Hello and welcome! This is my latest UFO that’s now becoming a WIP. I made most of the house blocks in the mid-1990s. 😳 Unfortunately, years later, when I pulled it out again to finish it, I discovered that I had gotten rid of the quilt book (remember Georgia Bonesteel “Lap Quilting” books?) where the pattern for the templates were. 🙄Back into storage it went. So fast forward YEARS to just a few months ago, when I decided to finally tackle it and the complications I myself had created. I drafted the template patterns from a finished block, and created a paper-pieced section for the roof and sky/chimney sections and made a few more blocks to round out the quilt layout. How I should proceed with the setting of the blocks ‘stumped’ me until I came across this tree fabric in my stash, that I cut at widths, 2”, 1.75”, 1.5”, and 1.25”.
Now, I’m beginning to baste leaves on the trees, to be hand appliquéd whilst sitting on my porch this summer to help boost the presence of the trees. So, color me ‘whimsically optimistic’ about the direction “Housing Development” or “Take Me To Funky Town” is taking me. 🥰
Thank you for stopping by! Remember…you are loved!
Though snow has been predicted for the first weekend of May, for the most part it feels like Spring has arrived. I caught this robin enjoying the sun as I arrived home from a morning walk…
Walks sometimes take me north to a conference center where the grounds are open to the public. That’s where I had the pleasure of being serenaded by this mocking bird. He was proficient in many languages!
Back at home, our garden has also been a busy place where blue jays and the chipmunks, roused from their winter slumber, can still find a peanut or two. This white-capped sparrow was feeling a little ‘hoppy’ this particular day when temps finally climbed into the high 60s.
April walks seemed awash in yellow.
…the perfect color to lend a sunny backdrop to new life in its various stages.
We added a shade garden last fall and the new sprouts and blooms are coming along with raindrop reflections, an added delight.
I invited myself to a friend’s garden, waiting for the tulips to be perfectly in bloom. I wasn’t disappointed.
and my neighbor’s Magnolia tree begged me to ask permission to take photos of it…which I did. How can I say no to a Magnolia tree?
The signs were evident everyday that the summer season would be here soon. These barges are seen frequently on the lake at this time of year. This particular day one was getting a raft perfectly placed for days to come of some summer fun.
Here a dinghy appears, the next day to be replaced by a sailboat. And boats were added to the moorings at the yacht club daily…
This was a ‘small-world’ moment seeing this sign on a truck all the way from our former ‘backyard’, as I walked along the lake road one morning. I chatted briefly with one of the workers, a young man who graduated from Glens Falls High.
Sewing projects kept me busy and included sewing some pillow shams, leaving very little leftovers, but enough to cover some buttons. The button cover kit was an oldie – probably from the 1960s or 70s. Too many pillows? Nah! I also took out a cheaply made wooden panel insert from my $5.00 garage-sale cupboard and made a curtain for it, and the little chair finally got a chair seat – woven from a few yards of homespun I had leftover from a quilt project.
I tried my hand at making some fabric moths for something different, but gave up on trying to make wire feet for my crows, instead opting for my hot-glue gun. The spools were two that I recently emptied and the sphagnum moss was a handy leftover from a previous project. I may give them some scarves to wear at some point, or a bell on a ribbon. They need SOMETHING to crow about!
Later this month, whilst at the lake to watch the moon rise, I came across what we have determined to be turkey feathers. After asking the landowners if I could have them, I brought one wing home, plucked the feathers and let them soak in our bathroom sink. I wore rubber gloves throughout the whole process, and bleached the sink when I was done. Have you ever dried turkey feathers with a hair dryer? Well, now I can say I have. And funny thing, they smelled like turkey! My idea is to make a display for them, and came up with something that may work. I have some tweaking to do, but I was generally happy with the overall idea.
My creation is holding a flower now, but one like this fabric ‘wall pocket’ may be holding turkey feathers in the future.
The night I found the turkey feathers was the night we were to witness a super moon in pink. Maybe orange is the new pink, but, in this photo the pink moon looks like an orange moon. I can see improvements in my photography skills, but the moments at the lake were far more satisfying. They always are… I love that spot.
On the home front, during the time we’ve waited to hear back from house painters with their estimates, we’ve been dealing with this red squirrel who likes to steal the stuffing from our settie for its nest. GRRRR!!! We caught it once (along with a gray squirrel) but ‘little red’ escaped. Since then we improved the trap’s capabilities, but haven’t yet been successful. Plans are to relocate it at the Ontario County Park – several miles away. We have had a few laughs about the whole situation but laughed most about what might have happened if the squirrel escaped the trap while in the car enroute to its new home…😬
Our 3.5 YO grand had a couple of firsts this month…he learned to ride a pedal bike and he had his first visit to a dentist. The highlight from his visit to the dentist was the fish tank in the office. I’ll apologize for the blurry photo on the bike. It was taken from the video we received of the momentous occasion. He laughed with excitement and glee after he realized his papa had let go of the bicycle. I wish you all could hear him! Life feels so normal when you hear a child laugh.
And Lou the puppy is doing well. Mama took this photo while ‘teething-Lou’ chewed on a carrot. These two are becoming fast friends!
I know I’ve mentioned this before, but May 1st is nearly upon us, which means that this will be my last Facebook post. If you’d like to stay in touch you can sign up to follow me. Here’s a screen shot of what you’ll need to do if you’d like to receive an email each time I post a blog. The other option is to bookmark my WordPress site. I think that may work as well.
not to dine out in these troubled times is dining in. Tonight’s dinner featured scallops on a bed of radicchio, kalamata olives, sugar snap peas, and oven roasted fingerling potatoes. Though it’s risky, a Pinterest recipe was my go-to. No disappointments here! Mom would have said that we’re eating ‘high on the hog’. Skip the hog – we’ll do it with seafood.
but I’m taking full advantage of these cooler summer days to quilt this little Christmas tree skirt I pieced from remnants of long ago sewing projects. Among the once worn dresses, shirts, skirts, ‘Hammer’ pants, and cotton pjs, “Mario” made ‘the cut’ too!
What does one do when one wants to make breakfast muffins but used her last egg in an omelet the night before? Before heading to the grocery store, she checks out ‘vegan’ muffin recipes on Pinterest! I modified the recipe somewhat and used my delicious Frere Family black raspberries, instead of blueberries. A smidge of streusel topping (made up my own) and this beautiful day is starting off with some yummy muffin goodness.
What a winding path this newest song has taken me on…and now that the song is finished, while the thoughts are fresh in my word-filled-brain, and it’s quiet at the camp, maybe now is a good time for me to contemplate the journey.
It’s always a relief to finish a project…but chances are that tomorrow I’ll be moping about because I’ll think that I’ll never write another thing. Truth is, I never do know when I will and I’m done anticipating when the inspiration will come and where God will take me, because who can know the mind of the Lord? But I began writing this song knowing that I need a Deliverer. We all do. And He’s so much more than capable no matter the mess we’ve made of our lives.
The fact that I was stuck for several days trying to resolve some text issues, really brought the reality of needing a Deliverer home. It was ONE phrase…one I kept trying to make work. I have the scribbles on scrap paper to prove it! I kept waiting for that just-right spark of inspiration, while trying to work it out for myself. I’m never happy with how that works out, but, silly me, I keep trying.
Then, at the Spirit’s urging I REMOVED the ‘offending’ phrase from the text. NO!!! I felt GUTTED!But it wasn’t until I removed that one sentence, that the process that had once been freely flowing, was finally free to flow again. (I like illteration – did you catch that?)
So I asked myself these 3 questions:
Question #1: Is the process I just went through an analogy for my life?
Question #2 Is there something ‘good’ that is getting in the way of God’s best?
Question #3 How can I avoid falling into a similar trap in the future? I’ll only take the time to answer question #3…I’m not sure on this side of Heaven that it’s always possible, but this long-awaited phrase that the Holy Spirit just hours ago gave me to complete the chorus, sure does seem extra-relevant to me in the of light of my struggle these past few days…
What a winding path this newest song has taken me on…and now that the song is finished, while the thoughts are fresh in my word-filled-brain, and it’s quiet at the camp, maybe now is a good time for me to contemplate the journey.
Musings, Moments, Memories, and More 