I knew there was a reason to mow everywhere I could in the past two days because today it’s really raining – not drizzly – raining. Everything is very green and beautiful – spring in Iowa.
Here is Connie’s progress on her design wall – isn’t it beautiful?
I’ve been having trouble with the longarm machine – Tony has been here twice to work on it and I not sure it’s completely ok yet.
I am so lucky my machine repairman lives just a few miles away!
Andrew sent us a new picture of Luna. Wow! Hasn’t she grown?
And Grandma Sandy recently made this quilt for Luna – a great scrap improv quilt, isn’t it?
This week my orchid cactus had one open bloom and I posted it on Instagram. This bloom will last only a few hours – less than a day but there are more buds getting ready to open. The plant itself is not attractive but these once a year blooms make it all worth it. My plant is very old – maybe 20 years and extremely pot bound – it must like it that way.
Remember this picture – someone asked about the picture of the cat looking up at the camera from under my machine.
This is the back cover of our Rugs From Rags book which is under my machine to level it. Pam is one of my very favorite cats – she’s here right now helping me post.
She’s named after our neighbor, Pam, who found this tiny kitten in her brush pile and brought her here. I wouldn’t give her up for anything but do you see how I end up with so many cats?????
Mama Kitty says “hey”!
Bird report – here’s another little bird who was stunned after hitting the window – he recovered and flew away.
And this poor wood thrush did not recover.
I have so many orioles who are eating jars and jars of grape jelly!
Two more finishes – where is your name tag???
Peggy has surprise kittens – she’s named the gray one Gracie – I think a name constitutes ownership, don’t you?
Saved this picture from Facebook of a Jen Kingwell quilt – isn’t it just wonderful?
Talk about a miscellaneous blog post!!! Here’s one more picture that I just loved!
Church tomorrow at 8:30 am – BE STILL, Everybody! Hope this is over soon.
I’m the one who asked about the cat under the sewing machine. Thanks for clearing up the mystery. I so love your blog. I always look forward to getting it but especially now since I am of a “certain age” and not yet venturing out from my house arrest.
What beautiful photos today, Mary! Loved the new kittens, too. No ads to close today? Looks like rain all the way through next week. Our yards will be like jungles soon! My lilac bushes are gorgeous this year. Probably because the weather has been cooler than normal. My church is having a regular worship service tomorrow, with social distancing, of course! I am so looking forward to it. Have a nice holiday weekend!
What a fun Sat. morning blog. Your photos are wonderful.
Connie’s quilt is going to be fantastic. It looks very complicated and complex and, well… very difficult. Like your orchid bloom. It has the same complex look about it. Beautiful, though.
We woke up to sunshine today. First time in ages. My husband has to mow for sure. You can almost see the grass growing out there. Now, the sun will make our garden grow faster, as it is needing sun. I have more to plant today. Especially flowers.
Luna is so dear, such a darling picture. Love all the cat pictures, especially mama yellow kitty with the four kittens. At last we are having a sunny warm day. Hope I get my deck plants into their pots.
What a wonderful assortment of pictures today! An exuberance of life and creativity!
Enjoy church tomorrow.
Your orchid is breathtaking!
Wow! What a lot of wonderful pictures and thoughts! Luna is gorgeous! Beautiful quilts, lovely kitties too! Loved the picture of Pam sitting on “Hiding in Plain Sight”!! Mine having in my kitchen!
Glad that you will have church tomorrow, I know how much you have missed it. The rain hasn’t gotten here yet but we know it’s coming. It does make things so nice and green!!
Memorial Day weekend is always “iffy” weather-wise. In eastern Oregon, we’ve got sunshine today after three days of high winds, record setting rain and flooding. All the creeks and rivers are running full.
All of the quilts pictured are wonderful. Love the red, white and blue ones.
Wonderful pictures of the baby kittens and their momma and all those birds, you are so lucky to see such a variety in your own yard. I loved seeing your orchid cactus in bloom, wow! it is beautiful. Having a green thumb is not something that I have but I do manage to keep a Christmas cactus going.
Hi Mary, thanks for all the kitty cat photos, they’re always my favorite. I like the “unlabeled” quilts, very patriotic! We, too, have orioles with voracious appetites. Jelly, jelly, jelly! There’s a nest in development on our maple tree, quite high up and I haven’t seen any further weaving in a few days…might the project have been abandoned? A robin has bested on the light at our front door, which means we use other doors. The poor mom gets disturbed at the slightest movement
I love that bloom!! It is well worth it!! Beautiful pics today!! Always love baby kittens! Connie’s quilt is amazing!!
Connies quilt is exquisite…& your cactus is absolutely beautiful.
Storms here all night long & more predicted for this evening. Hyper-Reach warning of flash floods & high water . Mary shared a post on Facebook of largest hail stone I have seen.. fell at Burkburnett Tx ( just north of Wichita Falls),along with photo of roof.. & Sheetrock curling it went thru. We got hail here but nothing like that thank goodness.
Kittens adorable.
Be safe.. social distance…enjoy each day
OOOH, Connie! I LOVE those little black and white “stars” in your quilt! They just make it all pop!
Hope that Tony gets your long arm back in shape soon. Nothing beats the feeling of quilts completely finished, huh?
Love those Jen Kingwell quilts. I got QUILT LOVELY book and the Flutterby template for Mother’s Day. I have had such fun planning and dreaming.
I have thumbed through my bird book but can’t find your stunned bird. Do you know what it was? I still have not planted my flats of annuals. Afraid of hail this weekend.They seem happy in the greenhouse for now. The lilacs will be done after all this rain but they have been enjoyed this year.
blessings j
Judith Ann – it’s a yellowthroat warbler,geothlypis trichas
Thank you never saw one before.
The pictures are delightful. Connie’s project looks fun but a lot of work. Is it paper pieced?
Lund is a living doll, with long legs. She will enjoy dancing.
We could sure use some rain, if the hail would kill the millers, I’d take some of that too. There not big, so smaller hail only.
I talked to my sister for 2 hours this morning! She referred me to a website that has elastic. I ordered some…Hope I get it, the jail will be ecstatic if it comes. 🤞🤞🤞
I watched a documentary about eagles on PBS last night. Your Decorah eagles were on it. Great show.
Enjoy church tomorrow, wear a clean mask…that way you won’t talk dirty!!!😉
Great pictures today!! Luna is so cute! Love all the quilts and the cats and that cactus orchid. Oh my goodness! Too bad it doesn’t bloom more often. That’s like my peonies! Such a beautiful flower but such a short blooming time. I do enjoy them while I have them!!
It’s going to be hot here this week.
Be still…..
Thank you for so many wonderful pictures, love Luna with those bright eyes. Connie’s quilt is wonderful. We have a sliding glass doors and everyonce in a while a bird will crash into the windows, A friend gave me a start of a plant that looks like your orchid caucus and she said the flower is like your bloom. We have had a cold rain week and today is the first day we have seen the sun in a week. Look forward to being outside and getting the plants on my deck hung. Hope you have a wonderful peaceful holiday weekend.
Shenandoah Valley VA. Carolyn b
I loved all the pictures today, especially the cats and the quilts. The birds are here are eating us out of house and home. We are refilling our feeders with seed and suet constantly. We will have to go to the feed store and get a 40 pound bag of seed instead of these smaller ones we’ve been ordering. I love the woodpeckers that come to the suet but unfortunately, the starlings have discovered us this year, and they are real gluttons. A mama rabbit and her baby have been coming by the past couple of days. The other day my husband saw the mama looking through the sliding door glass into our family room. So cute!
Sue in PA – I know what you mean! I’m down to one jar of jelly and I put a full jar out every other day – sometimes sooner! They’re hungry!!
So many wonderful, colorful pictures!!!
My yard is so dry—I need your rain!! Sprinklers get turned on Tuesday. I’m hoping it will recover. We have fires already and red flag warnings throughout much of the state this weekend.
I haven’t been sewing but got another request for masks do sat down at my machine this morning. Now I am off to the grocery store—not a favorite jaunt these days. We have had a spike in cases here this week so I am mostly just happy to continue to stay home.
Thanks for all the cat pictures! The Jen Kingwell quilt is awesome , I really love her work and have made several of her patterns. Gypsy Wife is next! Love the old rake tines with the garden tools, I use my old rake to hang wine glasses outside on the porch for serving friends in the summer months. Enjoy your weekend, the weather here has been iffy, rain, wind, sun breaks and cooler temps. The temps will be in the low 90’s for next weekend. Go figure!
I LOVE that quilt that connie is making soooo much! It is a beautiful thing. Please keep us updated as she progresses.
I found a phone book this morning that i hadn’t thrown out so now I’ve made my first string blocks. I have been quilting for 50 years and the thought came to me what a wonderful memory quilt this would make if only I had saved those leftover scraps from all those many quilts!
Hi Mary, I read through all the comments to be sure I am not repeating a question… is Connie’s quilt a pattern that is available (name please) or is she designing and creating the quilt?
Also I want the little gray Gracie kitten so badly! Hopefully, I can find a kitten just like that close to us because I want to give it to my husband for Father’s Day. Strange gift I know, but he loves cats.
I had a cat named Mischief that looked just like Gracie that lives 24 years. He died about 15 years ago and I still miss him. Then we brought a kitten home from town in my car engine, and she rode back to town with me. Then I heard her crying under the hood. We rescued her and named her Sydnee. She was my husband’s buddy, but died about 4 years ago.
Since then we have not had a house cat because I don’t want the litter box and car. We have several outdoor cats of course. But I think it is time that he has a cat again.
Thank you for your posts! I do enjoy them.
Mary in Missouri – Connie’s quilt project is designed by Tula Pink – can’t remember the name. I’ll ask.
Thanks! I’ll find it. Just needed something to go on!
It is called Pink Sunrise and is English Paper Pieced. Pretty incredible quilt, but not sure looking at the kit of all the pieces that it is one that I would tackle. Lol
P.s. in my original post, autocorrect changed a word from “hair” to “car”. Why, who knows. But I have avoided a house cat because I don’t like the litter box and the “hair”. Do all your cats go in and out of the house?
Mary in Missouri – I assume that question was for me – yes, we have a big dog door and another small cat door on the other side of the house. This time of year they all spend time outside and litter boxes are not used much. Guess a person has to really love cats to accept the litter box and cat hair along with the cats!
Hi there. I’m the one that the momma cat adopted in a February. Little did we know at the time that she was pregnant. Little Gracie is a rambunctious one! Clinging on everything & so curious. Sure hope you find a special little one for your husband. 😻
Thank you. I hope so too. That momma knew where to go so she and her babies would be taken care of! Wasn’t she lucky!
Love Luna and the kittens!! We only got a couple tenths out of this system. But thunder storms on Monday and Tuesday. But it is summer.
Hi Mary, thank you for posting the photo of Luna, she is so sweet, I’m a very proud grandma! The quilt is a real scrap one , just all the bits from around the sewing room, destined for the women’s refuge.i would love one of the little ginger kittens, best wishes from Sandy.
We spotted our first oriole this year on April 1st. There were loads of them……. more than we’ve ever had before. Three weeks later they were gone! Not sure where they went. I read they do stay near the southern Calif. beach areas and also head further north. We had a very wet April (unusual for So. Ca.) so maybe that’s what attracted so many. We did put out lots of food but they still ‘flew the coop’.
Mary, I still have the cactus that you gave me, gosh! I need to bring it out, however I don’t know if it will bloom. I’ll keep my fingers crossed. Connie’s quilt is so colorful! The baby Luna gets more beautiful everyday and the kitties are so, so cute! Thank you for sharing your blessings with us.
I love kitty pictures. Pam looks so content. Our cat earned his keep last night so never say cats are dumb. A big bug with a hard shell must have come in the door and didn’t it fly in the living room into the lamp and the cat was on my side so he flew off the couch and tried to catch it. It went behind the tv and of course no one could get it without moving this and that but the cat would not give up. He knew it was behind there. Well it must have crawled under a speaker as the cat kept circling next to it so my husband figured the cat knew more than the rest of us so he lifted the speaker and sure enough that nasty bug was hiding. The dogs just laid in their beds next to the couch doing nothing the whole time but we were pretty proud of the cat!
Kathy – cats are smarter than we give them credit for!
I love Connie’s quilt and that baby is so sweet make you want to just hug her. I love that plants bloom, just looking at it make you happy. Happy Quilting. Terri
Love the rake hanger idea. I might just do that. Did you do the sewing desk insert yourself? Could you explain it a bit? I’m thinking of doing something similar for my Singer 301.
Wendy Polsson – do you mean the sewing machine table? My husband built it but I couldn’t explain it.
I do – that’s okay – I’ll keep looking for info somewhere.
Hello, Mary
Yes, I mean the sewing table. Lucky you to have such a handy hubby. thanks anyways
Mary what is wrong with your long arm some of us might can help.
Also, I would like to hear an update of people that worked for you last that we remember. Ina, Mary, can’t think of all of them. Paula in KY
Does anyone know who KARLA is that posted the dirty dozen WEAVE QUILT? I would like the pattern and can’t find it on the internet. Thanks Paula in KY
Thanks for the uplifting blog. I needed it. Our oldest grandchild, Emma, ““virtually” graduated today. No ceremony, no party, no friends over. We are very proud of her: Honor Society, Band, Golf, Valedictorian, and sorry the whole class and almost every high school or college 2020 grad has to graduate this way. I know many people have had this terrible illness and many died, but I am still sad for her.😪
Diane and Squeak – oh, that’s too bad, isn’t it? Poor kids having to miss so much but tell her she’ll go down in the history books as the graduates of 2020 – the class that was denied graduation!
Thanks, Mary. You made me smile with the history books comment. I will tell her. She has a job this summer in a place called Young Chef’s Academy, that should be fun:)
I’m reading your post right before I go to bed tonight… and I know I’m going to sleep well. Sweet kittens and kitty’s, pretty quilts and pleasant thoughts. Sweet dreams and thank you. Susy
Rainy in SE Nebraska too! 1.67″ overnight Friday into Saturday. Another 1.21” in the storm we had early this morning. Went to the cemeteries after lunch, got home just in time for another down pour! Haven’t checked the rain gauge yet,
Our church re-opened today. We have a very small building, not a lot of seating with this social distancing, so we watched our Pastor’s sermon on Facebook this morning. Still trying to social distance due to my job with the senior center and delivering Meals on Wheels. Want to stay healthy so as to keep my Seniors healthy. Love your cats! I am a cat lady (with just barn cats). Hubs doesn’t allow animals in the house.
HUGS… and stitches
Mary, thanks for sharing my momma, Tippy the cat, & her babies. Little did we know when she adopted us in February that she was pregnant. They are such cuties & fun to watch grow up. Love Connie’s quilt & all the other sharing! ❤️