Snowy Update

The snow has stopped and the sun is trying to peak out.  I think we received around 6 inches of snow with 1/2 inch of ice underneath. 

Yesterday I worked on my Ricky Tims Convergence experiment.  I watched Ricky demonstrate this technique on the Quilt Show but I cannot remember which episode it was.  It used to be the free show but it looks like they have changed it.

This was my first attempt at semi curved piecing and also my first attempt at free motion stippling.  Today I will bind it to get some practice.  I love the dotted fabric.  I bought it several years ago at a quilt store that was in Perkins, OK.  That store has now closed.  The fabric was with the batiks but I think it is hand dyed. 

I am looking forward to Monday when I will get the pattern for the February Star Crazy BOM.

Until next time,

Knock Out Punch

The weather man is now saying that the next 5 hours are the "Knock Out Punch".  This is when the ice will knock out the power lines.  They are predicting 100,000 people may be without power.  We'll see how close they are to that prediction.

This is how much ice is on the front porch shrubs.  My in-laws are going to my sister-in-laws house (which is next door to them).  She has a huge fireplace and they don't want to chance being without power.

While I still had power I finished my "May" blocks for the 2009 Stars for a New Day BOM.  Don't look too close, I haven't trimmed them up yet.

All of my family is safe at home except my son-in-law who is a deputy sheriff.  He is essential personnel and is at work.  The roads are so very bad right now and getting worse.  I hope he stays at work tonight.

I will update again tomorrow if I can.

Kclily

Cataclysmic!!

Today it is 70 degrees outside, absolutely perfect weather.  Tomorrow by noon they are forecasting 1 inch of ice and 4-8 inches of snow.  One weather man said this could be "cataclysmic".  I had to look that word up to make sure I knew what it meant.  Basically it means a natural disaster.  Because they are forecasting so much ice they are predicting that many of us could be without power. 

So I have brought in firewood so I can have a roaring fire in the fireplace.  I am not too worried about the possiblity of the power outage because we have gas heat and a gas stove.  We also have a generator to run our well and our refrigerator.  I am worried about the rest of my family, my daughters, my mother and my in-laws.  We will face those problems when and if it happens. 

In the past week we have had at least 5 earthquakes, we have been under a tornado watch and we have had perfect spring weather.  Now this could be our Blizzard of 2010, all in one week!  This is not like the Oklahoma that I have lived in for over 50 years. 

I am keeping my laptop, cell phone and Ipod charged.  I'll keep you updated.

My Blog Journal

For many years I have been trying to keep a journal of my life but I have not been very faithful at staying with it.  I am finding that blogging is a good way to journal my life and share it with others.  On the blogger website I found this Blog2Print Shared Book website where you can create a hard back or paper back "journal" of your blog.

This was extremely easy to create.  I bought the hard back version.  You can choose what type of a cover you want, the wording on the spine and what you want included inside your journal. 

I am very pleased with the quality of the book.  It has nice paper and there is good color on each page.  I started my journal with the first day I blogged until the last blog of 2009.  I had blogged for 5 months and I usually blog twice a week so my book was only 50 pages.  If you blog a lot this book could get expensive but for me it is worth it. 

Until next time,

Kclily

Planting Garlic

Today it was 63 degrees here so I took the opportunity to plant my garlic.  These are heads of garlic that I grew in 2009.  I will use them as my "seeds". 

You are supposed to plant garlic after the first frost but we really haven't had many days since our first frost to plant anything.  I tried to plant last week but the ground was frozen and I could not get a fork to pierce the soil. 

Brutus decided he needed to help.  He is always in the middle of everything. 

My raised beds in the potager are numbered so I can record where everything is planted.  Today I am working in bed 5.  I pulled out my fork to start removing the winter weeds but decided I didn't really want to turn that much soil over.

I switched to my shuffle hoe.  This is one of my favorite tools.  Turning over too much soil will bring a lot of weed seeds to the surface and believe me they will all germinate.  This hoe will loosen the weeds and allows me to pick them out and throw into the long-term compost pile. 

I planted 2 varieties that I bought in 2007 from Seed Savers.  "Music" shown above is a hard neck variety.  You can see the hard stem that grows through the middle.  The hard neck variety stores the best.  "Tochliavri" is a soft neck variety and it does not store as long.  You can see in the first picture that it has started growing indoors.  It grows even if I store it in the dark.

 I immediately come inside, take my spiral notebook, draw my bed and note what is planted.  I have dug up too many plants because I didn't remember they were planted there.

Thank you for joining me in the garden today.

Until next time,

Kclily

Fertilizer Friday - West Coast

Welcome to another Fertilizer Friday - Flaunt your Flowers.

Thank you Tootsie for hosting this event.  Be sure to visit Tootsie Time to see more beautiful blooms.

I don't have anything new to show you this week in my yard so I thought I would share a few photos I took in 2006 when we did a tour of the West Coast of America.

I took this picture at the Carl S. English Jr. Gardens at the locks in Seattle.  It is a passion vine, variety unknown.

Isn't this a beautiful pot of flowers?  I took this picture at the Pebble Beach Golf Course.

I'm not sure if these are daisies or feverfew.  This was taken at The Arboretum of  Los Angeles County.  I love these little flowers and would like to grow something similiar.

No flowers but these redwoods are just too magnificent not to show.  These are the Crescent City Redwoods in California.


America the Beautiful!

Until next time,

Star Crazy BOM - January Finished

Hello and welcome.  This week our temperatures have been in the 40's so I thought I would plant garlic BUT the ground is still frozen...hard as a rock.  I am very very late at getting my garlic planted but I am going to try again next week. 

Since there is still snow on the ground I am quilting.  On Wednesdays I attend what is called Sit N Sew at Oklahoma Quiltworks, my local quilt store (local even if it is 25 miles away, ugh).  Today I finished the 8 January blocks for the Star Crazy BOM. 

I call my quilts Edison Quilts after Thomas Edison.  His quote "I've not failed.  I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work" seems to always apply to my quilts.  I, like him, am learning from my mistakes.  This is what I learned today in this quilting venture.

• Use more contrast in my fabric selection.  I bought more fabric today (good excuse, right?)
• My blocks are a little oversized because I always sew using a scant 1/4".  For this project I have to use a true 1/4" seam allowance. 

I attempted to square up my blocks using my Quilt in a Day Square-up ruler.  I love this ruler but there was no squaring of these blocks.  You can see the slivers I cut off.  I was going to lose the tips of the stars if I cut too much so I called it good. 

Here is another Edison quote for you "Many of life's failures are men who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up".  Press forward in whatever your life's passion is, success is right around the corner.

Until next time,

Fertilizer Friday - Cyclamen and Bird of Paradise

Welcome to Fertilizer Friday-Flaunt Your Flower.  Thank you Tootsie for hosting the event.

I found 2 surprises in my greenhouse recently.

My Bird of Paradise is blooming AGAIN!  This picture was taken on Christmas Eve so that makes 4 times it bloomed last year.  I cut the bloom and it still looks good in my bathroom today.  You will also notice a beautiful Rex Begonia in a clay pot and the very serrated plant is a papaya.

This cyclamen has such a pretty deep red bloom. 

Now, pop on over to Tootsie Time to see what else is blooming in January.

Until next time,

Star Crazy BOM - The Beginning

Am I crazy or what?  I am starting another block of the month.  Again this pattern comes from the Quilt Show hosted by Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims.  For those of you who do not quilt this is a member paid  on-line quilt show.

I am getting brave.  I am going to try a totally different color pallet than the pattern calls for.  In 2009 I collected red fabrics and I think this is a good time to use them.  My color pallet will be red, white and black. 

I am using the Quilt Dance Tags to identify my fabric colors verses the pattern fabric colors. For each piece of fabric, I randomly select a tag and I will use the row-block number to identify my fabric choice on the pattern.

Using the pattern I tried to identify the color value of the fabric used in the pattern, determining what I thought would be light, medium and dark fabrics.  I used one of those red plastic viewers(can't remember what they are called) that remove all color and simply show value.  I wrote L,M, or D next to each color then I selected my fabrics the same way.  Once a fabric was selected I assigned a number to it and wrote that on the pattern.  Each month I will have to pull my color selections and see if I need to make changes based on the pattern that month. 

Now I need to start cutting the January blocks.

Until next time,

Mosaic Monday - Cats and Butterflies

Hello and welcome to Mosaic Monday hosted by Mary at Little Red House.  Thank you Mary for hosting this event.

To start the year I wanted to introduce my cats again.

Patty, who is black and white, is the mother of our other 2 cats.  Patty likes to snuggle.  The vet tells me that the kittens had different fathers even though they were from the same litter. 

Nosey, the calico with the black spot on her nose, is a timid little kitty who talks to us from time to time.  We almost lost her in November but she is doing fine now.

Brutus is our gray and white tabby.  His name fits him perfectly.  He weighs 15 lbs and is still growing.  He is the friendliest of the 3 and the most active.  I am glad I only have 1 male cat!!

These are pictures I took in my backyard this summer.  With all the snow we've had I needed to see a little Spring to remind me of what is coming.  Can't you just feel the warmth of the sun in these pictures?

I have changed my profile picture.  I decided to finally change from my 10 year old face to my current face 

Now click on over to Little Red House to see more beautiful mosaics.
Until next time,