Today was our leaf day and I forgot to take the “after” pictures – I will tomorrow – but here’s our start. Ugh.
I got this much blown and my blower was out of juice so I had to rake – the hardest motion for me – scooping and raking.
Reader photos
And here’s a laugh for you – my towel holder by the sink:
And my clothes hanger:
Hahahaha!!! I just never got around to get real hooks and now all these years later why would I bother?
Tonight I’m doing some tiny paper piecing….which I despise ……but it’s in the pattern. I know Connie’s chuckling at my struggle. And it is a struggle.
There’s my joke for the night.
Mary I sure hope the wind was in your favor today! It is roaring out of the northeast and east today! I HAtE this dark so early!
Jay spaded the garden today. Melons or grass he said.
I sewed on a table runner I bought up at ‘always your design’ a couple weeks ago.
I sounds like a blizzard!
You do have lots of leaves, and that is a big job.
We have four large oaks- three in back, so we mulch the back yard. The City workers vacuum the leaves at the curb, so we rake the front yard to the street.
I love the pics of Three zonked out in deep sleep and Mortie helping on the counter. That Mortie is the cutest cat ever!
Sandy, your quilts are adorable.
Happy Monday, Mary! There is a chill in our wind here today, I hear snow is coming tonight. You had a lot of leaves to contend with! Great idea to escort them out to let the wind take care of them outside of your fence! They can go back to nature beyond your yard! We hopefully bagged up the last of the leaves in our yard, and Larry bagged up leaves from two of our neighbors’ yards as well. He had his second cataract surgery today. Hopeful everything goes well! He took it easy last week and had no issues. I would love to make a wallhanging out of that lovely fabric if you still have some left! Yours is so nice! I love that scene! My hibiscus had three flowers two days ago, none yesterday and one today. Very cheerful. I should complete my second National Parks panel quilt today, then I am going to do tablerunners!
Cynthia – so many leaves! Poor Larry’. He’d better not be bagging leaves after his cataract surgery. I’ll see what I’ve got for the farm fabric. I’m working on that this week.
Don’t you just love hibiscus?
He is officially done, he is resting and listening to the rules! He behaved last week too. One wants a good outcome for sure! 👍. I do love the hibiscus. My daughter Karen gave it to me for Mother’s Day. This is an annual. I am buying a perennial one for my garden outside. I have to buy a few more rechargeable batteries for my solar lights in my gardens, trying to charge them up. Some are not charging . The batteries must be 15+ years old so they lasted a long time!
Cynthia – thanks for the reminder – most of my solar lights are shot, too.
Boy, Mary, I agree! Don’t be bagging leaves a getting in the dust.
I’ve never enjoyed paper piecing so I don’t do it! How many of those flying geese pieces do you have to make? I’m sure the quilt will be beautiful. We live on a hill and get lots of wind. Our attempts at growing a tree or two failed so we don’t have any. I’m thankful this time of year for not having to rake leaves! We enjoy the neighbors trees from a distance. The weather so far has been so mild that my flowers are still blooming. Usually by now, I’d have cut everything back and moved some into the garage. I should do it anyway because when it turns really cold, I won’t want to be out there. Oh well. The quilts, bags and other pictures were great as usual.
Love both your quilts, Sandy! Good work on the leaves! One winter my husband was away for a couple months for work. When he got back he was so happy to be home, and started in doing his usual spring garden work. He was so sore and didn’t know why—we decided it was not getting the exercise of shoveling snow! One season keeps us in shape for the next one!
Sandy, your charity quilts are so cute! Love the elephant one – those borders are great. So colorful, the recipients will be so pleased! I love Karen’s bags as well. Ugh, those leaves! My husband has been tackling ours a little at a time this year. He blew the piles under the oak out into our field, in rows. He fills in the low spots – some stay and some blow away but for the most part it works. Now we’re tackling the maple tree leaves. Next will be the hickory leaves! We’re going to just do the leaves that are in the lawn, not the edges along the stone walls. It’s just too much! We used to rake the stone walls too – getting down with gloves pulling every leaf out of the walls – we have a lot of stone walls! But not any more. I’ve heard that we should leave the leaf litter – it helps the little critters survive. I’m happy to help the critters 🙂 Mortie looks so cute – she picks the darndest places to sit! Stay well everyone! Jan in MA
Great job on the quilts, Sandy.
My grandmother made quilts from the scraps of fabric my grandfather brought home from the clothing factory he worked at. I still have one of those quilts. Raising a family during the depression taught them to use everything
Those are some very, very small flying geese. I can’t remember how many years ago, I signed up for 365 blocks. They are paper pieced and only 3 1/2″ big. Some of them have tons of pieces in them. I got through week 20 and I say I’ll go back and finished them, but I haven’t yet. My yard is clean of leaves for about 2 seconds. Then they are back. We have lots of oak trees, so they come down later, some not until spring.
We have over 100 trees in our 6 1/2 acres. And my husband insists that we pick up the leaves. He blows them into rows with our garden tractor. Then I go behind after he blows them in rows and picks them up with a self-propelled push mower We have quite a system. I fill up one bag. He’s standing there waiting with an empty bag, he hands me the empty one and takes the full bag off of the lawnmower. We dump it in a cart and then we take it out to our hayfield and put it in a divot that we’ve been filling up for the past 19 years. The yard is pristine, looking after we’re done but then an hour later after the winds we have here it’s they’re all back down again, but that’s OK. It gives us exercise.
Glad you liked the tote bags I made above. Sad to report not only am I catless, I am also dogless. We are at that stage where we would love a pet but are afraid they will outlive us and then what? I love the tuna can fabric surrounding the cat, a lucky find from my stash. The bags are for friends for Christmas and the 6”x6” panels were purchased from Jody Houghton Designs on Etsy.
Hope everyone has a great turkey day.
Karen – I’m so sorry I said the cats were yours – I try to go back to my own email to check these things and this time I screwed up. I agree on no more pets – and then Mortie showed up. I took it as a sign I’ll live 15-20 more years – haha!
Nancy – yes, it sounds like you have perfected your system!!! I hate this fall job but now I am ready for winter and it will come whether I want it to or not. Are your trees healthy? IS the green ash disease in your area?
Hi Mary, very rustic in the bathroom! Has morty taken up residence on the recipe box? Thank you for showing my quilts, the elephant one is scraps, and the aeroplane were from the free box at guild, 3 had nose cones missing, so l did the best l could and borders were from a $5 scrap bag,both are charity quilts. No luck seeing the southern aurora here, but people in the south island can,too cloudy in wellington. Take care everyone, best wishes from Sandy
Sandy – oh, you’re so kind calling them rustic – haha! I really should change them but guess I’ll let the next owners do that.
I raked today too. Then watered trees, bushes and some very dry grass. Grouted some cracks in the driveway. Installed a new doorbell. That was a pain…but it rings downstairs now.
I’m watching the Ken Burns documentary on the Revolutionary War. It’s very informative, but I keep dozing off. I didn’t realize it how many issues were fought over.
I didn’t laugh at your joke. Thanks
Boy you when you say tiny you aren’t kidding. How can you even seam them they are so tiny. I am impressed. We had 50 mph winds today so most of the lose leaves have gone off the trees and blow to the closest fence Finec with me.
Angie – since it’s paper piecing the seams are trimmed to 1/8” or less. So tedious