The Merry Month of May!!!

Hi Everyone!  Happy May!!!

I have hope that May brings not only flowers, but joy and happiness, more freedom to do those things we love.  I happen to have May as my birthday month, guess that is why I love this month so much.  If you also have a May birthday, here is something to ponder:

People born in May consider themselves to be the luckiest, with levels of optimism much higher than for those born at other times of the year. And optimism is scientifically proved to make you happier, and may even lead to a longer life.  

I'm all for this.  Many people have May birthdays, I share my special day with Bob Hope, John F Kennedy, and Latoya Jackson and I were born in the same year even.  This is a milestone birthday for me much to my chagrin, I'll just say that I have received my Medicare card.  Nuff said!!!!

Let's move on, shall we?

I was slow doing anything in April, just couldn't get motivated to do much at all, but in came May and I've been on a roll now.  I have many things to show you quilting wise.  I actually began the one project in April because I took an on-line class every Tuesday night at Kimberly's Fabric Stash. She is an on-line quilt store and she also teaches classes every week.  I'm learning a lot of things from her and I just love her fabric, she sells Moda fabrics which is my favorite, not that I need anymore fabric, but I was able to learn paper piecing and learned how to make four separate blocks.  This is an easy process, just takes some time getting used to applying fabric to the paper and flipping over when you need to.  I got the hang of it quickly.  She also leaves her tutorials of her classes on-line, so you can refer back to them if you get stuck.  She taught a cute tote bag this week.  I didn't tune in for it, but if I wanted to make one, her video is there.

This first block was super easy.  Anyone can do this one, all you need is the pattern and some scrap material.  All my blocks were made of scraps.  This one was unnamed, but I call it squares within squares.

This second block is called a Pineapple Block.  It looks intimidating, but oh so easy peasy!

This one is called Flying Geese, I thought no problem, I got this one.  NOT!!!!!  This one was the toughest for me.  I had to redo it twice.  I finally got it and was glad to have this one under my belt!

And last but not least the last block is the one in the upper right corner call, New York Beauty!

 Looking at that block looks to me like the Statue of Liberty spires.  You would think that this would have been the toughest with the curved pieces, but I breezed through this one on the first try, didn't even have to do the "froggy stitch" once, you know the one I told you about many moons ago, Ripit, Ripit!!!  

I used black sashing between the blocks and on the back.  I have it all ready and sandwiched, top-batting-backing ready to be quilted, but Kim is going to teach us some free-motion quilting in the coming weeks and I want to try my hand at that during that class.

Next up, we had some warm weather last week, then the cold was coming again, so I went outside and picked some daffodils and lilacs and brought them inside.  What a delightful fragrance filled the house.

With the warmer weather we had a couple days, I moved to the deck, after swabbing the deck, I got out some of garden decorations.  These two items were gifts from co-workers years ago and they were all faded of what little paint was on them from the factory, so I got out my acrylics and re-painted them.  I like how they turned out.

First was this one, I think Macy likes it!

This one took me much longer to do, but I'm pleased with how it turned out.  The hummingbirds were a challenge.  I loved painting and accenting the flowers.

Next up, I said that I'd show you what I came up with for the wall hanging for the Memorial Day Americana theme.  I had wanted to do something else, but came across a Patriotic Panel that I must have bought years ago and since I'm trying to use up what I have, I just did it with some borders and a little stitch-in-the-ditch stitching.

By doing this fairly easy piece, I decided to work on a mini-quilt to put on my little mini-quilt stand that I've had forever too.  This one I love and I have to give credit to Carole, From My Carolina Home blog.  I've posted several things from her in the past and she is a wealth of information on things quilting, tablescapes, touring the mountains of North Carolina, and gardening.  Check out her blog, you won't be disappointed.    

Here it is on the little stand on our mantle.  I think I'm going to make three or four more of these blocks for a table runner.  Stay tuned for that one.

Here is a little more of a close-up of it.  Love this border fabric.  I purchased it from Kimberly's Fabric Stash and it is Moda.  Love, Love, Love it!!  Reminds me of the 4th of July!!

Since I really am not good with the free-motion quilting just yet, waiting for that class to come up, I decided to use one of the 260 plus designs available on my sewing machine.  I did the stars and just a simple loops and it gave this some appeal.  At least to me it did.

Well, that is what I've been doing lately.  Bernie continues to work out in the new barn.  It's looking great out there.  Cutting grass is now a priority as well.

Today I walked our main, black-topped road as the side, dirt road is mud from the past few days of rain we had.  Got in more than a half-hour and over 8,000 steps thus far, so I'm sure to make my 10,000 today for sure.

I think I'll go back outside and enjoy the sunshine a bit more.  The sky is beautiful blue with a few puffy cumulus clouds.  Wish it were a little warmer, but I'll take the 54 degrees with the sunshine.

Hope it's sunny and wonderful where you are!!  Take care, pray for everyone and our country!  God Bless America!!  Land of the Free, because of the BRAVE!!  

Hugs!

Debbie