Mountain Musings

Spring Chores

We've dug out from the 14 inches of snow we had last week on The.First.Day.of.Spring!....coming after the Snow Day, Sew Day post.

Since yesterday was a balmy 75 degrees here in the Valley, I wanted to replace those last snow pictures with some spring flowers on the blog! It's time!

I traveled this week to my favorite local nursery, Evergrowin' Greenhouses in Bridgewater, and purchased two flats of pansies for some much-needed color on the front porch. Here's one of my pots:

And here are both pots on the front porch completed and ready to welcome any springtime guests: I also planted some of the Cool Wave pansies in our old galvanized tub which sits near the front sidewalk:

As the years go by, as much as I want to do it all right now, I've learned I have to pace myself and not overwork on the first day out. Planting flowers ended up being my main chore.

Today I tackled pruning the 10 rosebushes by the deck. If you missed the blog post several years ago on winning the knock-out roses, you can read My Mom's a Knock-Out. (Note: some of the links in that original post are disabled or expired.)

Here's the area I pruned today...and mulching is next! I'll have to re-post a picture when they start blooming again this year:

The only flowers blooming in our yard at the moment are the ever-faithful daffodils and the Lenten roses. Here's a shot of them on our table tonight:  

What's a favorite flower you're eager to see blooming this spring/summer? Mine would be purple coneflowers, but I also want to plant a huge bed of zinnias so we can have cut flowers in the house all summer.

Thanks for stopping by, and we wish you a Happy Spring.....and Happy Resurrection Day!

(Sorry, I'm not sure who to credit for this word picture.)

 

~Deb

Snow Day ~ Sew Day!

Spring is eight days away, and this is what I see outside my sewing room window this afternoon, at least 5 inches...maybe 6 by now. My view looks south towards the garden: I've been quilting my Fig Tree Mini-Pear today which I wrote about in the previous post from our Quilty Girls' Sewing Weekend. I actually wasn't sure how to quilt it...but decided to just go for it and use wavy lines. I'm about halfway finished quilting the white borders: Taking a break to check on the snow, this is out our front door facing west and the Allegheny Mountains, which are hidden today: Back to sewing...first thing this morning I started working on my Village Houses....for those of you not following me on Instagram, I've been posting completed houses once a week.

I joined the sew-along over at Stitch Supply Company and quilters from all over the world are Sewing a Village!

We sew 8 houses a week, and I'll show you my first 40 houses on my new design wall here so you can see. Since this photo was taken, I've sewn 2 more rows. When we finish in June, there will be 132 houses in this neighborhood.

I love them!!! And...I'm just using scrap fabric--win-win!: This view is out our back breakfast nook window facing east and the Blue Ridge Mountains...taken when there were only about 3 inches: Here are 8 of the houses up close, some I'm sewing with chimneys and some without...but all of them so very fun to make! A fellow Village sewer from California (a stranger!) found out I needed some fussy-cut doors and mailed me 8 special doors. You can see 5 of those in these houses...thank you, thank you!:Whenever I'm sewing at night, I have some special folks serenading me while I sew. Very calming to sew and listen to music. Thank you Dad and Jonathan: One final sewing project that was recently completed and mailed to a church friend who has had some trying times lately....Sunday Supper by Sweetwater table runner. I love the Amazing Grace fabric in this line and just included some leftover scraps on another house in my Village: Yes, I've been utilizing my new crafting room quite a bit lately and loving it!

Okay...back to sewing instead of blogging....but first, another look outside to watch the snow, hopefully the final one this year!
~Deb

Quilty Girls Sew a Quilt Project ~ Day 2

To pick up where we left off in the previous post detailing Day 1 at the Quilt Show, the next day of our Quilty Girls weekend was sewing project day! I was so excited to see what had been planned!

My friend Chris' dining room table had been set up with the "secret project." I'd been told I couldn't sneak a peak in there until the signal was given that it was starting time.

This is the scene I saw laid out when I walked in! Chris had purchased all the fabric needed and the Mini Canned Pears pattern by Fig Tree Quilts and planned for us both to work on this mini wall hanging for our sewing day. How fun because I absolutely love Fig Tree fabrics!

Chris had already done tons of cutting small pieces so we'd be ready to start. Also as you can see, she made one sample pear so we'd have an example: She even had each sewing area decorated with a Welcome sign and some chocolates to get us started!

As we began the day....Chris told us that there were raffle tickets involved and prizes throughout the day. Now, does that sound right up my alley or what?!

Here she is calling out a raffle number: Look who was so excited to win!!! It was Chris' mom, who came over for the special sewing day! She was working on a new Primitive Gatherings embroidery kit she had purchased at the show:And here's her beautiful prize....a mug rug that Chris made:

And I won a mug rug, too! Mine's a beautiful green! And, it was labeled on the back with "Quilty Girls ~ 2018!" Awwww...special memories:
Okay....we'd better get to sewing! First, we worked on all the pear leaves and stems:

And in this picture I've finished all the pears and ready for the next step--the checkerboard pieces:

Oh, but wait....it's time for another raffle drawing!

This time I received a beautifully wrapped tea bag and spoon with a teacup on its handle. Other prizes included Valentine fat quarters, thread-bobbin keepers, and binding fabric. Chris did so much planning to make this day special: Here's Chris holding her pears....we both worked hard all day to get to this point!

I started sewing on my checkerboard squares by the end of the day and finished once I returned back home:

Now I need to sandwich the batting and backing, then quilt it (not sure yet how--has anyone else made this pattern and have any quilting tips?), and attach the binding. I'll be working on all the rest this coming week.

What a wonderful sewing project! A huge Thank You to my quilty girlfriend for such a fun few days! I loved it all!

~Deb