Quilty and gardening weekend

It was a beautiful weekend - sunny, warm, too pretty to stay indoors!  Hubby and I worked on the veggie garden - he brought home a pickup load of compost and we filled the raised beds.  Then we went to a friend's house and bought lots of bedding plants - tomatoes, peppers, herbs, squash, and kale.  It is all planted and I still have room for more!  This week we will tackle the flower beds.

I also worked on a quilt I still have on the frame, and organized the studio some more.  We got my new design boards up and I am pleased with how they look.

If you get a chance go over to KoolBeenz for the Moda Jelly Roll Give-away! 
The fabric is luscious - I can think of several quilts I could use it in! 

Hope everyone has a great week!

Progress - finally

It has been a busy, stressful few weeks, and I have had little time to go to my studio and play!  But, I have finally gotten to do that.  This week, my hubby and I both had some kind of bug, and we both stayed home from work on Monday, and part of Tuesday.  Today, I went to the office, but came home at lunch and slept all afternoon.  I really feel much better tonight! 

I am quilting a really pretty quilt for a friend and made some progress tonight.  It is a queen size quilt top, and is going to take longer than I thought it would.  I am quilting it freehand using one of Dawn Ramirez 's (the Pajama Quilter!) designs.  She made it look so easy in her video, and I used it in my Mystery Quilt on the piano key border.  It is fun and very forgiving. 

It should be finished by this weekend. 

I'm also working on a Raggedy Ann and Andy redwork quilt designed by Kaaren Johnston of The Painted Quilt blog.  It is so cute, and is a great stash buster quilt!  The first block is finished and I have block 2 and 3 in progress.  It will make a really cute baby quilt! 

Spring came for a few days, and then cold and wet weather hit again - that could explain my hubby's and my nasty bugs.  But it is supposed to be beautiful this weekend, so I can get out and finish planting the garden.  Hubby cleaned out all the raised beds for me last week, so I have no excuses left!  I'll post pics when I get it all planted!  Any suggestions on what I should plant this year!?

Spring is almost here!

I love Spring!  The flowers, trees, warm weather, - everything!  The trees around our house are blooming now, with little green leaves showing up, too.  I found asparagus coming up in my garden, and the chickens are once again laying well.  I just need another hour or two of daylight every day to get the garden ready for planting, and all will be right with the world! 

The playhouse is almost finished (finally)!  All we need to do is to caulk and paint, and then let the grandkids move in!  Their great aunt Patti has sent them a doormat (a cute frog!), a doorbell, and some battery operated lamps!  I'm sure we'll be doing some serious decorating soon.

UFO's

I noticed that I'm supposed to finish UFO #4 this month - oh, dear, that is my "Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll" - and I'm having a really slow start on it.  If I work on nothing else, I might get it halfway done this month, but there are still a lot of things I need to finish first - like the three quilts in line to be quilted for others!

I finished the binding on my Mystery Quilt - which I will call "Procrastination"  because I put off finishing it for so long.  It will hang on the wall overlooking the entry to our home - replacing a quilt that has been there for over ten years, and could use a good washing  and retirement on someone's bed!

Texas weather - gotta love it.  This past week it was beautiful!  Today, cold and windy.  I guess Spring is not quite here yet.  I had planned on cleaning out the garden today, but it is a bit chilly! No - make that cold.  My dear hubby said he would begin clearing out some of the weeds, but he got sidetracked trying to put up trim in the playhouse.  There is always tomorrow.

Beautiful weather!

We have a saying here in Texas - if you don't like the weather, just wait a week!  Last week we had ice and snow and very cold weather, and this week it has been wonderful.  It should hit a high of 78 degrees today - a little cloudy and breezy, but I am without the coat and scarf and am loving it! 
I haven't quilted much in the past few days - I've been busy at the office and have had meetings or volunteer stuff in the evenings and by the time I get home, feed hubby (not to mention gather eggs, feed chickens and dog) I'm pooped and ready for bed. 
I've almost finished quilting my country mystery quilt - it has been fun.  I am doing SID on the pieced blocks, and trying out some new fill patterns on the applique blocks.  It is taking a lot of time, but it has been rewarding.  I am still learning so much each time I use my Gammill.
While surfing the web the other night, I came upon a blog by Arlette called Polka Dot Pineapple.  She had a tutorial for the cutest pin cushion - I went right upstairs and made one.  I'll post a pic of mine later, but for now here is a link to her blog:  http://mousechirpy-polkadotpineapple.blogspot.com/ - she has several very cute projects and lots of tutorials.  Love it!! 
That's all for now - have a great day!  Enjoy this weather!

Jackie

Catching up

It's been a while since I've blogged - so much has happened!  Family wise - I spent 10 days in the Northwest with my oldest daughter and her family while she had surgery, so I was totally out of the loop for awhile.  I did take some knitting and crochet with me, and got some done, but have no finishes to show!  (More UFO's!)

I got back home last weekend and am slowly digging out and catching up on work.  We are home today because of icy, snowy weather here in North Texas.  Sunday it was beautiful here - sunny, warm - almost balmy - but last night winter returned with a vengeance.  My poor dog doesn't even want to poke his nose outside.  The roads are icy, so we stayed home.  I brought work home with me, so I'll tackle that this afternoon.

I'm almost finished with the January UFO challenge quilt - it is on the long arm machine right now and I'm slowly finishing it.  I have the binding on the little table runner and I really do like it.

The weatherman said it was only going to get colder tonight and tomorrow, so I plan on another day at home - I might even finish quilting my Mystery Quilt.  I promise that I'll blog more often this month!

2011 UFO Challenge

I am attempting Patchwork Penguin's 2011 UFO Challenge, and the number she chose for January is #3.  On my list that is the Country Mystery Quilt - and I am ready!  It is all pieced and ready to quilt.  I was going to go to buy the backing today, but when I retrieved the top from the closet, the backing was folded and hanging with it. I realized that I had already purchased the fabric, so I am ready to quilt it.  Yeah!!!  This month should be easy to complete, which is good because I'm way behind on Quiltville's Roll Roll Cotton Boll!  More time for that!.