Window Peeker!

Its been too long since I was here last!

I've been busy trying to make Little Red Riding Hood stop peeking in windows, wondering how to make Jack's beanstalk look less like a cornstalk and more like a beanstalk and, I think I just figured this one out, how to make a bowl of fake oatmeal! This weekend my goal is to paint Cinderella's pumpkin coach. This will involve glitter which I'll probably find all over the house for years!

I've been enjoying the flowers blooming in my garden and spending some relaxing time out on our deck. Here's a picture of my helper, Charlie. For those of you who are owned by a cat(s), do you find they have favorite plants? Charlie ignores the mint (in the same family as catnip) but loves the butterfly bush but only a certain one!

We've finally been getting some rain so everything looks nice and green.

I'm especially happy with the poppies this year. They reseed themselves wherever they feel like growing and usually not where I would like them to grow. Every spring, I find them in the lawn and under shrubs, right next to the house foundation, etc. This year I was able to get some started and bloom in the actual flower bed!

Clamshell update: I'm working on stitching the second diamond together for this month. However, there aren't many days left in the month so I don't know if I'll make my goal of finishing it.

Do you have a tradition of taking flowers to loved ones' graves on Memorial Day? I always enjoy stopping at an old family cemetery in the country. I do have a relative buried there but I'm more interested in another grave which is literally covered with flowers someone planted there years ago - irises, roses and several I can't identify. Someone must have loved this person very much to have planted the flowers and cared for her grave in this way. To me, it seems a wonderful way to be remembered.

Have a very happy and safe Memorial Day!

Clamshell Diamond #11

This past week has been a hard one for me. I came down with a cold and although I'm doing better, its not gone yet. My husband now has it too so it will be quite awhile before life is back to normal around here.

I'd planned to work on the quilt show's fairy tale settings but was just too miserable. Instead I was able to do some hand work and finished clamshell diamond #11 which is in the middle of the photo. In the lower right corner, is #12 waiting to be glued together. I'm not sure about some of the fabric placements so that may change.

Since I've used up most of my favorite colors of clamshells, its getting more difficult to get a good color layout so I've begun cutting out more of the brighter colored clamshells. I think my favorites are the clamshells made from Kaffe Fasset fabrics probably because the colors are so intense. A few years ago, I never would have believed I'd write that!

Be back soon!

Wolfie!

You may have to use your imagination but here he is!

This is the wolf I made for the Little Red Riding Hood setting in the "Once Upon a Wall ... " Quilt Show coming up on June 17, 18 & 19 at the Mennonite Heritage & Agricultural Museum in Goessel, Kansas.

This year, the show will feature quilted wall hangings hung in fairy tale settings.

I have more work to do on Wolfie and the rest of the Little Red Riding Hood set but wanted to share him with you. If you can't guess where we are in the story, the big bad wolf has scared off Little Red Riding Hood's grannie and has donned her nightie and night cap to wait for Little Red Riding Hood. By the way, he does have two eyes but unfortunately the angle I took the photo at makes him look like he has only one eye.

How do you like his reading material?