Quilted Jonquil

We have a hanging fern on our front porch.

It’s growing well.  This morning we discovered a surprise.

A nest!  Not only a nest but a nest made with some of the laundry lint I’ve put out   In our backyard there is a nest in the crook of the drain pipe that has been used for years, mainly by doves but occasionally by robins.  This year the doves are using it.  See the tail of the baby dove sticking out?  Please ignore the nest mess, Mrs. Dove wasn’t expecting a photographer.  I think the baby will be taking off soon.

We have lots of squirrels around our neighborhood.  Every year I plant something in a sap bucket and hang it on our tree.  For some strange reason, the squirrels ALWAYS have to mess with the plants.  Case in point this year:

I’ve taken it off the tree to see if the spike plant will recover!  My SIL planted a spike plant in it last year after I told her I wasn’t planting anything in it because of the squirrels……. and the squirrels left it alone…..I thought I’d be safe following her lead…….go figure.

My DH and DS installed our rain barrel today, yea!!  We’ll be having rain later this week so I’ll be using rain water on my plants soon

First, be sure to check out the May AAQI auction which ends tomorrow night (May 10th) at 10 EDT.  My quilt hasn’t raised as much money as I’d hoped but maybe there will be a last minute bidder

Here are the next blocks of the Pinwheel Party quilt!  Block #10….only two more blocks to go

I’m busy with the applique on the hospitality block #6 of the Vicksburg FREE BOM and doing some hand quilting on this wall hanging.

I’ve had the applique done for years and it’s even been basted for a couple of years.  This was a gift from my SIL and I’m sure she’s happy to see it’s being worked on   My excuse?  I’ve always known this needed hand quilting and since I’d never done any before, I needed to practice some before starting this one. You can see my stitches are big but I’m really working to keep them even.

Now, for those of you (Lori & Dar) who might have noticed I didn’t update my stash report, here it is:

Stash Report

• Added:  1      Cumulative Added:  92.5 yds
  
• Used:  0         Cumulative Used:  15 yds
• Net Out/(In):   (77.5 yds)

Here are the pieces I purchased (including a Jo Morton!!)  and they WILL be used in a 9 patch mini this year.   No yardage out yet but only 4 more weeks to go on the Pinwheel Party blocks and I’ll get to count the yardage for 2 quilts!!!  In case you are wondering that will be 12 yards used for the tops according to the pattern requirements AND another 6 yards for backings.

Woo Hoo!!  I’m all caught up on the Pinwheel Party blocks.  Here are blocks #8.  Block 9 is posted and it’s a cute one.

I usually use Picnik to edit my photos but for some reason it’s not loading today so my pictures are worse than normal! Edited:  Pictures have been improved slightly now that Picnik is back up. Here’s my design wall.  Are you getting tired of the Pinwheel Party blocks yet???  This is such a fun quilt (in my case it’s quilts).  I’m only behind by one block and I have the half square triangles sewn for them already so there’s a chance I can catch up   Only 5 more weeks to go!  I had to remove the orange background set from the wall as there isn’t enough room for them all.

Here’s the latest orange background pinwheel block:

And how wonderful to pop over to the AAQI Priority Quilt auction and see that my quilt made the front page!!!

WOW!!  I’m excited so far on this first day of the AAQI auction, three of the four quilts from my guild which are included have bids……and one of them is mine, yippee.  Suzanne Marshall’s is already at $75 which is a great deal for a piece of her work.  Anyway, check out the auction which continues until May 10th at 10 PM EDT.

Suzanne's

Kathleen's

Lois'

Cherie's

We also picked up our rain barrel today….sweet!