We have babies....

After lunch Don called me to the window to watch the little house wren chase away a squirrel from the bird house. (She has babies in a nest inside this house).

That squirrel was getting just toooooo close for comfort and the little wren was hopping up and down and on the fence and off to the rose fence and back to the fence and down farther and back and forth.

All the while that tail was flipping up and down and her wings were fluttering and even tho I couldn't hear her I was pretty sure she was scolding like crazy.

Squirrel just sat there on the fence ignoring the little thing .... then down the tree and away he went as if nothing had happened. Whew!!

Well....that gave me the chance to take my camera outside and see what I could capture in the lens. I succeeded showing at least two babies inside. One on the right and one on the left.

(click for enlarging)

While I was outside I decided to get a couple of closeups of some of the early blooms now. (1)Creeping Phlox....(2) Pink Hyacinth...(3) ?? Can't remember the name.

Decision made...

~~ My final decision about the tile choice. ~~
I've changed my mind.....I am going with the lighter one. hahaha
As usual Don kept his opinion to himself....until I had changed my mind.
Then he said that's the one he liked best anyway. That man!! heehee
I know...I know. I had all these color matching reasons that I wanted the dark one and how it shows the depth so well and blah blah blah.
Well....One more time before taking them back to the store.....I asked Don to place them one at a time in different areas of the kitchen....and at each place the lighter tile looked best.
So that's it! Installation could be mid to late May Larry said.

I'm in countdown mode this week now. The city wide garage sales will be this upcoming Saturday and I need to go through the house again to see what else I can put out.
And...the yuck part! Now I have to put a price on everything. I think it would be easier to just put out a sign that says everything is FREE - Please haul it away!
Why oh why do I do things like this?????
Oh .... now I remember. I don't want to throw it all away.

Down to two...

We're ready for O & B to install our kitchen floor and I've been trying to decide between these two ceramic tiles. I think I've settled on the darker one. The one on the left. It has more of the tera cotta color that I want. The other one is more golden.

I'll keep looking at them this weekend then first thing Monday I'll schedule the work.

How nice it will be to have a pretty floor.

Finally finished....

I am ready to put the binding on this Old World Santa quilt.
It seems like it took me forever to get it off the frame. I have learned something new from working on this.
I LIKE to do ruler work!!
I don't have the *real* rulers or correct foot for my machine...but I found a small wooden ruler and I just held it against the back of my hopping foot. It worked pretty well and I found I really like working with a ruler. Now I'm going to order a few and see if I can find the right foot for my machine. So many toys....so little time.
I've also realized (after working on this quilt) that I really really like to do panto's best. But since a bigger machine isn't in my future just yet....I'll have to be satisfied with my Juki.

It's a rainy day today. I just checked and so far we have .74". Soft and slow. The spring flowers love it.

Kianna's fabric

I think I've finally settled on the design I want to do for Kianna's quilt. I've decided to keep it simple after working on all kinds of complicated settings in EQ.

Sometimes it's just better to K. I. S. S.

I have all her fabric now and I'll start cutting today. I do plan to Fussy Cut the Dora fab.

I have turned the Santa quilt on the frame now and I'm about half done with the borders and sashings. I think I'll use mono on my Janome and stitch down inside the Santa designs just to hold the batting in place and give the design definition. Right now they look a bit poofy and dorkily unfinished. (I know that's not a real word but it sounds like it should be) haha

Happy day everyone!

Good Morning Spring

Ok... they were right afterall..... we had some rain. Over two inches the last couple of days. My hyacinths and daffodils have sure popped their blooming heads out of the ground. They'll fill out a lot more in the next couple of days.

And the Gold Finches have been here for a while. They always show up early spring (rather drab looking) and stick around and feed like crazy until they get their full color. I love watching them change color. Right now they are partly bright yellow and partly drab. I'll try to get a picture if I can.

Oh.... and Don said there is a wren nest with about 3 eggs in one of the bird houses.

Happy dance! We'll get to watch the babies.

Blackwork

Yep!! See!! I told you I didn't believe them!!

No snow. And not really any rain to speak of.

Some drizzle. Just enough to get things wet.
I'm still working on my quilting the Santa's. I don't know why this is taking me sooooo long. You'd think the frame would make it go faster. But I'm doing each block and sashing and borders seperate.
I've finished another basket block so decided to post all that I have done now. I love working with these. They're so easy to take with me when I go in the car. I can do embroidery while riding on the rough roads .... but applique' is just too difficult.

Here are some I have finished. Seven more to do for the quilt I'm making.

A New Week.....

So OK....It's forecast to rain and snow (?) for days. (I don't believe them tho)
Do I care?
No.
Yes!!
I want the sun to shine!!!
So what did I do this morning while it's gloomy and cloud-covered?
I played with my Blog.
I've added a few new lists. Played around with my colors and couldn't find anything I liked any better so pretty much kept it the same. Just a little tweaking here and there. (kinda like flipping the dust rag)
Now doesn't it look nice? haha

Speaking of dusting....maybe I will this afternoon.
Or not.
Or maybe the sun will shine.
Or not.........

Redwork Santa's

Yesterday I started quilting my Santa's. I'm doing a beadboard outer border and x's in the sashing. I wanted to try my hand at Pebbles and I'm certainly not an expert that's for sure....but they do seem to be getting easier after three blocks. I like doing them and really like the finished look.

I still much prefer doing the paisley stitch but I did want to try McTavishing. OMGosh I'm soooooo bad at it!! hahaha But I AM determined that I can at least do some semblance of this style of quilting. So .... looks like I have a whole lot of practicing coming up. Of course I should have done that before I put it on the quilt....

but .....

that's just not me.

I tend to just jump in with both feet.

And then: "Oh Oh!". ;0)

So today will be moving on to quilt more.

Oh the dream!! To have a longarm with a micro-drive.

hahaha Yep Jess! Every girl's got to have a dream!