Went to a quilt show

This weekend was the Georgetown quilt show.  We both love this show.  It's a small show, but the quilters that enter are very talented and the quilts are beautiful!  It was very hard to select just a few to share.  This is a show in the town that Linda lived in so it was a little bittersweet.  We had lunch at one of the places we used to take her and spent a few minutes reminiscing.  It's been several years since she passed, but I still miss her and her sense of adventure, and her kindness.

This was my vote for best of show.  I don't think I"ve ever seen this block before.  It's called a Pine Burr block and it uses folded fabric squares to achieve this look.  This is a pattern I want to dig into a bit, I want to know how it's made.  

This one offered a fun optical illusion.  When you looked at it straight on, it was a nice quilt, but when I looked through the camera, the optical illusion came through.  This one I already looked up to see how it's made.

Beautiful bird appliqué.  It was so precise, I had to look close to be sure it wasn't printed on the fabric and quilted around.  

The quilting on this small quilt just blew me away.  

I am probably going to have to buy this pattern.  I love the way the colors work and would like to try that.  

And, about a hundred more beautiful pieces of fabric art.  Oh, quilting bug, please bite me again!  I want so much to get back to making beautiful quilts.  But, I keep saying later and filling my time with a hundred other things.  

When we got home from the quilt show, instead of serging and washing my new fabrics (I should be ashamed!), I made shirt alterations all afternoon.  Yesterday, we went to the grocery and hardware stores.  We picked up the window for the greenhouse.  It's much bigger than I expected and will give a nice view of the back yard from the new potting station.  After that, I got in a couple hours of yard work.  It's a little later than I'd hoped, but I was able to divide a couple things that were too big for their places and potted all that up to use or give away later.  And, there was plenty of weeding to do.  Plenty!

After the quilt show, Rob and I walked through the garden to see the poppies.  

Rob suggested we take a selfie.  It might be the first selfie he's ever suggested!

Now, what kind of arsehold could be against such a cute couple being together, making a life and enjoying together time?  It certainly wasn't the people at that quilt show.  They loved us and everywhere it was smiles and asking us questions and laughing together.  

Everybody have a great week!  Enjoy time with someone you love and take every chance to tell them you love them.  

Lane

 

weekend off

Rob was feeling under the weather and it was cold and windy, so we took the weekend off from the greenhouse project and hung around inside.  It was a good weekend for soup.  I took the opportunity to get the interfacing on both our shirts, which always seems like such a chore and takes so long and then I put Rob's together.  

From the time he pulled this bolt off the shelf in JoAnn's, I knew I was going to be making a shirt out of it and it was a fun project.  I enjoyed the lures, which is not something I would associate with us, since neither of us fishes.   

The pattern I use for him is always a good fit, but I'd like to redraft the front plackets to make them easier to assemble and make the armholes a little bigger so the sleeves would lie flat.  Rob and his boss wear Hawaiian shirts on Fridays and while this one isn't Hawaiian, it will fit into the mix nicely.  

And, I made the matching pocket.  People have started to look for that.  The shirt I'm making for me is a wavy plaid and I've decided not to make a pocket because I'll never match it.  

There's still not a lot in the garden except green.  Lots and lots of green.  I really need to get out there and weed, but once that's done, I think it's going to be a good garden year.  I did get a couple pics of things that have continued to bloom.  

A nice little clump of white iris.  

And, these columbines just keep going and going.  

This amaryllis is not mine.  It belongs to a neighbor, but I'd love one of the bulbs. 

Last week at work, I had a project where I had to survey my peers about how they do a task and then give feedback to those that might not be doing it right.  And, the research was for an attorneyso I couldn't even tell them why.  So much potential for disaster.  But, I managed to pull it off and so far, it doesn't look like I've upset anyone.  I credit that to not taking a right/wrong approach.  Everything was presumed to be right, but legal recommendations might have changed, please verify with your attorney.  And, it seems to have worked.  

That's it for me today.  Everybody have a great week!  Find the beauty in the every day.  

Lane

Work, work, work

This week, all efforts were aimed at the greenhouse.  In those few minutes when I'd walk away from my desk during the week, I was spending time checking on plants that came out of the greenhouse and moving things around that weren't enjoying their places.  Things are kind of just dropped where I could find a place for them, shady plants in shady spots and vice versa.  I'm also trying to find temporary homes for all the things that live in the greenhouse, like extra pots and fertilizers and tools.  I own two of every tool, one vintage and one new, and that takes up space.  

I dragged the last of it out Saturday morning and then spent most of the rest of the weekend getting the stuff that wouldn't stand up to the weather into places where we control the weather.  I went through it all once, but I'm going to have to go through it again.  I don't want all that nonsense cluttering up the new greenhouse.  

On Sunday, I played in the garden while Rob replaced the floor.  I had some weeding to do and some thinning plants and some things that needed to be moved and when he needed me, I fetched and toted and kept us fed.  I think the floor was the part Rob was dreading the most.  Next, he's going to rebuild the end you see in the picture to replace that door with a window and add a vent fan.  Inside, the wall will be lined with shelves...and maybe a sink...wouldn't that be nice.  Then, we'll paint it to match the house and replace the roof with a tinted gray roof.  Since we cut down the tree that grew over it, it's been way too sunny and hot in there.  You can see the shade cloth I put up last year on the inside.  

Yesterday was our 23rd anniversary.  I think we both thought it was today.  Rob is calling it 23.1 because we celebrate 3 anniversaries a year.  This is the anniversary of the day we met.  The night the cowboy who wasn't really a cowboy asked a stranger in a bar if he could kiss him and I said yes.  (let's all spend two seconds feeling sorry for the guy from Dallas that was chatting me up...snooze/lose).  We've been together ever since...well, there was that silly thing about me not letting him move in until we'd dated 6 months, but that was pretty pointless since he was here all the time anyway.  

Since then, he's taken over my life, which I'd normally say was a bad thing, but it freed up my time to become a quilter and gardener and learn to cook.  We raised a kid, we've grieved, we've celebrated, we've worked shoulder to shoulder.  We've cried, we've argued and we've laughed.  

I get the chance to give relationship advice once in a while and it's always the same.  Find someone that makes you laugh.  Everything else fades over time.  But, there's always time and space to laugh.  

Everybody have a great week!  I'm going to take my man to dinner tonight.  Someplace he's never been.  And, we'll laugh.  

Find something that brings you joy and laugh your way through it.  Lane

Plants everywhere

We've had beautiful weather since Friday.  Earlier in the week, we had a lot of rain.  It amounted to a great weekend to empty the greenhouse and spend both days in the yard.  Sure my shoulders and knees ache, but it was worth it.  This was Friday, and over the weekend, it changed and the garden looks more full, plus the plants that I've moved out to their outdoor homes.  

Last week was crazy busy at work and I was like a sword fighter in a movie, taking out one foe (project) and then another.  By end of week, I had whittled my project list down to something I could face without dread.  I love crossing things off a list.  I got to spend part of it in the yard enjoying what nature is showing off.  There were more grape hyacinths.  

And, some yellow Columbine nearby.  Neither of these plants died back during the winter, even in the ice storm.  

I had lunch in the garden a couple days last week and the dogs certainly enjoyed the opportunity to smell everything and lie in the sun.  

Things are kind of a mess out there now.  While I was able to empty the greenhouse and cut off any dead growth from winter, I did not have time to do a lot of staging plants around the yard.  They're waiting in clumps, things that go here and things that go there, and some of them have to be moved while I wait for the crabapples to leaf out.  But, I can see how it's going to look when I get more time to do stuff.  

Next weekend, Rob is going to start repairs on the greenhouse.  We need a new roof.  The greenhouse is in full sun now and it gets too hot to keep plants out there.  We're going back with a grey tinted roof to cut down on some of that.  And, it needs a new vent and I think he's going to give me a window and some new shelves and a new floor.  And, we're going to paint it grey, like the house.  Right now, it's yellow like the house used to be.  I'll be holding the ends of boards and taking orders in the beginning, but when we get to the paint part, I'll be able to be more help.  

In my quest to learn to grow orchids, I've expanded to include a Dendrobium orchid.  We'll have to see how that goes.  So far, it's working out great!  The plant was in remarkably good shape for half off and it seems to be enjoying being with us.  

Everybody have a great week!  Stop and smell the roses and give yourself a break.  Life is hard now and it's not going to get any better until we find a way to speak in one voice and say ENOUGH!  I have confidence it's coming soon or I would not be able to get out of bed in the mornings.

Lane