Friendship stars

 I machine quilted this for a girlfriend, her first quilt!  I let her use fabrics from my stash, my sewing machine and design wall.  We had fun!  And hardly a dent in the fabric stash.  The baby got the quilt over the weekend, she is now 4 month old her little eyes will have lots too look at, bold bright colors and little black and white motifs. Make tummy time a happy time. I just love looking at these bright colors. She is going to have to make another quilt from my stash sometime. Quilting with friends is the best time. —Ann—

Ta da da da da done

 

Finished and ready to go to the post office.  The baby is 4 months old already. What have I been doing??  Not much blog worthy. —Ann—

Just one hour

 

Ok two hours the first hour…..in the iris garden dead heading they are still stunning ! And the one hour in the sewing room….that’s all it took to machine quilt all the blocks.  That wonderful feeling of accomplishing something! Hubby has been gone fishing and I haven’t checked many things off my list, so far it has just been the little details of life “don’t forget to do this” “make that appointment” etc. no real accomplishments until my one hour in the sewing room.  Tomorrow I will stitch the borders and the binding. That one hour in the sewing room was like pushing the ‘reset’ in my head. What can you get done in an hour?  —Ann—

It’s summertime

 

A perfect summer morning—Ann—

The watercolor was done with an app 

Iris

The iris are blooming at McCrorey gardens at SDSU in Brookings. I help weed them once a week for one hour. It’s amazing how many weeds 8 to 12 women can pull in an hour. The blooms are bigger and more numerous than last year. They got rain and sunshine at the perfect time this year.  They were glorious before the wind today. —Ann—
 

Writing in books

 

A few decades ago back when I was doing calligraphy and my children were babies I wrote their names in all their books that were gifts, their name, year and the occasion and a couple books signed by the author. The little girls always want me to read that page and always followed by a slew of questions and explanations. “ This was my daddy’s book?” “From mommy and  daddy?” Followed by long explanation of grandma and grandpa are your daddy’s mommy and daddy. We are still working on that concept. I have continued the tradition of writing in the books I give to each of them and together. My calligraphy is not as nice as it once was it’s like all things that require practice to get to a degree of perfection if you don’t do it you loose it. These books are theirs but the books stay at my house. We always read the inscription before reading the story.

My mother gave me a stack of books from my childhood years ago, it was fun to read the inscriptions in them from my grandparents and godparents but sadly those books had been stored in the basement and smelled musty really musty. I shelved them with my books briefly but the smell migrated so I spread them outside in the sun for days but couldn’t get rid of the smell so I tossed them all. Most were little golden books. I still have a couple that I got after my parents passed away, my daughter says she can still smell grandma’s house in them.  Making keepsakes—Ann—