A new thing is a good thing

Three things to be happy about:
(1) Fresh flowers on your table
(2) a hot cup of coffee
(3) a good movie

Sometimes I like to try new things, especially if I think it's good for me.

At the Giant I saw this "thick and rough" oatmeal by Silver Palate - whole grain milled oats, double toasted in granola ovens, richer flavor, rougher texture, yadda yadda yadda.

I figured if that couldn't do it, it can't be done!  So... why not give it a try?

Well ... when I prepared it according to the directions, it certainly was thick - and DRY!  It was like eating ground up cardboard.

Moving right along.

Lately I haven't been able to wrap my mind totally around quilting, even though I love it, isn't that strange?

The house quilt I'm working on keeps fighting me, even after I picked it all up and laid it back down.


Then I had an "ah-hah!" moment - why not lay out just the black part, get it flowing the way I want it, then lay out the white (or bottom) part.

Here we go, I think I have the darker half the way it should be, trying to balance the placement of the white houses.

I'm working without a pattern, so that's one reason I'm having these challenges.  But the important thing is now I have it at a point where I can go forward without a lot of drama.

Gotta go - time for breffus!  I think the second house from the right could move down just a wee bit though ... sew forth and sew on

Spring, finally!

Three things to be happy about:
(1) new plants
(2) settling in
(3) clean windows

Mine are dirty ... nuff said!

Yesterday was a wonderful day to go plant shopping.

It feels like we're finally moving into summer - uh, spring - uh, summer!

The Home Depot always has a large selection of plants, and plenty of them! 

The sun was out (kinda hot, actually!), there was a gentle breeze, and all the colorful plants just made me happy!

I picked up some coleus, vinca vines and petunias for the planters on my front porch.

On another note, I made more of the little black and white houses I started a couple weeks ago.

I know the layout I want to do, but for some reason it's just not working out.  I need to just pick everything up and lay out the background fabric, then place the house blocks where they belong. 

I have about 18 blocks pieced - that's enough to make a throw sized quilt.

And that gives me a great opportunity to use some of this pretty black-on-white fabric.  I think I bought it last October on the Lancaster trip, and I've been wanting to cut into it.

Birds, pine cones, holly, snowflakes - what's not to love!


That's it for now, have a great Thursday, sew forth and sew on ...

Quilt show and other goodies

Three things to be happy about:
(1) a rocking chair
(2) new non-designer sneakers
(3) an empty bird nest

I'm glad about the empty nest because I found one under my porch awning, and I couldn't have brought myself to destroy it if there had been eggs in it.

Felicia and I went to the Faithful Circle quilt show early last month, here are just a few pics:

Cute spiky stripes ...

... and a 3-D setting

Challenge: use the fabric and alphabet drawn from a bag

Birds!

What would a quilt show be without at least one Baltimore album style quilt?

and another one!  This one looks Celtic somehow

This one was for me - I love houses!

t-shirts ...

 and tuffets!

There was an entire section dedicated to Quiltville quilts ...

these are just a few - do you recognize them??

We ended the day with a trip to the Amish market, such temptation!

but I only yielded to a package of molasses cookies and half a loaf of sweet potato bread. 

That's it for now, it's a nice day to get out and do stuff.  Sew for and sew on til later!