recent finishes

Ruffley Dresses for the girls



a quilt that has been sandwiched and waiting for at least 5 months
Front

Back

Just need to finish hand sewing the binding.  Used a multicolored thread with red, blue, green, dark brown and taupe. 

happy quilting has a new sponsor and a giveaway!!

 I love looking at Quilting Blogs.  They are so addictive:)  You can get lots of ideas for ways to use the most beautiful fabrics.  One of the newer (to me) blogs that I 've  come across is Happy Quilting.  This blogger has tutorials for some of the quilts she's made and for some other things too.  You should check it out.  Why . . . you might ask.  Because  . . . . . Melissa  from Happy Quilting  is having a giveaway.   As an introduction  for becoming one of her new sponsors,the Fat Quarter Shop is going to give  one of her readers a FQ bundle of  Patricia Bravo's Natures Elements.

Go on over to her blog and check out the giveaway details and all the other neat things she has.

newest neal

I went to Texas  to see my newest grandson William Tullus Neal.   He is precious (just like the rest) and a very sweet baby.  You have to be sweet when you are number five!!  Everyone is doing a great job of adjusting to a new sibling.  Mom and Dad are doing great too. 
We had a very enjoyable time.  Read some stories, played some cards, shot some baskets, visited a farm to get some fresh milk, watched a couple of family friendly movies and stayed out of the heat as much as possible.
As usual I took several pictures a time or two and none the rest of the time.  (apologies to “B” for not snapping any shots of her).  Here is a sampling.
Happy grams – thank you Stacey for always letting me hold the baby whenever I want Hope I didn’t spoil him too much.

 
My new BFF  Charley Kate.  Don’t you just love her oversized shoes!



He’s smiling just like his daddy here.

Jack was holding the rabbit that the EB left at Easter and they both dozed off.

Sister pictures

Suzannah is growing up so much.  She  pretty much does all the prep work for attaching her pod when it is time and even  puts in the numbers needed to figure how much insulin she needs.  Mom or Dad still double check but it amazes me how she can do all that stuff.

vail gets a peasant dress

I finally finished Vail’s peasant dress and it turned out really cute.  I used the Portabellopixie pattern – Claire.  It’s the same pattern I used when I took the Petal Knot dress Class and made this dress. 

But this time I made this view




It’s a very loose woven cotton so I finished all the fabric edges with my serger before putting the dress together.  It was my first time to use  shirring on anything.  It was very easy and fun to do.  The directions on the pattern were not really  detailed so I looked up a couple of tutorials on the Internet to kind of fill in some details.  This pattern runs a little small.  I made the six and it fits perfectly.  Vail wears a five usually.
Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day.  I’ll be in my sewing room if anyone wants me

new bffs

These two new BFFs have taken over my house.  They are stuck to me like glue if I leave the room.   They have been playing inside and mostly I just hear the click clack of their toenails on the laminate floor --sounds like a Shirley Temple tap dance!  Gibbs seems to enjoy the company though and I do to.  This is my first try uploading a video using Vimeo.  It turned out to be really simple once I registered.




Gibbs and Jed from Vail Neal on Vimeo.

i am a winner!!

My holiday weekend is off to a great start.  I was checking my email and found out I won a giveaway.  I'm so excited.  Here's a picture of what I'll be receiving in the next few days. 

Have a nice weekend everybody. 

bushes and trees

I planted two new bushes in my backyard.  A really pretty hydrangea that Brian gave me for Mother’s day and a flowering quince that I saw at Kroger a couple of weeks ago.  They always have the prettiest potted plants sitting outside the entrance at the Kroger Market Place here in Spring Hill.

I put the Hydrangea on the north and west side of my backyard fence.  I hope the fence will help protect it a little in the winter.

The quince is just in a bare spot in the bed that runs across the back of my house.

I also planted a pot of sweet basil and a pot of rosemary.

I didn’t get a tree like I said I would last summer so I’m getting two  this year.  I found a local nursery – they actually grow most everything they sell .  They have over 500 acres so that’s a lot of growing!! Anyway, I picked out a river birch tree and a red Maple tree.  They recommended someone who would pick them up and bring them to the house and plant them for me and they did just that.

 

 

 

Now I just want them to grow fast!!

bugs–NO! worms–you betcha!

Vail and Katy helped me plant some bushes in my backyard by picking as many  worms out of the dirt as they could get their  grubby  sweet little paws  hands on. 

Sidebar:  I can’t believe how unafraid Vail is of worms but when it comes to anything with legs and/or wings, she will scream bloody murder to warn us of all sorts of imaginary impending doom. End of Sidebar

They put them in a plastic cup and then after much interesting discussion added some dirt so they would feel more at home.   We put the cup in the shade  so the worms would survive til they could show their mother when she came to get them and  “Then,” I said, “I’ll let them go again.”  To which Vail replied, “NO no, I’m going to take them to school for Show and Tell!”  Luckily, she forgot to take them but I did remember to put them back in the dirt.

new best friends

Gibbs and I went on a trip to my sister’s home in Ohio and he and Maddie became best friends.  It was great for him to have someone to wrestle and run with.

Then we went on up to PA and he and Frieda became running buddies on the farm.  They ran around the house, down to the pond, out into the woods and into the back field.  Luckily Frieda is good about coming back and Gibbs was having so much fun with her that he came back with her.  I didn’t get pictures of them outside but they played a little inside too.

My niece is getting married in July and they had a family shower for her so that was a good excuse to go visit my mom and relax on the farm for a few days.  We’ll head back up for another visit in July for the wedding.