My Garden

I finally got out in my garden this weekend after weeks of rain. We held our annual neighborhood plant swap last week and I came home with 4 or 5 plants I did not have. Of course finding a spot for them in my tiny yard gets harder every year.

Does anyone recognize this plant? It has a pretty unique leaf shape and I'm wondering if it is a weed or a plant? I don't want to dig it up if it is a species of 'something' LOL ... it's getting ready to bloom so maybe I'll keep it until I find out for sure.

As you can see from this shot I really need to thin out my plants even more this year. But I hate to throw away plants that are about to bloom. This will be a sea of yellow in a couple of weeks when the primrose blooms but after that I promise to thin it out! The only bad part of a small yard is you have to be so brutal when it comes to thinning out things! Anyone in the neighborhood need some more plants?

I mentioned in my last post that I went on a Quilters Retreat this past weekend. I thought you might like to see a picture of this great place we found close to Louisville which is set up just for quilters. It is called Pieceful Haven.

I'm thinking about putting together a retreat some time later this year in Louisville if anyone is interested. She is booked up for the next few months so we would have to plan in advance ... just a thought. Drop me a line if you would like to come to Louisville for a relaxing weekend to quilt, eat and chat!

Our group had a mixture of fiber artist. There were 2 crazy quilters, 1 cross stitcher, 4 knitters and 1 traditional quilter. A fun time was had by all!

- I'm in a RR on the CQI list and here is a picture of Peggy Reynold's block. I did the beading and two seams on the fan. I also added the silk ribbon roses on the fan and did the rose swag across the center of the block. I'm only the first to work on the block and with four more to go I decided to save space for them! It was a fun block to work on!

I finished piecing my April block for the TIF challenge and started embellishing it. Another new color combination for me.

I went to a quilting retreat this past weekend and had a ball! What a relaxing way to catch up on your stitching.

Here is one of the blocks I pieced for the TIF Challenge. This is my May block ... now I just need to embellish.

This challenge has really help me branch out and use color combinations I don't usually work with. Now if only I could photograph the blocks so the color is closer to what they actually are. I guess I just need to work on lighting and settings on my camera.

The front of the finished needle case.

I added a couple of sections for needles and pins.

Added two pockets to insert small items.

For the final touch I added my initials and the date. I hope my swap partner likes it!

I finished embellishing my needle case for the swap partner. The front has a lot more embellishments compared to the back. I put the right sides together with a small piece of quilt batting and ...

I then sewed around all four edges, leaving a small 3 inch opening. Trimmed the seams, cut the corners on an angle and pressed it for one final time.

Then I turned it inside out through the small opening.

My Dogwood Tree is beautiful this year! I guess all the rain we had made the plants and trees happy. Oh and it also made the weeds happy. Guess what I'll be doing this weekend!

The conference was a great success but I'm glad it is over. Hopefully things will soon get back to normal around here. I took today off to catch up on house work and wouldn't you know we had an earthquake here that jarred me out of bed at 5:37 am. That's what I get for trying to sleep in!

We opened the conference with a military color guard.

There were plenty of speeches and educational opportunities...

.... and then there was dinner at Proof On Main. A fabulous restaurant in Louisville that is also an art gallery. This is a interactive picture of a couple in bed, found on the floor not the wall. The couple move around as you stand watching it. It is controlled by people using a computer. Pretty amazing stuff ... you really need to see it to believe it.

They have all kinds of art displayed on the walls in the restaurant. It also houses a really cool hotel 21c. You need to check it out if ever you are in Louisville. Oh and the food was delicious! A real treat and a great night on the town!

I finished piecing my new RR block and got it off in the mail this morning. I'm heading out the door to the big conference I've been working on for months and will be tied up with for the next 5 days. After it ends my life should get back to some form of 'normal'. LOL ... what ever 'normal' is ... The conference has been in the works for so long now it almost seems to be a part of my life.

This block is really vibrant and I couldn't get a good picture this morning. The sunshine we had yesterday is gone and it has turned cloudy and cold. I will have to bundle up as I head out today. Most of the conference activities today are outdoors. It is the opening day of The Kentucky Derby Festival and one of the largest fireworks show in the world will be here in Louisville tonight. Oh the crowds! But it should be fun as there will be a lot of folks in from out of town. Gotta run for now .... I'll catch up with everyone later this week and hopefully I'll have a few pictures of the event.