Another Cat, Another Quilt

This time, the quilt is on the back porch bed where George likes to take his cat naps.  George can let himself out of the porch when his nap is over but so far, we haven't seen him let himself in.  I wouldn't put it past him to learn.  He is pretty smart!!!...for a cat.

Mary Kay Andrews

Mary Kay Andrews AKA...Kathy Hogan Trocheck

Everyone holding up Mary Kay's new book 

Two St. Pete Gals

Laughing about growing up in St. Pete

Some of our book club members with Mary Kay

Three years ago, I went with my book club to a luncheon at the Country Club that was a book signing of a new author that I had started reading.  Mary Kay Andrews.  As she was talking to the audience, she mentions that she is from St. Petersburg Fla.  She grew up there and moved to Atlanta when she got married right after high school.  Well, I just HAD to talk to her.  Found out that she went to Lakewood High School so we had a lot to talk about.  Last Spring, she came back to Decatur for another book signing so I went to see her again.  Well, she was invited back for the third time so I feel like she is my new best friend.  I just had to go have her sign my books that I have collected over the last year.  When she first started writing, she wrote under her real name, Kathy Hogan Trocheck.  Those first two books take place in St. Petersburg.  It's a series about a lady detective.  The others in that series, takes place in Atlanta.  All of her books are really fun to read.  A lot of them take place in Savannah which is one of the best cities ever to visit.  She says she will see us all next year......so looking forward to talking to her again.  

A Quilt and A Cat

If there is a cat in the house  and a quilt on a bed/couch, the cat WILL be on the quilt.  They think they have been made for them.  It didn't take ten minutes after I put the Route 66 quilt on Chuck's bed, that Annabelle was sound asleep on it.  I didn't have the heart to make her get off.  So she got in one cat nap on the new quilt.  It has now been put up for awhile.  I guess I should make Annie her own quilt.  Maybe I will.

Out and About in the Yard

Double Hollyhock 

My Herb Garden

White, white rose

My pretty blue hydrangeas

My new oak leaf hydrangea 

Back corner flower bed

Marina's rabbit foot fern on the barb wire wreath

My Hosta bed 

One of the two pots of marigolds     

With the cold, cold winter that we had this last year and all of the rain we are having now, some of the plants are trying their best to grow.  The " plant guy" on TV said that some of the hydrangeas probably won't bloom this year.  They just can't take 5 degree weather.  They didn't die.  They just will skip a year of blooming.  I think I have some like that.  I only have a couple that are blooming for me.  I lost a gardenia plant but not the one that I started from Gene and George's.  It struggled through winter and it's just now coming back.  It is just a little late blooming but I've been picking pretty flowers from it, every day.  Oh the smell!!  It is my most favorite smell in the world!!!!! I did lose my "confederate rose" that I started from Gene and George's.  I was so disappointed that I lost it.  I guess I'll just have to start another one, the next time we go to Cecil.  The weather man said  with all this rain we have been having, means that it won't be a hot, hot summer.  With all the water in the ground, it will keep the temps down.  I think it's going to be a great "up north summer" if it would just stop raining for awhile.

Lilies Glore

Easter might have been a couple of months ago but my Easter Lilies don't care.  They are blooming so pretty and the smell is wonderful!!!!  I'm getting a collection from planting my Easter Lily every year.  It's so fun to see them all come alive again.

For the Birds

We have several bird feeders around Brambly Pines but I guess you can't have too many.  I saw these cute little mug/saucer feeders that someone made and were selling them at our favorite antique/junking place...Gillespie's, the other day. They had a rope tied to the handle of the mug so you could hang it in a tree.  All it is, is a coffee mug glued to a saucer.  I just happen to come across a mug with birds on it and a saucer that almost matched it.  Bought them and came home, glued them together and the next day, put it out with bird seed for the birds.  I haven't seen any birds eating from it yet but I know it won't take long.

Four Day Project

It all started with a picture that I had pinned from Pinterest.  A cute little white corner fence.  Ours just grew is all.  I wanted it to cover the same space as the fence made from the two wooden pallets from building the house.  It took Chuck a day to go get the wood and cut it all.  The next day he put the posts in the ground and built the fence.  Then it was my turn.  It took me a day to put the first coat of paint on it all and a second day to put the next coat on.  If you notice the little wooden caps on the post, they aren't painted....yet.  We got them after I had painted the whole fence and it has rained almost every day since.  I'm just waiting for them to dry out and I'll get the bucket of white paint out again.  The day I painted the blue bird box, a little wren started building a nest in it.  It's fun having our bird houses rented.  Now....just to do it all over again in the other front corner of the yard.  Some day.....down the road.

Two Batches

Making blackberry jelly

Jars already to fill

Chuck's smashing the berries

4 1/2 cups of juice

cooking juice, sugar and sure jell

hot water bath for five minutes

15 finished jars!!!

I've had bags and bags of blackberries that we have picked in the past couple of summers.  I know!!!  so long!!!! ...but they seemed to be ok when I thawed them out to make jelly.  Chuck did the hard work of smashing the berries to get all the juice that I needed.  Four and a half cups per batch.  We ended up with enough to make two batches.  Plus, it helped clean out the freezer and it stocked up the pantry with fifteen new jars of wonderful jelly!

I Pledge Allegiance

July 4th quilt

Hand embroidered

No, I didn't get this quilt done in just a couple of days.  More like a couple of years...ha.  It was the first hand embroidery quilt top that I had ever done and for some reason, it got put on the bottom of the pile and it took me awhile to take to Marilyn to quilt.  I have several quilt tops that need to be finished and I'm working on that.  So, you might be seeing a lot of quilts here on the blog but that only means that I'm finally finishing the UFO ( unfinished objects) stack.  I'm happy to have this one quilt finished...just in time to decorate the house for July 4th.

There's No Place Like Homeplace.......

My sweet friend Marilyn

Long arm quilter

Some of the pretty fabric at the shop

Rolls of batting 

I found a jewel of a friend when I found Marilyn's Quilt Shop.  It's about 30 minutes out in the county and worth the drive.  It's always fun to go out there even if you are taking her a quilt to be quilted or picking one up.  You get to look through her notebook full of different patterns for the quilting and pick what color thread you want her to use on your quilt.  Of course that can't match the excitement of seeing your quilt top all quilted and turned into a real quilt when you go to pick one up.  As Marilyn says, the top takes on a whole new personality once it's quilted.  Just visiting with Marilyn is always so much fun.  Not to mention going home with a couple pieces of her pretty fabric.
    Marilyn lost everything she owned in the terrible tornadoes of April 2011.  All but the quilt shop.  Her house was down the road and they had gone to the church's basement that is across the street from the shop, several times that day.  The last time was when they lost their house.  The only thing that happened to the shop was a 2 x 4 board coming through the ceiling. You wonder how people can start all over with their lives when they lose everything they own but Marilyn has done it with such grace and it's a pleasure to be her friend.  

Get Your Kicks on Route 66

Hand Embroidered

Rt 66 fabric backing

My quilt label

After months of hand embroidery keeping me busy and then a couple of weeks of piecing the top together, piecing the backing and making the label, my quilt went to Marilyn to be quilted on the long arm.  Two months later.....and one afternoon of sewing the binding on with the machine, one night of hand sewing the binding down....TA DA!!!!! It's done!!!!  My Route 66 quilt!  It was a fun quilt to make and gives me a lot of pride.  On to the next quilt.......

Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree......

Yellow Delicious 

Red Delicious 

This is the first year that we've had apples on the two apple trees....and they have stayed longer than a month.  We're keeping our fingers crossed that we at least get one from each tree, just to taste.  This Spring we trimmed the fruit trees for the first time and now they look and act like real fruit trees.  We are hoping to get a couple more apple trees, a couple of peach trees and a couple of plum trees in the coming Springs.  We also have lots of pears on one of the pear trees.  Hoping to be making homemade Pear Honey come late summer.  Maybe it's going to be a good year for everything...veggie/fruit wise.