Flowers!

I am usually a black thumb when it comes to gardening, so I am excited that this pot I planted is doing so well!  I love flowers!  (Especially when I don't kill them within the first week)  Hooray!  I don't remember which type of flowers I chose ... but the red ones attract hummingbirds, I have found!  I love those little surprises flowers bring.  Let me know if any of you know the names of these beauties ...  Next year you can take an old watering can and make it into something new, too! 

A Bundle for Joy

A new baby at church is an excuse to use my new book Handmade Beginnings: 24 Projects to Welcome Baby  by Anna Maria Horner.  I tried out the Patchwork Sleeping Bag using some scraps I had from making Kaitlyn's Basket of Love quilt.  Hmm.  Which I handquilted and have forgotten to blog!  That gives me an idea.  This was a fun project.  If I had had larger pieces of fabric, strip piecing would have make the project so much quicker!  However, I had to cut each square individually with my tiny rotary cutter, (the other had been borrowed by a friend).  The results were a bit "Monet-ish" which I like to call any project where my points don't exactly match up in every corner.  If you squint your eyes ... everything blends and looks perfect ... just like a Monet!

Little did I know I would become an impressionistic quilter:)  Is there such a term?  There should be -- if not, I will be the first! 

The sleepsack is lined with a cozy rosebud flannel for those crisp summer nights.  (Looks like the northwest is having a cooler summer so far... so the flannel works!)

Sometimes I like to see the inside of a book before I purchase it.   Here is the Patchwork Sleepsack project page for you to see. Anna Maria Horner's instructions are fairly easy to read for the beginner, and anyone can have fun putting this project together.  The book has great ideas for gifts for Mom, siblings and baby -- even dad.  I plan to use a lot of the patterns in here -- so it has my hearty recommendation to every would-be crafter who likes to take something homemade to welcome a baby to the world. 

Summer afternoons

Summer afternoons are always so much fun!  I set up a couple extra chairs outside so the kids could have a little nook to eat on the porch.  Something about eating out of doors is so refreshing on a sunny afternoon.  I used the table runner I made a couple of years ago for a mini tablecloth with just in time for the fourth of July!

We did make an excursion to the Bainbridge Island Regional Library yesterday and came back with a bag full of fun!  I loved the Japanese gardens that surrounded the building!  The kids are officially signed up for their summer reading program, and I even picked up the Aloha Quilt to start off some summer reading.   Since we are new to the area it was so much fun to find an amazing kids section.  I believe the children's section is about the size of our Kingston library.  We are hoping the levy passes here so that we will have a new library in a few short years!  But until then, we are going to pop into the nine libaries throughout the county to check them all out.  Join us on our adventure and let us know what you have found!