loads of laundry to finish.  This morning I went to the funeral of a friend's mother, and ran some other errands. This afternoon I made bean soup (from scratch) and marshmallow krispies.  I had a ham bone that was just begging for a pot of beans.  I usually use navy beans, but hubby had done the shopping last week while I was getting my tooth filled, and he brought home great northern beans.  The soup turned out great.  It was a perfect day for something nice and warm.  It was only in the 50s. 

I have to hit the road early in the morning.  I have to be in the city for a doctor's appointment by 9:15.  Then I'm off to the site of the camp I'm going to next week to unload my first truck of groceries.  It may be late before I get back home.  I'm sure I will be tuckered out! 

Thursday it's time to pack and finish cooking for hubby, etc.  He can fend for himself pretty well, but he doesn't do very much cooking.  Then on Friday I'm leaving to spend a week at camp.  It is in a rather remote area; there is one telephone, but no televisions or computers.  My cell phone doesn't work there either.  I will try to take pictures to share with everyone when I get home. 

Vase of iris

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We were under a severe thunderstorm warning this evening, so I went out and cut a vase full of iris since I was afraid that they were going to get blown away.  Then I just had to take pictures of them!  This one was taken with the lights in the room on with the flash turned off.  You can tell that some of them are huge. 

We escaped the worst of the storm.  We did get some rain, and a little bit of wind, but I think we were lucky.  There is another line of storms coming through later tonight.  Hope we can luck out again.  We have spent a lot of time today watching the weather channel. 

Papa with his twins

Here's a picture of "Papa" with his one year old twins.  Their birthday was April 26th.  We went to their house yesterday for their birthday party.  We also celebrated their big brother's birthday; he will be three next Sunday.  It was rather cool, but most of the kids went outside to play.  The babies wanted to go out, too, but we kept them  entertained in the house.  They are wearing outfits that their other grandma made for them.  Very cute!

White picket fence

Here's the white picket fence that we all have been working on for a couple of weeks now.  It really looks nice, and it is nice to know that the little kids can go out to play and will stay in the yard.  The landscaping is the next big project.  They were working on the gates today.  They want a small walk thru gate on each side of the house, plus a large gate that you can drive thru on the garage side. 

It has been beautiful here today.  I went out and hoed my radishes again.  There is a little bit of spinach coming out, but very little.  No sign of the beans or beets.  I used old seed, so may have to replant. 

We had frost again this morning.  It was 34 degrees when I got up.  I took a chance and didn't bring my plants in last night.  It looks like they all survived. 

I added a border to the yellow and white baby blanket this afternoon.  It didn't look quite finished.  I took some more pictures, so now I need to edit my Etsy listing. 

I started loading some of my pictures from yesterday up to Snapfish, but it takes 6 minutes for each picture to load.  Wish my computer was faster!  Guess I should be thankful to have a computer at all. 

It was cool this morning, and a bit windy, but not bad.  We lucked out again yesterday - no bad storms.  We did get some more rain, and the biggest hail I've seen in a long time, but it didn't last long.  The strangest thing was the two barn swallows who came up during the hail and were hanging onto the screens on our porch.  My camera was too far away for me to get a picture. 

Went to do some shopping this morning.  Stopped by our sons house to wish his twins a happy first birthday, but they were taking a nap, so we took his almost 3 year old shopping with us.  He was very good; we had to stop six different places.  At Wal-Mart, he sat on the bench at the front of the store with "pa-pa".  I wanted to buy some more flannel and batting a Wal-Mart, but the fabric department lady wasn't there the first time I went by, and by the time I came back, the sub lady was swamped and upset about the whole deal, so I just put my stuff back on the shelf. 

I started working on a set of place mats yesterday that are multi-media, but I think they are going to be nice.  I strip pieced homespun onto a batting base, stitched on a backing around the edges, machine appliqued patchwork hearts, then hand quilted along the strips.  The final touch is a rag quilted "border".  I have one finished, and about half of the strips sewn down on the second one. 

I've started another project.  I like to have something up here by my computer because it is so slow.  I was cleaning off my sewing table one day and found a couple of counted cross stitch projects from who knows when, so I'm working on one of them.  I know they aren't very creative, but I like the fact that they are square and perfect!

No pictures today.  I was gone all day yesterday, so I didn't get to do any quilting.  We had to drive 45 miles so my hubby could get a blood test.  We can get the blood drawn closer to home, but our insurance won't cover it.  We did that yesterday morning, then we stopped by our son's house so hubby could help with the fence.  Our youngest son was there with his son, too.   I went on in to town and did some shopping for groceries then went back to son's house.  Helped with the babies until they took their naps, then I took the two older boys, ages 2 and almost 3, outside.  It was cloudy, damp, and windy, and I didn't put on my jacket, so I almost froze!  I pushed them on the swings until the 2 year old fell asleep.  Then we all went back inside.  The boys took their naps, and I took mine, too!  By the time we got home and ate pizza, I was too tired to do anything. 

It is much nicer outside today.  The sun is shining and it is supposed to get pretty warm.  It rained all afternoon on Friday, so don't know if I will be able to do any work in the flower beds or not.  Our red bud trees aren't quite bloomed out yet.  The wild plums in the woods are looking very nice.  We saw a couple of fish break the surface of the lake this morning.  May have to take a walk down that way before the afternoon is over. 

Our lake looking to the north

I did some quilting on my baby lovie yesterday, but didn't get finished.  I'm setting the squares on point, and that takes me longing. 

I went out after lunch to do some more work in the flower beds, and stayed out all afternoon!  So much for taking it easy.  I got most of my iris moved that needed attention.  Still have lots of henbit, but that is almost a losing battle.  It will go away all by itself soon. 

Went down to the lake again.  This time we drove down to the dam.  It's not too far to walk, but the ground is very uneven.  It was cloudy, but I still like this picture. 

We also did some work in the garden.  I used to have three rows of strawberry plants, but with the dry weather, most of them have died.  I found about a dozen that I moved to a big tub full of dirt so hubby could run the tiller through the garden.  It looked like rain this morning, so we got up and planted some radishes.  Now it looks like the rain isn't going to get here. 

We got a little shake this morning from the earthquake.  We were either awake already or it woke us up.  It really wasn't alarming.  I went right back to sleep!

I need to make an apple pie.  I have to go work at the party tonight.  The church ladies serve lunch, and everyone is supposed to bring a dessert.  I think apples are the only thing I have to work with.  I usually take Kentucky Derby pies, but I know I don't have the stuff I need to make those.  When you live 17 miles from a grocery store, you learn to make do with what you have.  I need to go check it out.  May not get much quilting done today, either.