Carol's Corner

I haven't been doing much sewing lately but Carol has so I thought I would feature her occasionally on a blog post.  This way, our friend Sandra gets to see what she is up to and I can share her lovely quilts.

Carol's Exbury Azalea is blooming!

You already saw her pink quilt that she is donating to the bloodbank's fundraiser on yesterday's post.

Today I'd like to show you her sudoku quilt that she finished this past week!

Terri Trotter machine quilted with a neat asian style graphic pantograph.

Carol often leaves the quilt she is binding here and then works on them in the evening while we all watch tv together.  Here's a sneak peak at what she is working on now:

We have rain again today.

Good thing the royal wedding is on tv!

Have a lovely day!

I like Thursday: May 17, 2018

Greetings and welcome to another day of "I Like Thursday" hosted by LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color.  This week must be the pink edition; I noticed the theme after I did the post!

This week I love

My son Peter who brought me a Martha Washington geranium and took me out to lunch for Mother's Day!

I love spending time with him!

and I like

Pink Pathways:

Tree Peonies:

We had a bumper crop of blooms this year which is a bit unfortunate as it has rained so much and the flowers are looking a bit soggy.

Rain chains are good too!

I finally got one for the downspout where we once collected rainwater for the garden. It works well!

I love this quilt that Carol completed yesterday.  Carol has really good blood and has donated something like 100 gallons of platelettes to the blood bank.  She is donating this quilt to the blood bank for an auction/fund raiser they are doing.  Isn't it absolutely perfect?

And finally, I like being able to plant the annuals.  Around here Mother's Day is the traditional time the frost is over.

This year I planted pink impatiens, begonias and petunias!

Have a wonderful and safe week!

Happy Mother's Day 2018

Have a safe and happy day with those you love!

Garden Time

I spent yesterday in the garden.  It was a glorious day and not too hot and not too cool.  I still have so much more to do but the wonderful thing about a garden is it is never finished.

Teddy in 2012 in the upper bed of the yard. 

Eventually I moved the center bed and expanded the borders on the side.

My husband and I are never afraid to experiment in the garden.  Years ago we had to replace our much damaged sod with gravel.  When Teddy and Seamus were alive and puppies, they were just too rough on the grass and the yard was always mud.

June 2016, Seamus was ill with hepatitis and I let some weeds invade the gravel and added stepping stones; Seamus didn't like walking on the gravel at that point.

I've been missing grass in the upper bed for some time.  I like GREEN and I like having a place to rest one's eyes.  The problem was that I didn't want to have mow up there or have other people mow in there.

This year, I'm experimenting with Irish moss.  I'm hoping it will take over the area and provide me with the much yearned for green.  The moss isn't toxic to dogs and will not need to be mowed.  Yesterday I removed a trench of soil and gravel and planted the moss.  I also moved half the stepping stones and built a path through the lower garden.

I'm hoping the gaps between the stones will be filled in with sedum and forget me nots.

The moss is being protected by a set of outdoor chairs.

We don't want a naughty puppy digging things up!

My husband doesn't do any of the gardening but he is supportive of my endeavours.  He is excited to see if the moss will spread and is excited to see how our experiment does.

Today Scout and I are getting much needed rain and rest.

My son will be visiting later on and I'll be glad to spend some time with him.

Have a wonderful day!

I Like Thursday: May 10, 2018

Happy Thursday!  

Spring is in full bloom here and we are enjoying more outside time!

How are you doing this morning?

We've had a busy week.  Scout met a new friend, Ginger.  

She is a poodle about Scout's size!

 There was a lot of playing around.  Ginger could be a little rough.

 But Scout held her own😄

This is our special friend Carol.  Carol is my neighbor and accomplice in fabric accumulation.  

She has had a special relationships with all my dogs and especially Scout.  Carol babysits Scout these days while I am out lecturing.  On Tuesday, Carol was binding a quilt while hanging with Scout.  Typical poodle, Scout made herself comfortable on what she considered was a new bed:

I had two bookings for my sunbonnet program this season.  The program is one of my most popular and keeps the audience engaged and laughing.  Anyway,  it got me in the mood to embroider.  It also doesn't hurt that my shoulder is doing better in this warm weather.  No matter how many years I do a program, I'm always adding or tweeking it.  I like this piece.  It's a wallhanging I call it Swing into Spring!  

The border fabric is an old Hoffman fabric (no name on the selvage) but I love it.  I can't even begin to count all the projects I've used that fabric.

It's beautiful outside right now but we are expecting a rainy weekend.  I need to get into the garden while I can.  Have a wonderful day!

Link up to LeeAnna for more positive posts!

Finished and handed in

Camp Erin quilts were turned into my guild last week.  

 Terri Trotter did the machine quilting.  Look at the magnifying glass pattern she used for the I-spy quilt!

 These were fun!  I have a second I-spy to take to Terri that I'll donate to the local children's cancer center.

I like Thursday: May 3, 2018

Greetings and I hope you are having a wonderful spring!  Today is the neighborhood edition of Leeanna's "I like Thursday" posts.  You can read more posts and get more good energy by visiting LeeAnna here.

We've been doing a lot of walking and while we were disconnected, I took a lot of photos to show why I like my neighborhood.  I didn't really want to move her 21 years ago; my husband said this was always his dream home so here we are and I've learned to love my little community.

I love the interesting architectural features of the homes here.  Many of the older homes were built in the early 1900s:

Below: This is the place we refer to as the "castle" .  This is a view from the alley.  It has an interesting turret out front and we featured in an antique postcard:

The castle is the photographed in the center of the postcard.  It is now apartments and the tenants love the old architecture of the building.  Do you know what else is neat?  It has a courtyard in the center of the building, accessible only to the residents.

We may be a small city but we have something for everyone here.  

Mysterious grass alleys of yesteryear:

Do you have grass alleys where you live?

Parks!

Even some wooded areas to explore!

Best of all, we have great people living here!  We love our neighbors and many have become family! 

 No morning walk would be complete without Scout directing us to her "Nanny and Pap's" home!  And of course our friend Carol is a second Mom to Scout!  This is Nanny with her baby:

Many of our locals are quirky--and we like that.  Artists, antique dealers and people with an interesting perspective:

It's hot now, spring just bypassed us somehow so we are getting up early to do walking.  We just never know what we may find when we explore a "new to us" alley or street.  Like this beauty we found about a week ago.  Isn't it a lovely backyard?  It reminds me of Italy...

What's it like where you live?

Have a wonderful week!