Wordless Wednesday

Something Different

I think it's time I took a break from showing you the fruit and vege quilt and do something completely different.

I am making something from the following objects - a foam ring, strips of brown fabric, and two circles. Any ideas?!

Pears done

Yep the pears are all done, and I think I want to reach out, grab one, and take a big sweet juicy bite!

They were so simple, just two pattern pieces - the pear and the stem, but I love them. I need to remind myself that sometimes simplicity talks louder than complexity. And not just in quilting!

Did all you US folk have a good Memorial day? Ours was pretty low key - it involved grocery shopping and our first BBQ/eating outside of the year. And it was hot. As in over 90 degrees hot. Blech. I'll look on the bright side - at least I'm not shoveling snow, right?!

I also Skyped with my parents in New Zealand.
This is my Dad, and how he appears in this photo is his exact personality in real life...

And my Mum at a beautiful beach in NZ with my middle boy back in 2004...

And also a photo of myself with them circa 1980? (YOU do the math!)

They had somehow lost Skype on their computer (they're 77 now and lose things easily hehe!) and so we hadn't talked for over a month. I got an email from my Dad last night saying they needed my phone number and to Skype as it was urgent. Scared me to death wondering what was wrong! Turns out they just missed me and wanted to make sure everything was OK! Gotta love parents :)

Seen-It Sunday

Sundays are crazy busy for me. Some days I am at various church meetings from 9am 'till 2pm, and when I get home I just want to do a whole lot of nothing. So much for being a day of rest! But it's invigorating and highly rewarding so being busy in this case is definitely a good thing :) As a result of my crazy Sunday schedule, I've decided to start a new thing, "Seen-It Sundays" where instead of entertaining you, I let other bloggers entertain you, by linking you to things that have piqued my interest during the week.

This week three things come to mind.

Firstly, if you hadn't heard, Quilt Market was held in Salt Lake City a couple of weeks ago, and there have been many reports about it from quilt bloggers. One that I really enjoyed was by Kathy Mack at Pink Chalk Studio. What I enjoy about her report is that she lists the quilting trends she noticed. Go read it and find out what is trending in quilting now!

Secondly, Chavah Kinloch of Creating My Reality made a fantastic light shade for her daughter's room. She used fabric to wrap around a wire frame to create something totally unique. And best of all it cost her a maximum of $1!

As quilters, we have a lot of fabric lying around. This would be a great thing to do to use up older fabrics that we perhaps aren't as enchanted with anymore!

And thirdly, my dear friend Brenda of Pumpkin Patch Primitives wrote a wonderful post about her frustration with the attitudes shown towards her teenage son who has autism.

I think it's a fascinating must-read for everyone, and even if we think we're doing the right things, we still can learn and be educated.

Back tomorrow with pear progress!

Block 6

I'm on a roll folks! Block number 6 is...

Pears! I have a *thing* about pears - a good thing - I love them and have a small collection. If my house were bigger, so would be my pear collection! It was a no-brainer that there would be pears in this quilt. I haven't appliqued them down yet, but will start that as soon as this post is done.

I couldn't decide whether to do green, yellow, or red pears, so thought why not do one of each? They are all delicious in their own way.

So there are 6 blocks down, and just two more to go. They're still in my head, and hopefully they'll go down on paper the way they are in my head!

Block number 5

My husband actually guessed the subject matter of this next block correctly the first time...

Carrots! The above photos are of the block before and after being needleturned.

This was a wonderfully simple block with only 2 pattern pieces. However, the curves in the carrot leaves give you a little bit of a challenge - enough to make it fun, but not too hard. I have another simple block all ready to applique, but I'll save that for tomorrow.

I actually sat down and figured out how all these will go together and worked out the measurements last night. Unfortunately I am going to have to do the bowl of lemons block again as the background is too small. Lucky I like applique so much!

Gardening

I thought I'd give you a break from the strawberries (which have undergone another change!) and show you what I did in my garden today.

I have sadly neglected my garden and yard since we bought this house 4 years ago, but this is the Summer of the garden! We aren't going away this Summer, we have having a stay-cation instead, with family traveling to visit us. Since we will be home a lot, I really want to enjoy the outside, and so beautifying it is high on my priority list.

Remember back HERE when I dug out a strip of sod next to our pathway? Today I finally planted and mulched the strip.

The hardest part was the prep - when I started digging to loosen the soil, I kept hitting rocks. However, only some of what I was hitting was rocks - most of it was big fat ugly pieces of asphalt buried several inches under the dirt. Talk about frustrating!

I did eventually get it all out, and kept the rocks to use as a border.

My boy, Joaquin, who is 6, laid the rocks out all by himself - I think he did great! He also planted some plants while I was talking with my neighbor. He had noticed the pattern I was using, Day Lilly, Marigold, Lambs Ear, and copied exactly what I had done. Can you tell this kid is learning about patterns in Kindergarten or what?!

I also snuck out to Home Depot and picked up 3 hydrangeas which are my favorite plant. How many rocks do you think I'll find digging the holes for these?!

After school I hung out with our cat Mittens...

who follows me everywhere I go outside, and watched my hubby playing 4 square with the kids.

He works full time and goes to school full time, so these moments are rare and precious right now.

As for quilting, tonight I cut out two more blocks for my Kitchen fruit & vege quilt, but I have to save something to show for another day, right?!