Pre-Vacation Update

Where has the summer gone?

I can hardly believe it's the end of August already. We had so much rain this summer it was a LONG growing season for the grass, but really limited the time we had to just 'enjoy' the weather. It was also record-setting hot in Chicago this year so if it wasn't too wet outside - it was too hot to be out there!

I have planted 3 more Norway Spruce trees at the house and have one more spruce and one more Colorado Blue baby to plant. Hope to get those in the ground before this weekend is over. I have to - because I can't rely on them getting watered while I am on vacation.

Yes, Vacation!! Finally!!! Mark and I booked this trip over a year ago and have been anxiously awaiting the date - August 27 - to leave Chicago and jet to a coast and just relax and be tourists! I'll share more info and hopefully pictures when we get back on Labor day weekend.

Thomas was in for two weeks - wish it had been more. he's a great young man and I am so proud he's mine. He is back at school now and this weekend I also plan to get a box out to him with a few surprises for his new dorm room. Luckily he does not read my blog (does anyone?) so he won't see this!

Stephen is working, his new job is going great he is now on the night shift from 4 to midnight and that suits him better than days. We are both so nocturnal, it's great he can do this and it fits his sleep patterns better. Of course it means I hardly see him, especially with Kim still in town, but she heads back to school on Saturday morning, so hopefully I'll get in a dinner once a week with my son after then.

Quilting - not a lot of activity. I have the RMHC crayola challenge quilt due Oct 31 and the Scraps to Treasure due Oct 7 so I better get cracking. I did get a pattern designed for the RMHC quilt and a nice start on the cutting and stitching - of course that's the one that's due later!! LOL..... When fall kicks in I'll spend more time down there!

I have been crocheting a lot. It allows me to watch TV and still get something accomplished - so I have been working on holiday gifts and a gift for delivery on vacation. No more on that until it's done and delivred, since that person might read my blog.... she is a lurker I think.


That's it for today - Take care - !! Toby

No picture this week

I looked at my last post - 2 weeks ago - picture below... and I can see the changes in my new little garden patch easily. The rose bushes have filled in so I guess they are happy. We've had several windy rain storms so they have shed their petals but lots of new creamy blooms are on them now. Last weekend I covered the area with landscape fabric and spread 4 bags of mulch over top - I also planted 6 heather plants at the front edge nearest the yard and put the ledgestone blocks in front of them. The hose has been compromise keeping the pool filled - so they have been left on their own. Today in Chicagoland we are expecting record breaking heat, so I think when I get home I better disconnect the hose and give this bed and my container pots on the front steps a good soaking. I am considering getting a drip hose and putting it under the mulch all across the front of the house when it is finally done - that would be good for all of the new plantings - maybe next year.

I have been helping a co-worker friend with identifying plants and trees for his 'new to him' house so it has been fun and he has also gotten enthused about these knock out rose bushes. He got some pink and says he also found a double deep red - I may have to go today and look at those! Deep red would be lovely with my cream...

So this weekend is the fourth of July long weekend I am looking forward to some relaxation, how about you? Tonight I hope to hang my big flag on the front of my house. I used to have it up most of the year, but once it comes down it's hard to get back up - so this would be the first time this year. I like it, so I will try my best to get it done.

I am scheduled to pick up my car today from the repair shop. It was discovered after they opened her up that another part in the radiator got cracked and that part alone was another $1531 !!! Amazing what what little knock in the driveway can do! This week I have been driving a bright blue Ford Focus - it's okay - a speedy little car - I can sneak it up to 80 on the highway and not feel any shake or strain. Don't think I'd want one full time, it's not as spacious or luxurious as I like, but it's fine for free!!

Hope you have a safe and happy holiday weekend - or just a regular weekend if you are not in the US of A.

New garden spot

This is a picture of a new garden spot on the front of my house. I had to wait until we had the concrete work done to our steps and since we did not change the configuration of the steps, our paver sidewalk remained intact and I was able to start on this new bed. This is at the corner of the driveway and the sidewalk, you can see the retaining block just put in and the damaged corner of my car (oops!) so that let's you know the orientation. Oh - This is North Facing. Also - this sidewalk is about 90 feet from the road so the plants will be at quite a dstance from pollution etc. I will by continuing with the retaining block all along the sidewalk as my intention is to extend the bed all the way across the front of the house - encompassing the giant Colorado Blue Spruce that is smack in the middle of the hous and then the new Norway Spruce we planted at the western corner last fall. More pics of that area to come....

So these are three knock out rose bushes in the color called sunshine - which I liked the name also - with red wave petunias so I should get some spread on those this year and a groundcover blue juniper that will spread to 1' high and about 8' wide. I anticipate pruning that to fit the corner. The master plan is to find some incredible large flat outcropping rocks in a cream and grey shade to place along the front edge of the bed - proving focal points - and have perennials and evergreens like the blue juniper creep over the rocks or growing between the slabs. A lot of the back side of the bed will just be rock and mulch as we have very difficult spruce roots in that area. We do have two raised planting beds along the front of the house so we have a soft foundation line. More on that later.....

So what do you think of my new roses?

The COF class in Basket Making

So I wanted to share this also - this is a basket I made after getting home from the retreat. At the retreat one of the classes was making rope baskets. You use 7/32 inch cotton rope, wrap it in folded 1 inch strips of fabric and sew it all together zigzagging each row. The one I made at class was smaller and looks like golden straw. It sits next to me in the LR where I read and sometimes stitch. This one is quite large - about 13 inches long and 9 inches deep - so it's great for holding mail, books, would be great in a bathroom for rolled facecloths, or toiletries. The end of the 'rope' is twisted into a four leaf clover shape on the front of the basket. That was the hardest part!!

Please excuse the photo colors - the blues are lighter and the cream is a pale cream - all batiks again!

Mug Block for a Friend of COF

So... finally I am back here again...life has been so busy I can hardly believe it has been over a month since my birthday and like 6 weeks since the retreat ended. I think I told you all about the wonderful potter from NC who did a demo and talk for us? I brought home a lovely vase he created? well - it was suggested we might make him a quilt as a thank you for his time and attendance - and so I have finished mine and will be mailing it off today. It is batik on batik, my favorite blues in the background and I love the new Perle thread that is ombre in shades of sapphire. The mug I rec'd at the retreat is creamy white so I thought this appropriate. The finished quilt will have probably 80 of these blocks on it! is that cool or what?


On another note spring has finally come to Illinois and I am busy in the garden - more pictures soon!

Oh - also more shopping at the LQS this past week - after a stressful week at work and the car accident and everything else I splurged a bit on medicinal fabric. Batiks and CWR and a new CWR pattern that I love..... oh my! life is so good when you have new fabric.... going to make some more rope bowls soon!

COF

So I was just bouncing around some new COF friends blogspots and was thrilled to see some people update so frequently -others like me - not so much! oh well. It seems I was so geared up for so long to get to the retreat in Charlotte and then it came and went so quickly! I don't have many pics to share with you because after I arrived and turned on the newly charged camera it displayed a 'this card cannot be used' message. Something with formatting the memory card or something - anyway - lots of pictures elsewhere on the web. Here is however a picture of something I made BEFORE the retreat.

This is just a portion of the 102 yo-yo pins I made for the retreat attendees. (Scattered on my desk at work, see my diet coke cup in the background? smile) I wanted to do the best job I could to meet everyone - so I decided making something for each person was the way to go. So MONTHS before the retreat I started pulling fabrics (and buying fabrics) and making yo-yos. (Yes 204 of them and I had 2 yos left over so thats 206 yo-yos I made!) Each pin has two yo-yo's sewn on top of each other and held in place with a vintage button. No two pins are alike. The buttons came from a tin I inherited from a neighbor of my aunt in Florida in 1994. The original owner of the tin used to have a fabric shop in the NE with a sister dating back to the early 1900's. So many of the buttons were actually cards of stock samples and it was easy to pick out the deco and hand carved beauties! Unfortunately a lot fo them were bakelite and just didn't survive the passing of time but way down in the bottom of the tin I found a metal dog registration tag from the city of New York stamped 1903!! Cool eh??? So I made all these by hand then stitched brooch bask on the backside (by hand) and bagged and tagged them. We had about 80 attendees plus some guests, so I have very few of these left - it was a lot of fun, but I'm not sure what I can possibly do next year to surpass this.

More retreat news soon.

Pick yourself up...Dust yourself off......

Great old song, and it's what I'm humming as I realize how far I have fallen down on updating my blog. I have been planning to come back for a long time, but was thinking too much on what I wanted to post instead of just doing it.

What I really wanted to post was the picture of the CWR (Civil War Reproduction) quilt I got back from custom quilting in January. But it's a gift for a loved one, and I didn't want to risk spoiling the surprise! So, I didn't post. Well - that's unacceptable - so here I am. Still not showing that quilt - but with other news.

First off - I can barely contain my excitement after almost a year of waiting I will be going to my first quilt retreat in less than 2 weeks!! I have lots to do still and am tracking tasks and packing on a spreadsheet to try to defray some of the anxiety. I am road tripping to Charlotte North Carolina and will be gone from home for almost two weeks! wow......I will miss my men, but it will be a good miss and I know I will be so happy to come home to them!

The other news is that we met last night with a landscape designer who is going to draw plans for our front yard and our back terrace. It will be a 3-4 week adventure as we share ideas and desires back and forth. This came from needing to have our front porch and stairs replaced. The 55 year old concrete had just broken down and it has to go. We could just hire a concrete guy and tell him to replace it - but I hate the way it is now - want to re-orient and enlarge the porch and the steps and the best way to visualize what it's going to be is with a plan. We will get the hardscape work done probably in late May early June and then slowly incorporate the planting changes as we can budget it. Just in case you don't remember how ugly the front of my house is - here's a picture of it. I'll be sure to post more before, during and after as we proceed with this project. Now I guess I need to go buy Lottery tickets and hope I win so I can do all this!!

More later - Toby