Yard Work, Family Reunion, Family Wedding, And Quilting

     I've been busy cleaning up my yard for the past month.  It was a complete mess.  I have tons of leaves to shred for mulch, big sticks to take the chain saw to, and at least 32 big black plastic bags of yard waste ready to go out to the curb.   I spent every night and every minute I could out in the yard during the month of May.  It was not fun.  And then to top it all off, it was really dry the month of May and with all that dry weather, the pine straw started falling as soon as I finished raking up last year's leaves.  I had to rake up all of that pine straw and I filled up another four bags of yard wast.  I mowed the grass last night and I'm all caught up with big yard word.  Tomorrow I'm going to poke around and do some weeding in the front beds.  Easy work after all the raking and bagging.

     Another easy outdoor project I have to do is get some some summer flowers to put in this big lovely pot.  My daughter gave this to me last month because of the sea turtles on it.  It was nice of her to think of me when she saw it.

     

    At the end of May, my DD and I went travelling.  We flew to Colorado to attend my niece's wedding.  It was also a mini family reunion, meeting up with both my brothers, their wives and one of my first cousins and her husband on my Dad's side.  Daughter and I always have a good time when we travel and meeting up with family this time was really special.  All of us out-of-towners in our immediate family gathered at the hotel on Friday night, May 31st. to decide where to gather and eat some dinner.  We went to a fun bar and grill and had a great time catching up.  The next day we were on our own until we had to go to the late afternoon wedding.  My niece was radiant and her husband must be a great guy to want to marry into this family.  LoL.  They both are very happy.  Her father, my brother, was so happy that the wedding was over, he was jumping around on the dance floor like a nut.  It was a fun reception.  Everyone danced and enjoyed themselves.  It didn't hurt that there was an open bar.  On Sunday our family, my sister-in-law's sister and husband, and the groom's parents gathered for brunch at a fun local restaurant for a lovely meal.  Then our family spent the afternoon at my brother's home talking, laughing and eating pizza.  It was a lovely way to wind down.  DD and I had to leave early on Monday.  It took all day to get back to Florida.

   This week I have been working on my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt this week.  I finally finished row four.  The quilt top is officially half done.  Here is a picture of my progress so far.

 

     The last time I posted a picture of this quilt with three rows done was January 16, 2019.  That's a long time in between rows.

    Now I'm basting more hexagons to make the rest of the flowers for the last 3 rows.   I need enough hexies to make 14 whole flowers and 2 half flowers to finish those last rows.   Time to get this done.

Happy New Year Everyone!

  I was just sitting here trying to decide on my favorite make in 2018.  And my favorite make for 2018 has to be the long Christmas stocking cap I knit earlier this year.  I really enjoyed wearing it during December.  I wore it as often as I could on the weekends when it wasn't too warm out.  I had one comment from one young lady who thought it was cool.

    I already have projects started for 2019.  I've got pajama pants cut out to sew up, the black hat I'm knitting is almost done and I have an idea for a couple of Christmas table runners that are waiting for additional fabric and then will be ready to be cut out.  All of this should keep me busy in January.  And I still have to finish my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt.

   I'll be spending New Year's Day cleaning my oven and refrigerator, and taking down Christmas decorations.  I think that's a good way to spend the first day of the year.

   HAPPY NEW YEAR!

WELCOME 2019!

A Couple of Blocks Done And Lots of Household Chores

   I've been busy doing household chores and getting things done in preparation for some of the family visiting the weekend of July 4th.  My two older brothers and their families are coming to town.  It seems that everything needed fixing or cleaning.  This month I had to replace the flushing mechanism in both toilets.  I finished the second one today.  It's nice to have those done.  

    My oldest brother and his wife will be staying here at the house and I'm giving them my master bedroom and bath.  I have to give those two rooms a really good cleaning, my brother is allergic to animals and the cats spend a lot of time in the bedroom.  I'm smart enough to keep the cats out of the bathroom, so I won't have to worry about too much cat fur in that room.

    I haven't done a  lot of sewing in the last few weeks.  I did get two disappearing hour glass blocks done and I figured out what my measuring problem was with the very first attempt.


 

    I bought myself a Janome Memory Craft 7700 to enhance my sewing room.  This machine has a 11" throat and it should be the only other machine I need for the rest of my life.  Her name is Magnolia (because she's pure white).  I covered her with my yard of Tula Pink's Elizabeth and it covers her nicely.

   I'm trying to get back in the sewing groove.  I figure once my family is gone I can get back on track and get the rest of these disappearing hour glass blocks done as well as learn how to use my new machine.