Volunteers

 Don't you just love a volunteer. I know I do. I have done a lot of that in my life and know it is so important to have people working with you who are dependable. Now you may be wondering what the fellow up above has to do with volunteering? Well, every evening for the last two weeks he has come out to sit on the top of his nest box to keep an eye on me. I am thoroughly enamored of these beautiful Missouri blue birds. Up to now I have only caught a flash of sky blue, orange and white as these gorgeous creatures as they whisked through the air outside my sewing room. Now as an aside, and  before my daughter brings it up, I am planning to share my beautiful space very soon! In any case, I just checked and he is once again sitting on the bird house. A volunteer!

My favorite kind of volunteer however often occurs in my garden. The sweet little violets you see above started showing up five years ago. I never planted a single seed but expect that the birds brought them in. Perhaps the guy up above? In any case they arrive and I let them flourish just where they land.

 In this picture I think you can see that they have planted themselves in orderly fashion along the bricks edging a large raised flower bed. I could say they demonstrate a certain intelligence but really it comes down to availability of soil. Between each brick that very thing exists.

 Now the rest of the photographs are not volunteers, but simply some of my garden. I have little time for my flowers so treasure the ones that pretty much take care of themselves. When we moved from California to Missouri I had plans to at last have a serious rose garden. Thank goodness I did not get an early start!

 The second year here I had delivered a whole lot of river bottom soil as recommended by a wonderful neighbor. he was right, everything I planted thrived in that bed.

Unfortunately flowers were not the only things that thrived in my yard! I had a sweet yellow rose bush. One afternoon as I drove up my driveway, I paused to admire that rose. Imagine my horror when I saw a lot of iridescent bugs feasting on the pretty yellow petals. I had no idea what they were but was having none of it. My daughter drove up the driveway and got out of her car to see me picking those bugs off the plant, throwing them down on the driveway and stomping on them. Of course that was not an efficient way to dispose of the nasty creatures. I persevered for a couple of years and finally admitted defeat. I hired a service to help the day we filled two traps to the top with what I now know is the infamous Japanese beetles. I also gave up on vintage roses and now have only Knock out Roses. They are bothered some by the beetles but if they eat they die and the roses begin rejuvenating themselves by the next day. Really! Would I tell you anything but the truth? I have come to care for each and everyone of you.

I hope you are having a lovely spring/summer. By the way another volunteer that has not shown up this year is Cleome. I will leave you to look that one  up and if you cannot find one ask and I will post a photo. let me know what you think

Done

Well, to be honest I am of course not finished with the quilt but the center medallion is now almost complete. I say this because I have a little adjustment to make in the corners. The loops are too long. How did that happen? I have no idea. Fortunately, it will be a fairly easy fix. But. sigh, I hate it when that happens. I will muddle through because I will always see if I let it stand. I am excited in any case. progress is always a good thing. if this kind of thing has ever happened to you drop me a line and share. Please don't let me believe I am the only one!

Trying to Say the Right Thing

I have struggled for the last few days over something that happened over last week and the weekend following. The beautiful young lady above is my granddaughter, Libbylu. LibbyLu has been a cheerleader for approximately six years. her plan for a long time was to go to college on a cheer scholarship. At one time her goal was to be a cheerleader and a surgeon. These days I am not sure but after all she is only fourteen and has a lot of time and living to do before she has to decide.

I digress, so will get to the point. A week or so ago LibbyLu dislocated both hips during practice. A trip to the Dr, ex-rays, etc revealed that she has a congenital malformation of her hip sockets.
Last weekend was the seasons first competition in Kansas City. The problem was that LibbyLu had been grounded by her primary care doctor as well as the specialist from cheer as well as track. She was and remains devastated .

Now LibbyLu was up front and center so her being grounded from performing was problematic. There was disappointment on all sides, for our girl as well as the rest of the team.

What followed was unbelievable from my standpoint. Many of the parents were pretty angry at LibbyLu as well as her mother. Many wanted LibbyLu to go on. "Can't she just go on this one time?" What could it hurt?" One of the girls told her she was just faking and also said that most of the parents thought so too. The assistant coach saw Libbylu weeping and turned away.

Now this is my point. Would any of those parents risk their own child for a trophy? Gives one pause don't you think? Even if we could separate from the fact that this is a possibly life altering problem for our girl, just what is more important. A trophy or honor?

LibbyLu was there last weekend to support here friends because it was the right thing to do. Did she learn anything last weekend. Sure, it seems she now knows where the unkindness comes from. We all know that children learn their behavior from their parents.

As an aside I would like to tell you that my daughter Kelly posted her own story this morning. A couple of cheer parents saw it and there was Libbylu in the middle again. If you were one who commented just know Kelly pulled the post to protect LibbyLu. Bullying is against the law in MO. I will be looking into that.

Slowly and Perhaps not Surely!

It is probable I think that many of you have not seen anyone work as slowly as I have on this project. I seem to be running a Tortoise and Hare race and I think we all know which is me. I would like to say however that slow or not I love this quilt and believe the original artist was ahead of her time. I believe she gloried in the making. Slow I may be but I can hardly wait to ove on to the next corner and I suspect many of you are thinking finaly! Me too, actually.


I thought I would share a close up because I want you to see some of my strategy up close. From the beginning I was intent on including some broiderie Perse work in this quilt. I so thoroughly enjoyed the roses in the center bouquet I intend to use the technique wherever appropriate. In addition, I would like to point out that the small flowers on the left have blue ultra suede centers.
Also I confess that the tiny flower in between the two blue flowers at the top also has ultra suede. The leaves are teeny tiny and I decided I would rather use the ultra suede that be unable to make that particular flower perfect because of the small size. Finally, don't you just love those blue flowers? Broidery Perse again. I cut the roses from fabric taking care to leave a quarter inch all around. I turned under one eighth leaving a nice eighth inch to frame the flower.

Please remember to share something you are working on. For me show and tell has always been more fun that anything else. Happy quilting.

Birthday

My beautiful daughter and very dear friend turned a year older this last week. I have decided not to reveal her age as I think that is a personal thing and lets face it. This is a time to be discreet, don't you think? She is a woman of many talents, a collector of vintage aprons, Christmas ornaments, china, vintage linens and more. So, when thinking of a wonderful gift, one thing came to mind at once. Why not another apron? I found this Kwik-Sew pattern and knew right away I would make this for her. I have to say it was easy to make with really good directions. I think she loves it, I know I do

Now my story is far from over. This pattern also included a pattern for a child apron. Bingo! Kelly has a sweet little granddaughter known as LucyLu. I have spoken of her before. She is the whiz at opening packages. She will sit in her high-chair in Nana's kitchen for a very long time supervising the construction of yummy cup cakes. So an apron of her own seemed a very good choice. They were so cute together! If you want to see the real deal, just click on the cute cup cake in the left hand column and find yourself in in Undeniably Domestic. You will not be sorry you looked. I hope to hear from you soon, Nadine

I Think You Will Like This

If you have not seen this book it is time you check it out. As you can see at the bottom this is published by the wonderful French publisher "Quilt Mania." For me this was a Christmas gift from my dear friend Kathleen J. I am so blessed with friends like her. This book is written both in French and English. There are thirty two featured red and green quilts and five of them are profiled with templates and and instructions. With little time to sew these days, I am so glad for books like this one. I hope you go to the Quilt mania web sight to view this in all it's glory. You can turn the pages and see many of the wonderful quilts. Come back and tell me what you think.

Aunty Green January 2012

I know it has been a long time but hope you like what you see so far. Don't forget I have to draft the patterns myself as we only received one corner of the medallion, the lower right. It is not easy for me to draw so I have to agonize for sometime before I get it right. In any case I was able to work things out and so here it is. I love working on this but have little time during the day and am often too tired in the evening.
I continue to rely on my fabrics for inspiration in this special class. I hope you have seen the original quilt. Full of flowers in every shape and size. I hope to have more time to work on this project as winter sets in here in the Ozarks. There is a little snow in the forecast tonight and perhaps that will mean time to stitch after therapy, laundry, cooking, well enough to give you an idea.

I do notice that a great many of you are also quilters. How about an online quilt show. I would so love to see what you are doing. There is something about a quilter, don't you think? I do appreciate all of your kindness and concern for my family and hope you continue to drop by. I will be watching for you.