Sunrises, sunsets, and a handsome corgi

Because of my lack of interesting things happening around here, I've asked 2 guest contributors for their latest photos.

The first set Emily took on her walk around her neighborhood with my grand-dog Griff.

A warning on the first picture. Kathy or others with severe aversion to 8-legged creatures might want to scroll quickly to the second one. It's NOT REAL though. Just someone's idea of a cute gate.

I know it doesn't help. If someone thought it was "cute" to put an image of a snake on a gate, I would be terribly offended and avoid passing by it.




I can't see these flowers close enough to know what they are. It looks like a fruit tree, but I don't know my fruit tree blossoms. Emily and Ryan are slowly learning that some things that grow well in the south don't too much like the NW (tomatoes), but hostas do really well. Hers are coming up from last year.


Someone is thrilled to be out of the house to romp in the sunshine.






The next set was photographed by my falsely modest husband (well, hardly modest at all). Some people are storm chasers. He's a sunset (or sunrise) chaser.

The storm one was on the way back to TX the night before the tornadoes hit MS and AL.

Others are around Littlefield, TX, and the last 2 were taken in Mexico City from the hotel room.

Enjoy.









I went into the quilt shop just for a minute today to get a couple of colors for the scrappy quilt, but I won't post pictures, because I've already told Mike that joke about the lady whose husband didn't mind how much fabric she bought as long as it was in fat quarters because she had told him fat quarters were free.

I'll have to think of something else.

I'm Hopeless

I think I've already mentioned my problem with starting too many projects at one time. There are folks out there in blogland who are dangerous to my vow to not start another one. I probably need to not look at any more. I just can't help it though.

I have categories under my Favorites with Blogs, Quilting; Blogs, Sewing; Blogs, Smocking; Blogs, Knitting and Crochet and on and on. Some of them are so full that I started a new category this week: New Fun Blogs to Read.

It was Rachel at Stitched in Color who first introduced me to Bottled Rainbows. It's very different but intriguing. It used the same concept of quilting as you go that I love, and it uses scraps, which I also love.

Here are a couple of examples. So pretty. The orange one. And the plum one. Scroll down to see others.

Here's a finished one by Crystal at Sonnet of the Moon.

I'm not starting this - NOW. But it's nice to know how to do it, and I will add it to my list of want-to's.

Speaking of which, let's take a look at what I have that I want/need to finish/start.

No wonder Mike's worried about moving home.

Elise's quilt, of course. It's getting done gradually.


Emily's quilt that she's waited for for 3 years. It's next.


Christmas pillowcases and fabric I couldn't resist last December.


A Christmas panel Barbara gave me at the same time.


A block-of-the month right after I moved to Montgomery. The quilt looked gorgeous hanging on the wall, and the blocks were fun to too. And I have all the fabrics to do log cabin blocks to finish it - but. I'm not quite as crazy about it as I once was.
The next block-of-the-month at Kudzu Blossom. I like this one better and intend to finish it. Lots of pretty Civil War fabrics.

I want to make myself a Latte Log Cabin like I made for a gift 2 years ago.

I loved working with the Michael Miller neutrals and got enough fabric to made one but this time not under pressure to finish at a certain time. I still can't believe I pulled that off in 2 months.

This one is a "what was I thinking" project. Sherry and I went to a quilting symposium for a weekend and took several classes. One was this wedding ring quilt taught by Judy Neimeyer.


It was a fun class, and she did a great job, but once I was home and didn't have Sherry to laugh with me and spur me on, it kind of just fizzled. I'm worried now that I won't remember exactly how to do it since it's a little tricky. It was my first paper piecing project, and I loved it.



And not to forget things besides quilting, I have this blanket that I finished 10 years ago and still have to weave in the last thread and clip. How hard could that be?
A smocking disaster when I decided to get back to smocking after a long vacation. I refuse to toss it, but this neck binding needs to behave. I'll try cutting a new one and see what happens.

These 3 need buttons or snaps or buttonholes.

I need to be locked in my house for a year with no access to fabric shops and no computer, just a supply of thread and needles, and see if I can plow my way through these things. I can think of worse punishments.

Following Directions

I did sew today. Finally

Two things had made me not as enthusiastic about getting back to the sewing machine.

One is that the light above the machine had burned out, and it's one of those special kinds that takes a lot of expertise to change, i.e., a husband on a ladder. So Mike changed that for me last week.

Nice. I have a couple of lamps/lights at the machine and windows, but there's nothing like a good overhead light.

The second is that one of my blocks didn't match up like it should, and I just didn't want to take out the stitching and fix it. So I did that this morning - 10 minutes at the most - 5 minutes figuring out where the discrepancy was and 5 minutes actually picking out the seams and resewing.

So now I'm good to go and did these 4 blocks in what time I had left. I cut out a bunch more, but these were the ones I got sewed.

Elise had picked out this sweet blue print for the outside triangles. It's been around so long, she may have once had a dress made from this - something was cut out of it. It's a softer blue than the picture shows.


The directions said to cut 11-inch squares and then cut them in half diagonally to make triangles. I did that and then couldn't wait to try them out with the blocks. Ummm. Not what I expected. It took a few minutes of wondering and then going back and reading the REST of the directions - cut those triangles in half to make smaller one.

That's more like it. I think that will work.

I spent a little more time sitting outside in the wind and watching the clouds swirling around.

While we need some rain, I feel bad that it's raining in the northern section where they're trying to recover from last week's damage. I'm keeping one eye on the Weather Channel.

I hear the rain now. Perfect for working this afternoon with the back door open and a nice cup of coffee - Rain Forest Nut, of course.

Oh, today is my mother's birthday - 88. If she didn't have osteoporosis and back pain, I would be having to hide the car keys from her. She says she could drive anywhere if she could walk to the car without her walker. She still does a lot of things. She's the one who brings in the mail every day and empties the dishwasher when it's full. She locks the doors and turns on the lights at night. She keeps her own rooms and bathroom clean - and half the time mine too. She's now threatening to pull the weeds in the front beds. She's the unofficial neighborhood watch person, and those weeds could seriously handicap her seeing every person who walks by the house and keeping up with how many days the neighbors have been on vacation.

I guess that's my job for tomorrow morning.

Maddy speaks

We need to talk.

Meow Mix is NOT the same as Fancy Feast. Not in the least. And if we don't eat it, you don't really save any money. Are we on the same page here? Fancy Feast. Seafood only.


It's always nice to have heart-to-heart conversations with your pets. I sometimes don't speak or listen to mine individually for days at a time.

But this one holds no grudges and thinks I'm just wonderful.

Stella/Molly? My mother tells her every day she's the most beautiful cat in the world and how wonderful she is, so she doesn't have much use for me, especially since she suspects I'm the one the water spray comes from when she scratches on the carpet. She's not sure, but it sure seems to come from my direction.

You can't trust that Stella. Maddy knows.

See? These cats have lived together for 5 or more years and get along so-so, but they delight in sneaking up on the other one and attacking.


Getting back to blogging made me to decide to look around and see what things I'm taking for granted. I may not get much done today (I still haven't had breakfast after being up an hour), but it was worth it to sit outside and enjoy the beautiful May morning.

This is Darby's doghouse lantana. It's blocking her door, but I can't seem to get rid of it. Barbie bouquets, as Elise and Emily call them.



These gardenias smell so good I just had to bring a few inside.


Along with some mint leaves.

I planted this Easter lily we got as a gift last week next to the rosemary that I had to rescue from the basil and mint. This is the kind of gardening I like - easy to dig hole, fragrant "weeds,"and instant results.

One old friend left wandering around from yesterday. He got Windexed. I really have to get some ant spray - although Windex seems to work just fine.


My new vow to sew every day is going to be challenged today, but I did press my latest fabrics to cut out for Elise's quilt. I had the squares laid out on the bed last week for her to pick and choose, and she didn't reject one of them. Either we have the same taste, or she's just tired of talking about it and wants me to get it sewed!

I love this stripe. Instant bias.


Elise is such a traditionalist, I didn't think she would like some of the more modern prints, but she surprised me.



Her rules: No pink. No paisley. No stars. I did sneak a little pink in there but not too obvious.

Tornadoes and Ants

Here is an interesting/awful web site (if it works) that shows aerial views of a couple of areas of Tuscaloosa before and after the tornado. You can pull the bar back and forth to see the before and after pictures.

It's just hard to comprehend something that awful and just 3 hours from us. I'm a weather watcher and love a good storm, and when I look at the Weather Channel map, the rain and storms seem to always miss us and concentrate in this very area. I will never be envious of them again. Naturally we had warnings all day, and I was keeping an eye on things and enjoying the brisk wind, but all the rain kept just missing us.

Mama was watching TV and saw the warnings about Tuscaloosa and called my brother's house in Birmingham. My sister-in-law was oblivious and about to take a shower, but she naturally freaked out with my nephew living in Tuscaloosa. She got in touch with everyone, and they were okay, but Mitch didn't mind admitting how scared he was. I've watched videos of the storm several times, and I can't imagine dealing with something like that.


For my promised pictures of the day. Not very clear, but you can double click and see a close-up.





I had noticed a few ants earlier this morning but couldn't find any insect spray, so I sprayed them with Windex and went to get ready for church. When I went back to the kitchen an hour or so later, they seemed to be partying on the Windex. I found a can of ant spray finally with just 1 or 2 good sprays left, but that seemed to finish them off.

These weren't the little bitty ones either; they were the big boys, and they came ready to cart off anything they found. They had found their way down to the cat bowls and covered the few kernels of food in their dishes and were moving along the baseboards looking for more. They even made a trail down into the garbage disposal. What a mess. Guess I'd better grab some spray tomorrow.

Better in May

When I last came here in April, my last post was about struggling. I promise I didn't succumb to all my problems. All the "things" seem to be up and running fine - not that I've had a chance to use the embroidery machine. But the computers are fine, and I'm making some progress on cleaning out closets and the garage. A little progress but some.

My main struggles lately are with focus. I have way too many things running through my mind that I want to do and way too little time. I get frustrated and end up doing nothing, just wasting time.

Like reading other people's blogs.

I found a blog last night that I had never seen before,Stitched in Color, and the author Rachel started something huge. She started off by stating a few things - quilting related - that she shouldn't say - just a burst of honesty - and invited others to comment and vent along with her. Much to her surprise, people came out of the woodwork to state their feelings and say things in a somewhat anonymous setting that they wouldn't say aloud. Now there are more than 400 comments and still going, it looks like.

I noticed that many people have the same problem I do with sewing. There's so much talent and creativity out there, and there is now a means of showing it off, and it's kind of intimidating for me to read about.

There are people who do quilts in one day, or at least stick with them until they're finished, and do a great job. I feel bad that I will have a picture of something I started and then it just kind of ends.

And then lots of us are too hard on ourselves with this blog thing. I started this as a journal of sorts and not a showcase of my talents. Some days, just getting a floor mopped is blog-worthy, and I should make note of that. Instead, I've not seen anything lately worth taking pictures of - or more likely don't have my camera handy - and I don't want to just talk without pictures.

Mike and Elise were here last week, and he took enough pictures for us both. I'll steal some of those when he gets them ready.

So now that I'm back, I'm going to find a picture to post this afternoon and then write something every day in the month of May.

And if I don't, I'll come back and erase this and pretend I never said it.