Last Saturday in May

Time sure is flying by. I work hard every week but the week seems to get away from me before I know it.
I picked up some more flowers for the flower beds and I have taken pictures of everything.

This is the front porch area. I just love the color the flowers on the porch,

I had my son-in-law Jared dig out the rose bush. He said it had only one little root so it was very easy to remove.

This is on the other side in front of the house.

In this area I had my son-in-law take out a very large dead shrub. The red flowers look great in that area where the shrub was. Yeah! It is gone.

On the south side of the house I have three tomato plants planted. My son Eli cleaned out this bed and then he tilled it up real good. This helped me allot too.

This is our flag pole. Everything we do in the front yard to make things look nice are for our flag raising ceremony on the morning of the 4th of July.

The month of June will be yellow for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I have pulled out all my yellow fabric for this challenge.

This is my set up for my string blocks.

This is the set up for my 9-patches.

I am going to try and get my blocks made this coming week because a week from Wednesday we are leaving for a long vacation and I will not be home to work on these projects.

I am linking up with Rainbow Scrap Challenge today. Click here to see what others are working on.

What Should the Topic Be?

I read many, many quilting blogs each week. I love reading about what everyone is doing with their projects and appreciate that they share so much with Blogland.

I, on the other hand, have a hard time writing each blog that I have posted. I think that is because what I write on my blog is to keep track of what I am doing on my projects. When I am not doing too much on my projects then I feel stressed by the fact that I have nothing to write about.
Silly I know. That is why I thought about the subject of my post today and what I should write about that someone would be interested in reading.

I have not touched my flower girls-Miss Marigold-at all since I set her up a month ago. I can't really explain why I have not done anything on her except I know she will take me quite some time to work up and it seems overwhelming right now to even start her. Again, silly I know.

I have been getting things ready for my class in Panquitch, UT at the Quilt Walk but again there is nothing to show for this either.

I think that if I had not committed to myself that I would participate in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge I wouldn't have anything to write about for at least 2 weeks during the month. I must admit that I haven't been feeling too well for over a month and that may play into this problem also.

So for my Craftsy blocks I have two to show today.

The first is the Modern Frame Log Cabin.

The second one is Wonky 5-sided Log Cabin.

This block reminds me of string piecing and I like string blocks. The difference for this one is the fact that a foundation was not used. The Craftsy teacher used very precise cut strips and she didn't have any trouble with wavyness. I am used to a foundation and I used my stings for the most part and I was worried that I would have wavy edges. I did not so everything turned out just fine.

I am linking up with Rainbow Scrap Challenge today. Click here is see all the wonderful projects that everyone is working on.

May Flowers

I decided I needed to at least post something this week even though it is not quilting or embroidery related.
I have either been sick or working on the flower beds this past week. I feel bad that I have not made an appearance into the Quilt Studio for a week but when sick I don't feel like it and when not I needed to work on the flower beds.
I do allot of prep work before the yearly Garden Party and this year is not any different. I have 4 different flower beds in the front yard and these need lots of attention each year.

This flower bed has been thoroughly weeded. I need to dig out the dead rose bush this year and plant a new one but other than that this flower bed is ready for the annuals.

This flower bed has always been very poor.It is about 10 years old and I have fought with it all these years to get anything but the tree to grow well. So this year I decided it needed a big change. I cleaned out the weeds, shoveled out a whole bunch of the soil and then put two large bags of soil amendment in. As I dug the soil out I found that there are allot of roots from the tree and this may be part of the problem with this flower bed. So this year I will be planting annuals but I will also plant some ivy and next fall I will plant a large bunch of iris in this flower bed and I hope that this will be a thriving flower bed by next year.

This is the largest flower bed with a nice weeping tree and the flag pole. I have not started the weeding in this flower bed and because I have been sick again this week I will not get started on it until Saturday.  Saturday is the Garden Party. The Garden Party is when our grown children and grand children come to help us get the yard going for the year. This year we will be short some helpers but I hope we will get everything done that needs to be done.

Hopefully next week I will be able to do some sewing in the Quilt Studio.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge-Green

I have a few things to show for this week. I am happy that I have finished two of my monthly blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

The first are the string blocks.  I have made 10 green blocks and trimmed them to 6" squares. I have also trimmed all the last few months blocks to 6". That means I will have a 5 1/2" finished block but it doesn't really matter because I will just work with what I have. Bonnie made hers with a 5 1/2" foundation but she only did that because that is what she had to use. So I am doing the same. My foundation is dryer sheets and they smell so nice to work with.

I am getting quite a rainbow of colors making these blocks.

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The next blocks I have done are the 9-patches. As you can see I am not real fussy with the background fabric that I use and each 9-patch has all different colors of green. Just the way I like to piece.

I have also been working on more 9-patches for the Sisters Choice quilt I am making in green. Here are what I have finished for this week. These 9-patches are more uniform. Each block has matching background and green.

I have also loaded the Bonnie Hunter challenge quilt on the HQ.

I have also started the quilting on it with Loopy Clams, a video on YouTube that Jo Krammer was talking about this week on her blog post.

It is a free motion technique and I am not very good at it but by the time I finish this quilt I will be better at it.

I am linking up with Angela for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this week.
This is the link to SoScrappy.

Progress is Being Made

I am so happy to say that I have made some progress this week. I have finished all the borders on the Celtic Solstice mystery quilt and it is now ready to quilt. I just need to get the backing for it.

This picture was taken when I was trying to decide which green fabric I should use for the final border. I choose the one on the right. I didn't take a picture after I had sewn it on. I will show it off when I complete the quilting.

I have also decided that the challenge from Bonnie Hunter earlier this year needed a small border. I felt it needed to have a border so all those seams would be stabilized. so the quilt would not have wavy edges.

I really like the lay out for this quilt. It is the same lay out that Bonnie used. I will be giving this quilt away but it is so tempting to keep it for myself.

I have also set up for the Rainbow Scrap challenge this month. The color for May is green. Green just happens to be my favorite color and I have so much green in my stash that I don't think I will ever be able to use up all that I have.
Earlier this month I decided that I had way too many green 2 1/2 inch green squares in my bins.  So I started Sister Choice by Bonnie Hunter to help use up those 2 1/2 inch squares. I have over 30 9-patches made so far. All of them will be different colors of green and the points will probably be yellow.

These are just what I have made in the last week.

This is my set up for the green 9-patches I am making for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this month. I have a ton of 2 inch squares from my bin and will be making 10 blocks.

This is my set up for the string blocks I am making for this challenge. I will make 10 of these blocks also.

I haven't set up anything for the Craftsy blocks yet but there is still plenty of time for that.
I will be linking up with Angela for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this month.
Be sure to stop by over there to see what others are working on for this great challenge.