It's Raining, It's Pouring......

And I'd like to be SNORING!
Really I'd like to be curled up under a quilt reading the end

of the last of the Twilight series of books.

We are having the weirdest weather lately.
First a really windy spring, then 100+ temps in May and now

we've got rain! Weird!

As I mentioned before the hot weather provides me a reason to hunker down and stay in the house and I really seem to get alot more accomplished.

I've been doing alot of embroidery and learning a few new things about that.

I made this shirt for my son who has just started golfing and is addicted!

I saw this saying on a shirt that someone was wearing on a hike and thought it was funny and appropriate for a beginning golfer. But Brian was telling me about his golf score on his last game and I guess he is pretty good.......... Oh well, I still think it is a funny shirt.

I've embroidered 4 shirts for our upcoming cruise:

I put an appliqued ship on the front.

(first time I've attempted an embroidered applique)

And this embroidery on the back.

I've also made 2 pillow cases to match the t-shirt quilt

made out of Jen's dad's shirts.

and quilted 2 baby quilts:

I've started packing for our cruise and found this handy dandy little

sewing pouch that my friend Judy made for me one Christmas.

It is a very simple little case. Just a piece of quilted fabric with binding and a button clasp and baggies sewn into the middle. But it is going to be SOOOO handy to take with me on this trip. It fits TWO hand sewing projects!

COOL!

Spring Blooms Mini-Swap

I've recently joined a group of blogging quilters!

AND have signed up for a mini-quilt swap that they are holding.

There are 162 quilters from 23 countries participating in this swap.

(you can click on the icon on the right to see the rules of the swap)

Altho I have until June 22 to mail my mini-quilt out, I've decided to

try to get a head start on it so I won't be putting the final stitches in the

project on the way to the PO, like I usually do with many of the projects that I create.

We were given the rules and then the identity of our swap partner. Some of the participants had color preferances for the quilt they want to receive. The gal I will send to does not want your traditional spring type colors. This has been a real challenge for me! I am a little out of my comfort zone with the color scheme! So here is process that I have been going thru to start this quilt.

First I pulled out a bunch of quilt books and magazines to find the perfect pattern. Once that was complete I started going thru my fabric and pulling possible contestants.

Here is the pile:

Then a little more organized...........

My next step is to cut the shapes. I've layed them out and am pretty pleased with the colors. I sure hope that this is what my swap partner will like. She asked for something specific, but I don't want to put that here since she could very possibly read this! And I don't want to give her any clues!!!!!

Here are the bones of the quilt:

Next I will do some machine applique and piecing.

The rest of the little quiltlet will be going on a cruise with me

I dislike having idle hands, so I will happily sit on the deck of the ship,

look out at the water and sew to my heart's content!

HeartStrings

My quilting business is named

"HeartString Quilts"

Quilts that tug at your heartstrings,

because to me that is exactly what quilts do.

Quiltmakers over the years have learned that

Quilts = Love.

Hours of love are poured into making a quilt, from choosing the perfect fabric and colors, to stitching, and quilting and finally finishing it up.

It is said thatwhen you sleep under a quilt you sleep under a blanket of love.

Wrapping a quilt around you is not provides warmth,

but is like being

wrapped into loving arms.

Quilts hold precious memories. Each scrap can be a memory

of a favorite dress, a child's play clothes, a husband's shirt or a

grandmother's apron.

Quilts can also help in a grieving process. There is kind of a

healing process in making a quilt.

My son Brian married a beautiful young woman

about 2 years ago.

They had a lovely wedding with Lots and Lots of family present.........family is important to both of them.

Unfortuantely, about 3 weeks after thier marriage

Brian's new father-in-law Ed was tragically killed.

Someone wanted his car...........

He was a family man,

successful businessman,and an all-around nice guy.

What does this have to do with quilts????

Well, the quilt pictured below is no thing of beauty,

but it will be a blanket of love to the son who will receive it.

It contains sports shirts, fishing shirts, work shirts and ties

and scraps of favorite shirts worn by his father.

Ed's wife and children got together and all picked out shirts

to be included in a quilt. Ed's mother-in-law pieced the

shirts together and now I have the honor of quilting them.

It has been 2 years and the grief is still there, but I know that

these quilts will help to continue the healing and also preserve many happy memories.

Ed loved to fish.

And boat

Ed was CEO of a construction company.
I quilted in a hard hat, hammer and screwdriver.

We still miss you Ed, but your memory lives on
in the hearts of the people who love you and in this quilt.

Here comes the sun!

The old saying goes, "April Showers bring May flowers".

WELL!

I live in the desert.

We didn't have any April showers and unfortunately some of

my flowers are now dying!

BUT!

WE HAVE HAD 14 STRAIGHT DAYS OF OVER

100 DEGREE TEMPERATURES!!!

AND IT IS ONLY MAY!!!!!

Our climate is really no different than many others.

When I lived back east we hunkered down for the winter

because it was too cold to go outside. We went out only when neccessary.

The desert is no different.

Only we hunker down when it is HOT outside.

Actually, I've managed to get quite alot done in the last two weeks

as you can see from the pictures that follow!.......

This is MY QUILT! I rarely get to quilt my own creations, but since I've had trouble with my elbows I wanted to get back in the swing of things on one of my own quilts. Just to make sure that my quilting was up to snuff!

Detail shots.

Quilting is

Not too

bad, if I do say so myself!

This is the gigantic quilt that I finally finished!

And a detail shot:

I've finished up several baby quilts:

I've decided to call this quilting pattern

"Muscle Hearts"



Another baby quilt.

Here's a little project that I was working on.

Can you guess what it is?

MOM? Can you guess?

Back side.

Finished project:

It's a Toaster cover that matches the curtains

that I made for mom's kitchen! (surprise mom!)

I'd say that my "indoor" time has been pretty well spent!

Tomorrow I"ll show you even MORE projects!

It all began in a Garden

Phew! Finally a full day to just quilt!

Things have been so busy that I have not been able to block out enough time to QUILT! (ie....WORK)

I've just about finished the large king-sized quilt that I have been wanting to work on for weeks now.

There always seemed to be a reason that I couldn't start on it................my batting was not wide enough, the store in California where I get my batting did not have any in stock when I was there, not a big enough block of time to actually work on the quilt and finish it, (I don't like to leave my quilts on the frame for long periods of time) and the last reason, I guess, is that I was just procrastinating doing this quilt because of it's size. I was worried that I'd flare up my elbows again and that scared me.

Well............GREAT NEWS! I was worried for nothing.......I've been quilting most of the morning and I feel pretty good! Maybe the long absence from quilting helped the ole elbows heal abit. Hallalujuh!

Since I'm taking a little break before I finish off the quilt I decided to write about my garden.

Last year for Mother's Day I asked my husband for a tree.

We have this beautiful mulberry tree in our side yard that has a wonderful large and shady canopy.

That tree is one of the reasons we bought this house.

This tree shades over 1/2 of the side yard.

But I wanted another tree at the other end. Sorta as a back-up in case anything ever happened to the mulberry.

So this is the way the yard looked on Mother's Day 2008:


Mike is out digging the holes to plant TWO trees

This is what it looks like today! May 2009

Mother's Day 2008

May 2009

My Pot sculpture has really grown in a years time.

I received some hollyhock seeds from a good friend and just

yesterday I finally got my first blooms!

Mother's Day Surprise!

On Saturday I was invited to spend a delightful afternoon with two of my favorite girls in the world.....Jenny and Jen. They wanted to take me out for pedicures, a movie, shopping and happy hour. We had a fabulous time. We also managed to run over to Jenny's new house to have a look around. And then there were some mysterious phone calls..............


And when we arrived back at MY house I was told that something was really wrong out in my garden and I really needed to quickly go out and look!

Of course what I found was a yardful of wonderful friends assembled by my sweet husband to surprise me for my 50th birthday!!!!!!! Which by the way, was actually 2 months ago!

How Many Times must a girl be reminded that she is FIFTY!!!!!??????





SURPRISE!!!!





Many dressed 50's style with rolled up jeans
and hair slicked back
.
Jen's grandma made her a poodle skirt for the occasion!





My dear husband and master-mind of this surprise
kept everyone's glass filled.
He bought a Margarita Maker especially for this
occasion. I'm anxious to try to make some Sonic style
smoothies with it this summer!



There was plenty of food from BobbyQ's
on the back porch.



Rafael and Jen filled plates with cake and ice cream.

Mike set up 4 banquet tables in the pool area.

It was a great night and it made me feel really special that my husband would plan this and so many friends and family came to help me celebrate. AGAIN!


Sunday, of course was Mother's Day!
So I got to spend another whole day with my family!




God has richly blessed our family with love, and laughter
and health and good times and lots of wonderful friends
and I am soooooooooo very thankful!

2 kids + 2 college diplomas = 2 happy parents!

Jenny Hernandez Baldi

NAU college graduate!

We spent a lovely day yesterday up in Flagstaff at

Northern Arizona University

watching our daughter receive her college diploma.

^Jenny is right here!

Jenny actually started college at NAU right

after she graduated from high school,

but really disliked Flagstaff and the university.

So she applied, interviewed and auditioned for

an internship at Walt Disney World in Florida.

She spent 5-6 months there loving every minute

being a "character performer" in the parks.

The Many Faces of Jenny:

It was really hard for Jenny to leave the Magic Kingdom,

but we are so thankful that she decided to come

back home to get her degree!