Morning In The Garden

I took a step out into the garden this morning to take stock of what transpired during the night.  The garden in spring is just filled with surprise.  

This Clemantis is always a show stopper.  This is it's third year in bloom and it is heavey laden with blossoms this year.

There is a Mama Cardinal sitting on a nest just above this birdbath.  She has found a place in the red climbing rose that grows next to the Clemantis.  I will try to get a picture once the baby is born.  She's not happy with my presence, to say the least.

This ladder will soon be covered with Sweet Pea vine which is about a foot off the ground today.  The plant comes back every year with the most beautiful pink flowers.  In the meantime, I can enjoy the Foxglove in all it's glory.

My friend, Debbie gave me this lamb for my birthday a couple of years ago and I just love it.  It always makes me stop and think of the Lamb of God.  It greets me going in and coming out of the garden, an ever present reminder of the One who created it all.  Blessings!

Joyfully,

Memorial Day

"If God thinks this state of war in the universe a price worth

paying for free will, then we may take that it is worth paying."

C. S. Lewis

Thank you, Lord, for all the people who gave their lives for

our freedom and the freedom of others created in your image.

Sunday Scripture

"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.

Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is

love.  This is how God showed his love among us:  He sent

his one and only Son into the world that we might live through

him.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us

and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  Dear 

friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one

another.  No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another,

God lives in us and His love is made complete in us."

1 John 4:7-12

Blessings,

Fairy Dreams

photo by Nakae~Flickr

When I was little I liked to go into the woods by my house.  I would sit on the moss and imagine that there were fairies in the woods.  I called it my secret place.  A place where I could dream of the magical fairy lands that I read about in books.

photo source unknown

My Mom is an avid gardener and she has many little fairy touches in her gardens.  By our tree in the backyard is an opening where you can step out into the field to reach the woods.  I was there not long ago and stood in that opening, remembering.

photo source unknown

I'm certain that all the pretend and make-believe shaped me into the creative soul I am today.  I'm very glad I had those woods back then, my secret place and my fairy dreams.

With joy,

Friday Pretties

I took my daughter and her friend to see these guys last night...

Nick Carter

He's my Friday Pretties~

It was so much fun!

For more Friday Pretties visit Joyce at

I Love Pretty Little Things

Smiles,

Isn't it Romantic?

I want to share with you the beautiful wreath that my friend, Chelsea, made for me.  It's formed out of cupcake liners.  I love it!  It's so romantic looking.

If I remember correctly, I believe Chelsea told me that it takes 350 liners to make one wreath.  It looks like ruffles of frosting!

It looks great in the pretty room on my shelf made from an old door.  I wish the lighting had been better today, but the rain and grey skies are here for a few more days.  Today is Shann's birthday over at Daisy's Are My Favorite Flower.  Be sure to stop by with some well wishes.  She's such a sweet lady!

Hugs,

Picnic

One more quilt to show you ~

Picnic

This one will be hard to let go of

but it's soon on it's way to a graduate

Have a wonderful day!

With joy,

May Flowers

I love getting a call from Mary, my quilter.  She does such beautiful work and it's always so much fun to see what fabulous stitching she has done.  I knew the May Flowers quilt would be spectacular, and it is!

I find it so fitting that the quilt is completed just when the flowers in the garden are beginning to make their debut.  I love Foxglove.  To me, it's fairytale, secret garden and romance all rolled into one.

Recently I was asked if I do my own quilting.  I usually don't quilt anything myself that is larger than a baby quilt.  Because of the volume of custom orders I do this time of year, it would be impossible to have the quilts out in a timely manner.

For me, piecing and quilting come from different parts of my brain.  I can follow a pattern and after all these years of quilting am finally feeling like I can be confident in my color choices and don't have to use a kit.  That took me quite a while.

The quilting, however, is an art form that I'm not skilled in.  Mary can look at a quilt and see things that I don't see.  She looks at the design and knows how to enhance it.  When I take her a quilt she will ask me what I was thinking about for the quilting.  Ninety-Nine percent of the time it's her call.  I trust her completely as an artist.

I have a growing interest in handquilting due to Mary at Molly Flanders.  I can't imagine adding that to my list of things to learn right now, but her techniques are wonderul as are her quilts.  I love how God gives all of us different gifts and each of them produce something beautiful.  Blessings!

Joyfully,

Sunday Scripture

"No one knows about that day or hour,

not even the angels in heaven, nor 

the Son, but only the Father.

Therefore keep watch, because 

you do not know on what day

your Lord will come.  But understand

this:  If the owner of the house had

known at what time of night the

thief was coming, he would have

kept watch and would not have let

his house be broken into.  So you

must also be ready, because the 

Son of Man will come at an hour

when you do not expect him."

Matthew 24:36, 42-44

Blessings,

Friday Pretties

My girl and her guy...

Prom 2011

For more Friday Pretties visit Joyce at

I Love Pretty Little Things

Top three pictures by Lantis Photography & Graphic Design

Joyfully,

At The Farm

Our season of fun is beginning at Friendship Farms.  We have six weddings scheduled for this summer with the first one the beginning of June.

Recently I decorated the barn for a fundraiser and a retirement party.  It was fun to use the bunting I made as well as the ruffles I put together using inexpensive plastic tablecloths.  When I find the tutorial on how I did these, I will let you know, it escapes me right now.

I took these pictures last week before the fund raiser.  I don't know if you can tell, but a big storm was rolling in.  It was very calm and peaceful though we knew what was coming.  Everything went great, but it did rain "cats and dogs" that night.

Aren't these vintage pieces fun?  Nancy has many fun things to use at events.  I just love pink and had to share these with you.  It looks like rain here today, so I'm off to quilt!

Smiles,

The Colors of Spring

I was very excited yesterday to make my annual trip to Countryview greenhouse with my friend, Diane.  Walking into a greenhouse is like walking into paradise for me.

I was struck my the similarities between the flower colors I chose and the quilt that I just completed.  This is a custom order graduation quilt and the Mom and I shopped together for the fabric.  

The Mom is an artist specializing in painting and she has a wonderful eye for color.  I enjoyed shopping for fabric with an artist who comes with a different yet similar perspective on color.  This quilt is from Camille Roskelley's new book, "Simplify".  It was fun to make!

I would like to take a moment to answer a couple of questions from some past posts.  Yesterday's bag was made from fabric called, "Betty Dear" by Darlene Zimmerman for Robert Kaufmann fabrics.  It is a reproduction and I actually saw the original fabric at a barn sale earlier in the month.  The original was more blue and less aqua.  Both are wonderful.  The white flower in my last "Friday Pretties" post is Trillium.  A friend of mine brought it to me from Ohio when I moved here almost eight years ago.  It's a reminder of my years living there.  This is the first year in all these years that the plant has produced another plant several feet away from it.  I was so excited!  I apologize for not answering questions more often and I will make a point to do so in the future.  Blessings!

Hugs,