Happy Flag Day

Celebrating  the Red White and Blue
Ann

Tropical Shoo Fly

 My tropical shoo fly quilt on the prairie. This is my favorite summer quilt because I quilted it so heavily that it is just right when hubby has turned the AC to too cool for me. My intentions were to use this quilt top as a roman shade for a window but after the quilt top  was sewn it  wasn't right for the window so I finished it as a quilt and used a tropical print which I intended to make a blouse for me but sewing clothes for my daughter was lots more fun and then I thought it was out of style for a garment, so it was added to the fabric stash and it called to me for this quilt but of course it wasn't big enough so I added pieces to make it fit. That is a really run on sentence. I quilted this from the back side, around each of the flowers and leaves and birds and drew the designs to extend into the batik area. It was a chore and I have never done anything like that since 2003 when the label says I made the quilt. --Ann--

scissors

 Hubby dearest ventured into my sewing room on a weekend too windy or rainy for him to fish just to see what I was doing and commented on how many scissors I have. He always has to pick them up and snip snip just to get a rise out of me. I am very protective of my scissors.  He should be glad otherwise he would be buying me a new pair of really good scissors every 2 or 3 years, probably without his knowledge.  I have craft scissors in the jar and sewing scissors in the mug and at various work stations in my sewing room.
 The black handle scissors at 2:00 were my first very own sewing scissors that I got when I was 11 or 12 years old; they were a 4-H clothing project award. They served me well but are now relegated to the craft jar.  He wanted to take my spring loaded clippers at 11:00 for cutting the gills of the fish.  He said he would give them back after the fishing trip fortunately they are a little short for his purpose.
 I have project scissors for hand quilting, applique, needlepoint, and cross stitch, I'm sure there are some tucked away in long forgotten project bags.
Then there are craft and kitchen scissors, the scissors on the bottom will cut through bone.  Hubby dearest only saw a fraction of my scissors and that is probably best. I should look for a larger spring loaded scissors for Father's Day. For every scissors there is a purpose.
How many times did I type the word scissors?   Ann

strawberries

 I picked one red ripe strawberry from my patch on Monday. It was delicious but one  just wasn't enough so daughter and I drove 2 hours to Sanderson gardens (one of hubbies high school buddies has a truck garden a few miles from where I grew up) and picked berries and more berries.

We actually picked 4 gallon buckets but I gave 2 quarts to oldest son, his birthday is today 28 years old and I gave 2 quarts to my dad before we headed west toward home.

"Doubtless God could have made a better berry (than the strawberry), but doubtless God never did."  William Allen Butler

' Long 'bout knee deep in  June, 'bout the time strawberries melt on the vine....  from a poem by James Whitcomb Riley

The best berries are just picked and warm from the sun. ~~Ann~~

Peonies

Peonies have been so beautiful this year.  The buds always remind me of my little boys, when they were 2 and 4 years old they picked all the buds off  the peonies to play marbles but they didn't roll so good because they were sticky and picked up dirt and they had to deal with the ants after the nectar. I love the gentle gradation of color in the buds and outside petals and how the green and red melt together but never get muddy.  How does nature do that?
always in awe of nature --Ann--

Design Wall Monday

http://www.patchworktimes.com/2012/05/28/design-wall-monday-may-28-2012/

The border are on and my fat quarters are almost gone. Now to decide how to quilt it. I could stitch through all the nine patches the green and so a grid and stitch around each star or I could do my old stand by concentric tear drops.  Linking up to Judy's Design Wall Monday 
--Ann--

Whats Blooming and reading list

I can never remember if this is a Dutch iris or a Siberian Iris

a volunteer poppy with the volunteer lettuce in my garden and my potatoes are up!!!!!!  My old fashioned peonies are blooming too but the wind knocked them flat. I'll have to cut them all and bring them in to enjoy.

1. Lovers Knot by Clare O'Donahue
2. Killing Lincoln by Bill O'Rielly  for book club
3. An Unlikely Friendship Mary Todd Lincoln and Elizabeth Keckley by Ann Rinaldi
4. Quilt as Desired by Arlene Sachitano
5. Doc by Mary Doria Russell  there was a lot more to Doc Holliday than the shoot out at the OK coral.
6. Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas  for book club about Japanese interment in Colorado during WWII
7. Prayers for Sale by Sandra Dallas another quilting story set in mining town in mountains of Colorado in late 1800's
8. Murder on the Rocks  by Karen MacInerey  free kindle book
9. Quilter's Knot  by Arlene Sachitano
10. The Secret of Sarah Revere  by Ann Rinaldi  for book club
11. Georgia in  Hawaii when Georgia O'Keeffe painted what she pleased Amy Novesky ill.Yuyi Morales
12. Art from the Heart folk artist Clementine Hunter  by Kathy Whitehead ill. Shane W Evans
13. The Boy Who Drew Birds a story of John James Audubon  by Jacqueline Davis ill. Melissa Sweet
14. The Amber Photograph  by Penelope J. Stokes
15. True Believer Nicholas Sparks
16. At First Sight Nicholas Sparks
17. A Drunkard's Path Clare O'Donahue
18. Water for Elephants  Sara Gruen  for book club
19. John James Audubon  John Burroughs  free book  I'm so glad writing styles have changed over the century very interesting but not very exciting.

 Books I read this winter and spring. School is out; not that I have kids at home but it means summer reading so I will start a new list.  -- Ann--