New Trees and cold weather!

Boy did the weather change over night here! Yesterday it started out a beautiful sunny day with the highs in the 90's and then by around 3:00 in the afternoon it was starting to get cold. And then the wind came up and I thought it would blow our new tree's that we had just planted that morning away. Well as you can see it is pretty black and rainy with temps in the 40's! I think it shall be a movie day today not a tree planting day!

Here's a close up of the ten tree's we purchased last week!

We bought four ash tree's, four crab apple's, a fun pine tree and my hubby's favorite oak tree. We got all but the oak and one crab apple planted yesterday before the weather turned cold. I was so worried that they would be broke in half when we got up but I'm happy to say that they are all doing well!

Happy Fall is Here!!

Julie

Party weekend

We had a family party on Sunday at my youngest son's house to celebrate our new little granddaughter. I was put in charge of the cakes, so I tried to make a pumpkin shaped cake but it didn't look to good but it tasted yummy!

My sweet daughter and her hubby with my grand dog Toby!

Three of my grandson's getting the pins ready to bowl!

From the left is my son the doctor, my son the firefighter with my daughters little boy, my hubby and setting in the chair is my daughter-n-laws dad with my little granddaughter! They were talking about the new health care programs. Not my cup of tea!!
The kids have such a fun time all playing together! These are all mine but the one big older boy and the boy in the gray pants.
And then here is Toby again just waiting by the table for the food to come out! It was a nice day the weather was just right to be outside, not to hot!

Have a nice Day!

Julie

Underground Railroad Sampler Quilt

As you know I have been trying to finishes several quilts that I started and this is one of them. Its the Underground Railroad quilt from the book by Eleanor Burns. She wrote the book after reading a book called "Hidden in Plain View". I love the story's about how they would hang quilts out to communicate information about the Underground Railroad. It was like a code to guide slaves to freedom. Each block would tell a different way for them to go, like the monkey wrench block told them to turn the wagon wheel towards Canada on the Bear's paw trail which is a block, to the crossroads which is another block. I just find it fascinating that they would use quilts to send these codes. There was ten quilts used to direct the slaves to get ready for escape, the quilts would be hung one at a time on a fence or cabin door! There was also a few other blocks used as secondary patterns.
I love the back of this quilt as much as the front! I also made another set of these blocks for my daughter to use in her 5Th grade class when she was teaching about the underground railroad. She had her class choose one block and they cut it out of colored paper and glued there blocks onto another piece of paper. Then they hung there blocks out in the hall to form a quilt!
Here she is hanging in my hallway just off from the great room. I found the reproduction fabrics from 1840-1880 on eBay, the backing also came from eBay.

I hope you liked the history lesson I know I loved making this quilt!

Happy Fall!

Julie

Fall is here!

Yesterday was the first day of Fall and boy do I love this time of year. With the changing of colors and the wearing of fall colored sweaters! And with the holidays coming we get to bring out the pumpkins. I think pumpkins are my most favorite thing, will along with sunflowers. These are the flowers that I keep out all year except for Christmas but all I do is add the little pumpkins to it.
I few years ago I made this flannel table runner with the pumpkins on it, I think it go's well with my pumpkin candle holders that I've had for many years. And I love my little rooster salt and pepper shakers.
Here's a little closer look!
And finally my sunflowers did bloom! I really didn't think that they would because I planted the seeds so late but here they are!

Happy Fall to All!

Julie

On the knitting side of things!

Believe it or not but I have been knitting! I started a pair of plain socks out of Nero and I have gotten one done and started on the next. I'm not in love with this yarn it is not soft at all but I do love the colors of fall. I did have a friend tell me the other day that the yarn will soften up as I wash them, so we will see!
And I did have some new yarn come a few days ago. Its Lorna's Lace Sports weight in Wendy Knits Sunrise. I'm getting ready to go on a trip soon and thought I would start a sweater to take on the airplane! I was a little surprised by the colors the red is more pink but that's O.K. I still like it!

Country Rooster Cafe Sign

I have been looking for something to go on the hood above my stove for 8 months now and couldn't find just the right thing. It has a plate shelve on it and I was afraid to put anything that could fall off and hit someone in the head. We always seem to have little kids running around the kitchen with all of us cooking so it made me a little nerves.

I was looking on eBay the other day for roosters and cows to go in the kitchen and came across this sign, its made out of a light weight tin so if it fell it wouldn't hurt my wood floor or any heads. And I think it looks so cute up there and it matches my red screen door to my pantry!

I just had to show my sweet little grandson out watering my flowers for me!

Have a Happy Fall Day!

Julie

The Bag Swap!

I got up today and decided to get my bag done for the bag swap! I used the left over fabric from the Quilt Swap and some from a quilt I've been working on. I just love how cute it is and its going to be hard to give her up. I decided to put a few things inside and one is the cute little strawberry pin cushion that I made to match the bag. I don't know if you can see but I put a lady bug button on the bow and so I put a purple star and a little lady bug button on the green of the pin cushion. I lined the bag with the light green with the red flower fabric shown right in the front of the bag.

Will its off to England she will be going! Bye cute little bag have a safe journey!

Julie

Silcox Action

Saturday was an Action in a little town called Payson. Hubby and I decided to go with some friends, I had been once before and it sounded like there would be some pretty good stuff.

And there was a few things that I thought that I needed. Will I really didn't need them just wanted them. There was a white pitcher that I had been looking for and they do have them new at Ikea so I knew that I could get one there for $20.00 so I wasn't going to bid over that! Will I didn't get it, it went for $35.00.

But I did bid on the red water pump that I just thought would look so good in my garden. Hubby is going to put in on a block of wood that he has so it will look like it really works!

I also bid on the great clock for my craft studio. I've needed a clock up there and I have been looking everywhere for one that is big so I can see it from my loom. I got it for just $5.00, what a deal that was!

I really like the way it looks hanging above my yarn storage boxes.

I got the vase for just $2.50!

I put it in my bathroom on top of a cute red cabinet. It looks good with my with plates and a picture of flowers that hung in my grandmothers bedroom when I was a little girl.

It was a fun time!

A New Chair for the Library

Yesterday hubby and I had the day off together so we decided to go to a movie, 500 Days! But before we wanted to hit one of our favorite antique shops. Its just down the street from the movie theater. We had been looking for a extra chair to go with both desks in the library. We need one so both of us could set and work together at the computer.
Will there it was just setting there waiting for us to come and pick her up. My only wish I had was that they would have had two. She was only $55.00 which I thought wasn't bad, we had looked at a chair at Ikea for $25.00 and it didn't match the desks. So we are pretty happy to have found her!
I also was able to get my Summer Quilt Swap quilt mailed off to Germany yesterday! So we will see how she likes it in a few days! Will I'm off now to work on a bag for the Bag Swap and then it will be time to go with my daughter and grandsons to find there Halloween costumes. It should be a fun day, I love Halloween! I really need to find me one, I would love to be Lucy from I love Lucy!!!

Have a wonderful Day!
Julie

My New Chalk Board!

I've have looked for almost a year now to find something to go above my baking counter. I didn't want to have any cupboards there and I knew that I didn't want a picture. I had thought about putting shelves there but I really wanted to find something cute and fun!

I came across this at a fun place called Gardner Village! It has allot of fun shops and I have purchased things for my house there before. The minute I saw it I knew that it would be perfect for that spot. And I also had a 25% coupon so what a deal!

And look how great it looks, I love the clothes pin going up the side so I can put recipes there if needed. And yes the kitchen is closed for the summer. I don't know what it is but I really don't like to cooking during the summer. But when winter comes its a different story!

Mini Quilt swap done

Its been a busy four day weekend and boy did it go fast! I spent most of the time finishing projects that needed to be finished. And one of those projects was my quilt for the Mini Quilt Swap. It is now ready to be mailed to Germany and hopefully I can get it in the mail by Thursday.

I hope she likes it this is the first time that I have signed up for one of these swaps and I must say it was pretty fun. The theme was summer and I love the birds in my yard so that's what I went with. I don't know if you can see it very well but the eyes are beaded and I add a little bird cookie cutter in the corner. I think it just adds a little bit of cuteness!

Happy Labor Day!

Julie

Fixing up an old bench

Before just a plain old bench that I've had for years!
Now a beautiful bench that matches all the other black furniture in the house!
A new pillow to go on the beautiful new bench! I had this fabric left from a quilt that I've been working on for my youngest daughter and decided to make a cute 1930's pillow for my bench. It looks so much better than the one that was there!
I also found a basket at Ikea that hubby can throw his B-ball hats in instead of throwing them on the bench. When I was in the garage working on the shelf for the entry I looked up at hubby's work bench and saw this wonder old scale just setting on top of the work bench just wanting to come into the house. So I cleaned it up and I think it look great, it just needs a little something else up there but I haven't found that yet!

It raining here today and I'm loving it! Its a good day to stay home and get some sewing and knitting done.

Have a wonderful Day!
Julie

Hanging my Quilt and the Library

Finally I was able to get pictures of my new shelve to show you! I have worked the last three days and by the time I get home its to dark to take pictures. I have to get picture in the morning when I can open the door to let the sun shine in so they aren't to dark! Its hard to get a good picture of the front door but here you can see a little bit of it.
Here is a close up of the shelve and my quilt hanging from it. I found this shelve at Roberts craft unfinished so I painted it black and distressed it and stained the knobs the same color as the front door. I just love how it looks and I managed to find a few things around the house to put on it! The plate is from my daughter-n-laws mother, she gave it to me for Christmas one year and I didn't have a place for it tell now!
As you come in the front door off from the entry where the shelve hangs we have our library. My hubby has always wanted a library for all of his books so when I was designing this house I decided to add that library. I guess you could call it an office because we have our desks and computer in there but we call it the library!
Hubby's great uncle built this roll top desk when he was only in his late teens to early twenties. It had gone to hubby' s grandfather then to his dad and down to him. Then we found the other desk and chair in a second hand shop right before we moved into the house.
This is where I put most of the log cabin and cowboy decor that we had from our last house in the mountains. And its turned out looking pretty nice! We still need to get one more row of shelves for the very top and more books! We lost about four boxes of hubby's books when we had a flood in the basement of our first home.

Have a nice Day!