Happy Birthday MOM!

I hope you are doing something fun today!

I'm going to be cleaning and grocery shopping today

since my godson is coming to visit this weekend.

My garden is growing at a rapid pace.

Here is my Topsy Turvy Tomato plant:

Day one

Day Eight

My butternut squash plant is going crazy! Yesterday there was a very large yellow flower that bloomed right before my eyes!

I've also got about a half dozen pototo plants coming up! I"ve never grown potatoes before so I'm not really sure what to expect.

I also planted some onions yesterday. Another first.

ST. Patrick's Day

My family began our St. Patrick's day with a GREEN breakfast........

green scrambled eggs, bacon, green pancakes and we skipped the green milk this year and had OJ instead.

I was asked what the meaning of St. Pat's day was............

HUM?????

My reply was that it had something to do with an Irish Saint named Patrick!

But I began to ponder the real reason so I googled it of course!

It seems that St. Patrick is credited for bringing Christianity to Ireland!

Here is an excerpt:

Why Saint Patrick's Day?

Saint Patrick's Day has come to be associated with everything Irish: anything green and gold, shamrocks and luck. Most importantly, to those who celebrate its intended meaning, St. Patrick's Day is a traditional day for spiritual renewal and offering prayers for missionaries worldwide.

Spiritual renewal?

Most Americans wear green and get smashed! We have an Irish pub a 1/2 a mile from our house. It was PACKED! They even put up a tent in the parking lot. We were lulled to sleep last night by music coming from the pub!

We ended our celebration by having Shepards Pie & bread for dinner and watching one of my favorite movies "The Quiet Man" with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara.

A couple of years ago while at quilt camp

I decided to try out a new pattern.

I wanted to make a table runner using shamrock fabric.

Now, I'm usually pretty good a following a new pattern, however this time I was enjoying a glass of wine while I was sewing this new pattern.....

I looks okay until you really look at it and

see that it is NOT symetrical.

Then when you fold it in half you can REALLY see that I screwed up!

Personally I think it is a

PERFECT tablerunner for St. Pat's day...........

I made it this way on purpose!

That's my story and I'm sticking to it

I embroidered this apron for a friend for her birthday.

This is one of her favorite expressions. I love it!

Happy Birthday Grandma Lizzie!

Time in a Bottle

So I'm back to the Time in a bottle theme.

There just does not seem to be enough time in each day to accomplish all of the things I want/need to do!
I'll never understand how anyone could be bored!

I"ve been pretty frustrated lately because

I am unable to DO the things I want to do.

Machine quilting has been severely limited due to this latest outbreak of elbow/neck/upper& lower back pain!

I'm down to 1 quilt a week AND it takes me ALL WEEK to do it!

I've been trotting off to physical therapy a couple of times a week and at 2 hours a crack that sure does take alot of time! However I am learning some skills that hopefully will get me back to quilting for more than 15 minutes at a time!

I also spent 25 minutes laying in a coffin this week! (MRI) Let me tell you.........if you are not comfortable in small enclosed places it is not much fun!

I decided to keep my eyes closed and for 25 minutes I just thanked God for all of the blessings in my life.

The small enclosed space, the loud erratic noises of the the MRI machine just faded away and the time passed very quickly.

Now I just pray that they come up with something!

The last quilt that I was able to finish is this

Log Cabin Heart beauty.

I finished it JUST in the nick of time before

it speed off to Oregon for a wedding gift.

The maker was planning on doing the

hand binding while driving to Oregon.

(Thankfully she was the passenger!)

One of the other things I enjoy doing is gardening. I have the brownest thumb that you can imagine, but I do keep trying!

I really want to grow tomatoes so this birthday gift was pretty special. It is a Topsy Turvey tomato planter.

It hangs upside down from a hook.

The plant grows DOWN and the roots grow UP!

The bag is designed to be like a greenhouse.

This is what the plant looked like last Tuesday when it was planted. I'm going to take another picture tomorrow to see what a week has brought.

Happy St. Pats day tomorrow!