Small Scale Gardening

Yesterday we did a little small scale gardening.    Terrariums seem to be making a comeback.  You can see them at a lot of nursery's and garden shops.

So Susan, Hanna and I thought we'd give it a try.

All you need is a glass vessel for an indoor one, or a shallow bowl shaped vessel for an outdoor table top garden.

The basic steps for layering it are:

Rocks for drainage
Charcoal for filtering (I bought it at a pet store)
Potting Soil
Plants - small scale, succulents or sedum
live moss (for indoor terrariums - i found mine in my yard)
Pretty Rocks for decoration

Here they are finished~

Hanna's:

Mine~

Susan's - I love the color in hers~

The Hummingbirds are back!  I set up a feeder off the deck which they seem to really like.

The Female

 The  Male - he is gorgeous in the sunlight.

I have a good view from the kitchen sink and I'm amazed how much time they are spending at the feeder.  Sometimes they just sit a spell.

Have a wonderful Memorial Weekend!

Jill Reid - A Tribute

On Friday I lost my dear friend, kindred spirit and creative playmate Jill.

Jill was a talented quilter, devoted wife, loving mother and fiercely loyal friend.  She loved gardens, decorating for the holidays, board games, crafting and outings.  She was always busy planning something fun to do, somewhere fun to visit or a project to work on.   I can't fully realize how my life will be without her yet.

She had a long partnership with Windham Fabrics.  As a quilt designer and her quilts were often featured in the best quilting magazines, often on the cover.  Jill also won many ribbons including The Founders Award at the Vermont Quilt show.  Here are just a few of her quilts.

Jill was usually behind the camera and documented many of get togethers.  Here are a just a few photos that I had.  This first one is the Cupcake group.  We met monthly for years.

I'm so grateful for the time we had together and for all the wonderful memories I will cherish.

God Bless You Jill -

xo

Long Live The King!

Even my new design wall isn't large enough for a King sized quilt.   Here is a quilt I'm making for my bed.  I'm going to call it King George.  I started this several years ago and I'm finally getting back to it.

After the Revolutionary war, America didn't want a "King", so he became President George Washington.  In any event, he certainly was an American Hero.

I love this fabric and have been saving it for a long time.  I used it in 2009 to cover this hat box.  Check out the original post here.

Here is my sketch.  It really helps keep me on track making double nine patch blocks and cutting the setting blocks.

I used beautiful rich brown fabrics reminiscent of Civil War dressing gowns like this these.

I intend to quilt it myself, one half of at a time, adding batting half a time.  I haven't done this before so let me know if you have any suggestions or hints.

I am very late to Game of Thrones, but really enjoyed binge watching and now I'm caught up.  Here is Joffrey, King of nightmares.

And here is the future King George 7th of England.   He's dreamy!

I'm really looking forward to the reign of my King George king sized quilt.  In the meantime.....back to sewing.  99 blocks is quite a project.