Favorite Thing Friday

Here it is Friday already. I find myself, once again, sitting on the back porch. So, today my Favorite Thing is my back porch.



As soon as the nice weather begins to arrive, I find myself sitting on the back porch.



The porch is the first place I go after I have poured my morning coffee. I often work on applique, hexagons or other handwork on the porch. When Big comes home, we each get a cool beverage and sit on the porch and discuss our day. Our evening meal is usually eaten at the table. As you can see, I have some handwork and my computer ready. My trusty bird and puppy accompany me.

We are very lucky to live in a small sub-division in the country and we have no back neighbors. The wildlife is abundant and I enjoy seeing all of the visitors we get.



Cardinal and Goldfinch



Blue Jay



One of the many hummingbirds we get. I love watching them.



Our friendly, neighborhood deer. I have a love/hate relationship with him. He eats my plants (hate him), he is a beautiful creature of God (love him).



I love gnomes, this one was a gift from The Baby!

Thanks for hanging on the porch with me! Visit Ms P's blog and check out every one's Favorite Thing Friday!


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One Flower Wednesday

I am linking up with Journey of a Quilter and her One Flower Wednesday.

These are the two hexagons I will be sending my swap partner. The purple hexi reminded me of summer flowers and the fall colored hexi made me long for the cool fall weather.



Here are a few of the real flowers blooming in my garden!



Bee Balm



Day Lily (One of the few the deer did not eat!)





Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed the flowers!

CynthiaPin It Now!

Pyjama Party Sunday

Today, I am joining Marg's Pyjama Party Sunday.

Remember the mess with the pinwheels the other day? My craftiness for the day was spent re-sewing them. Here is the final layout.



Sorry for the bad photo! We have had rain, rain, rain. Every photo I take comes out dark and blurry!

Now comes the big question. How do I quilt this?

I don't really want to take it to be professionally quilted. Although it is, and will be, a favorite of mine, I don't think I need it quilted by someone else. I will save that expense for something I would consider, "Heirloom". Let me know your ideas.

Also, Big and I went to see the movie, "Bad Teacher". It was a funny movie and I enjoyed it very much. If you have a chance, go see it!

Hope you had a wonderful weekend.

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Quilt Show

I attended the West Virginia Quilt Show on Thursday. There were many beautiful quilts to look at. It was very inspiring.

I was also pleased to find a vendor selling Japanese fabric. I have drooled over Japanese fabric for a long time and just didn't feel like I could spend the money. I spent the money, plus some! But for now, I will share a few of the quilts I saw.









I think my favorite was the red and white quilt.

Big and I will go see the movie "Bad Teacher" tomorrow. I am so excited, it looks very funny. I will also be joining Marg's Pyjama Party Sunday.

Hope you had a great day!

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Favorite Things Friday

I am joining Mrs. P's Favorite Things Friday. The last time I tried to join, I didn't link up right! Lets hope I get it right today!

One of my favorite things is my puppy, Daisy.



When Daisy first came home with us, I told my daughter that Daisy would be her replacement! Now that The Baby is in college, Daisy is often the recipient of my hugs and kisses.

Daisy follows me around, never sasses me and seems to think I am the boss! What more could I ask for?

On the long list of my favorite things, Daisy is at the top!

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Vegetable Garden and Quilt Mess Up

The Baby and I decided we would, once again, have a vegetable garden. We moved the current raised beds and built one new one. We planted tomatoes, jalapenos, zucchini, 2 types of lettuce, spinach, leeks, broccoli, basil, watermelon, cantaloupe, turban squash and Japanese eggplant!


Three weeks ago


Yesterday

The beds are positioned next to a sidewalk that runs from the back porch to the driveway. We have to walk by the beds everyday, which makes it easy to bend over and pull a weed or two before they take over!

About a year ago I started a pinwheel quilt. By starting, I mean I went out and bought a 1/2 a yard or more of 35 different floral fabrics! Six months ago I started cutting and sewing pinwheels. I got 17 of them finished before a trip to Kentucky (more on that later). I finished the the other 18 pinwheels between visits to the quilting shops of Ashland, Kentucky.

When I began to work on the placement of the blocks, I noticed a problem. Do you see it?



Mind you, the blocks are placed on a tablecloth, so don't say the problem is the red showing through the white part of the pinwheel - it was a dark and rainy day and this was the best light!

Let me know if you see what is wrong!


Daisy (the pup), Precious (the cat) and Budgie (the bird) enjoying a summer day with me on the back porch!

Thanks for stopping by!

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Tea Time in the 30's

Fiesta® Dinnerware was designed by Frederick Hurten Rhead in 1936 and is now among
the most collected china products in the world. As originally designed, the line featured art deco styling and bold, bright colors. The product was discontinued in 1973 and reissued in 1986 with new contemporary colors to mark its 50th anniversary.

My first introduction to Fiesta Dinnerware was at my American Grandmother's house. Every meal we ate, while visiting, was served on Fiestaware and each of the settings had a combination of colors. As a young child, I was fascinated, not only with the colors, but also the boldness my Grandmother displayed when she mixed colors in each place setting.

Today's tea is set in a 30's style. The table cloth was found at a yard sale for $1.00. I love the reds in it. The cups and saucers are just a few of my collection. The colors displayed are my favorites!





Do you own Fiestaware, or have any fond memories of it? What are your favorite colors? Hope you enjoyed a little bit of my collection!!

I am linking up to:

Artful Affirmations - Tea Cup Tuesday

Thanks for stopping by and visiting with me!

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Catching Up

Good Morning everyone! It is supposed to reach the lower 90's today. That may not sound hot to some, but factor in the 80% humidity rate, and it becomes overwhelmingly hot!

So, this morning, I am off to work in the yard. A few things on my "To Do" list are:

1.) Secure the Hollyhocks
2.) Weed the vegetable garden
3.) Pest control in the vegetable garden (on the hollyhock also)
4.) Plant the Lambs Ear, Alyssum (a perennial) Panorama Red Shade Bee Balm (love, love love Bee Balm) Arizona Sun Gaillardia, and the Snow Lady Shasta Daisy
5.) Work in the "Over the Fence" garden by planting more Walkers Low Catmint, and Rosemary
6.) Feed the birds
7.) Make sugar water for the hummingbirds
8.) Finish laying mulch in the front yard

When all this is finished and if I am still able to move, I will begin my chores in the house!

Nothing happens until I finish my morning cup of coffee and my vanilla yogurt with homemade Banana Nut Granola!



I hope to be back with photos - if I survive the heat!

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Favorite Things Friday

This will be my first time to post on Shay's Favorite Things Friday. It is very possible I will not get it "linked" correctly! I am still computer illiterate!

My favorite thing today is my Daughter. She is home for a few weeks on summer vacation. I am enjoying every minute I get to spend with her.

She will be 20 years old this Monday, and like every Mother, I wonder where the time went. I can still remember holding her for the first time.

She has grown to be such a beautiful person, not only on the outside, but on the inside also. She is kind, compassionate, funny, smart and my best friend.



Thanks for allowing me a moment to brag on my baby!

Hope you have a great weekend. I will be making strawberry jam and perhaps Strawberries and Cream Scones. Big has a Bench press and Dead lift competition on Sunday, so we will all go to that and cheer her on!

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First off, let me say thanks for supporting me and my Strawberry Festival quilt entry. You are very sweet to support me. I will show photos of not only my quilt, but most, if not all, of the others.

I was standing in the dining room this afternoon and noticed some birds swooping down on my chickens. I watched a little closer and noticed they were bluebirds. I usually don't see bluebirds here. Bluebirds live in this area, but they are a bit shy. I wondered why they were so mad at my chickens, so I went to investigate.



This little guy had apparently fallen out of his nest. His parents were trying their best to protect him from the chickens. Big scooped him up and put him in a planter. His parents calmed down a little when they found him safe. I am not sure where he is now, I can only hope he is ok.

I was able to complete a couple of hexagon flowers for a swap I am a member of.



Thanks for stopping by! I will have photos tomorrow!

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Strawberry Festival

Buckahnnon, West Virginia is known for it's annual Strawberry Festival. It is also known as the meth. capital of West Virginia, but we will talk about that later.

One of the things that happens during the Strawberry Festival is a quilt competition and show. I decided to enter the mini quilt that I made for my Mom.



I am not hoping to win anything, I am just hoping to have some constructive criticism. I also think it will be fun to see something I made hanging out with a bunch of other quilts. I will take photos and share the outcome with all of you.

Hope you all have a great day!

CynthiaPin It Now!

Busy work on Sudnay

I picked The Baby up on Monday morning. I have so enjoyed having her home again. She will be here until mid-June and then she will be in El Paso, Texas, for an internship with the YWCA. She will return for two weeks and then will be off to Argentina and Peru for a semester. I plan on spending as much time with her as possible!

Today, we went to see the movie, "Bridesmaisd." It was so funny! We laughed the whole movie.

I didn't get much sewing done today, but I did get some pattern cutting done. I plan on making these two patterns.



This top is for Big. I have some cream colored crepe that I will use for it. I think the fabric should hang nice.



The top shown in this pattern will be for The Baby. I am will be using a dark blue fabric with polka dots. I thinking it will be a cute summer top.



The quilt in the photo above was made by the quilt guild I belong to. The intent was to raffle it off and donate the money to a half-way house that recently opened in the city. It was quilted with a long arm by a new quilter. The guild decided the quilting was not good and so it was decided to pick all of the stitches out. I spent a good part of the past few days picking out tiny, tiny stitches.

Hope you had a good weekend.

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I work for fabric

I am beginning to think that the only reason I work is so that I can purchase fabric. Here are a few photos of my most recent purchases.



I found all of this fabric on sale. I plan on using the pink flannel and the dog print flannel for the back of some kids quilts. The strawberry fabric is for my Quilt Guild Fat Quarter Swap. The red and white check will become napkins to be used this summer.



I am thinking of using some of this for cushions and pillows for the outdoor furniture that I keep on the front porch.



I am beginning to fall in love with 30's reproduction fabric. I am hoping to use all or part of this for a scrappy quilt. I don't really have a specific pattern in mind. I will know it when I see it.



Found these at my LQS for $1.00 each! How could I not buy them?



These are some of the blues that will be used for background fabric for an applique quilt I am working on. Lane from That Man Quilts, has been sweet enough to share the patterns from Simply Delicious with me. I am loving every minute of working on it. It is slow going, but enjoyable.



I went to Joann Fabric's and found these two Jelly Rolls. The patterns are hard to see in the photo, but they are really cute. One of them has birds and nests.

I know that you all were waiting for a photo of the gift I made for my Mom. I found out today that she has been reading my blog. I don't want her to know what I sent, so you will have to wait till after Mother's Day to see what it is!

Hope you all had a wonderful day.

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Spring in West Virginia

Spring arrives late in West Virginia. While Southerners are busy tending their gardens, we are busy waiting for the rain to stop and the temperatures to rise above 70 degrees.

One of my favorite flowers is the Iris. It is not only beautiful to look at, it also has such a sweet smell. This one was blooming in my front garden this morning.



My favorite tree is the Dogwood. I love the blooms. This beauty is in my front yard.



I had planned on showing you a gift I made for my Mom for Mother's Day. It is something I worked on all afternoon and am happy with the results. I found a perfect location to display it, got my camera ready and then my camera died! I guess you will have to wait till tomorrow to see what it was!

Hope you all had a great day - I am off to read all about it in your blogs!

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