quilting and gardening (picture heavy)

 Well I have been garbage picking again, my neighbour round the corner had these solid oak stairs in the garbage. We scooped these up and now I have a tier for my plants that i will stagger on, thinking different herbs and crawling stuff.
My wonderful neighbour helped me carry it believe me it was not easy it weighed a ton!

 here is some garden shots been keeping up with the weeds and love how it is turning out. I had not been able to work in the garden for 2 years problems with standing too long on my feet if at all prohibited it. I am making up for it this year. Feels good to be healthy

 This is my Japanese Peonies tree it is almost 20 years old. This year there was lots of dead that I had to cut off but also there were many shoots coming from the ground. It seems it was rejuvenating itself as well

 I love big hostas and was able to get some at the end of season for a more reasonable price, again patience pays off love how they really make a garden. also seperated a couple of my peonies (favorites of course) and they are happy where they are.

 Because of neglect these bushes grew 2wice as tall, so I have cut them down to half of what they were was a little worried but they are filling in nicely, this was alot of work but again worth it.
It opened up the yard and the hosta underneath are also thanking me for airing them out.

 are you getting the impression yet that I love hostas LOL. This is the walk leading to the back yard the morning sun is welcoming

 and these are my absolute favorite love how they are so curly next year they will be much bigger I really thinned out one plant to make it go a long way they are along the drive in between hydrangeas that are trying to recover I am not going to show you those yet.

 This is the other side of the house I love the painted ferns that have planted themselves there and are flourishing and these wonderful plants here tha are so happy they are so full of flowers with minimal care and sun and they give me the greatest of displays

 Now for the best part of my days I have been getting some quilt tops done by a new and wonderful friend she is so fun to talk to and has the same exuberance and energy I do about quilting and I think in life in general. She has done a fabulous job on the quilts I have been sending her way and with great flourish. Introducing Tella`s lovely quilting her business is called Lucey Longarmer, if you want anything done by her leave me a message I will give her your contact information

This was the Border Creek Mystery from Quilts at the Creek
I was going to do a Baptist Fan but then Tella had done another quilt for me with this paisley and I loved it so asked for it on this quilt as well doesn`t it look amazing! Just picked it up yesterday!

 here is the back hope you can see the quilting it is wonderful and it doesn`t take way from all that piecing in this lovely pattern that Sherry developed.
I cut a strip off each of some fat quarters to piece this quilt together to try to make it as scrappy as possible thought I would be able to put a dent in the Fat Quarters, I realize i have a long way to go.

 This monster was one Mom and I made together she did the blocks and go the panel this was through her local quilt shop then I designed a layout for the blocks and panel. Well I was not sure how to quilt this but Tella has this wonderful Peacock design that we decided on and it looks fantastic!

So in between gardening and sewing backings and getting binding on it has been extremely busy around here.

 Here is a close up of the peacock panto I think it was the perfect choice.

The design of this quilt was as you go so I just made it all kinda as I went along...not to bad eh?

 This is one of my favorite quilts it is a combination of 2 swaps the nine patch is one and then there is the blocks as the other what a great challenge it was to decide on a design to put these all together the fabrics were just in my stash

Tella again picked a great pattern we actually used a fabulous maple leaf panto that was perfect for the fall feel of this quilt
I have another done in the same panto I will show later the binding has to be put on.
as you can see on these quilts the binding is done as well

 My husband helped me lay these quilts out and he thought he should take a picture with me in all my glory so here I am in my jammies with Buddy on our friendship quilt

 This is the backing I used the Row by Row licence plate fabric I thought it was appropriate since all these blocks were also from around the world. I think you can see the quilting in this as well.

 Sometimes when you try new things they are not what you expect. I tried the computerized quilting where the computer sizes the panto and quilts the quilt. This technique did not thrill me as much I found that the panto looked disproportioned, stretched, unnatural. Something I tried but not sure I would do again.
This was the stack and whack I did many years ago as you can see it is bound as well

You might see more of the quilting in this picture if my model would move out of the way. He was so funny every quilt we laid out he laid on to be in the sun.

Well I hope your days are as full as mine and that you are enjoying every one of them. I will have lots more to post in between keeping up with the everyday events.

Enjoy each moment because each moment goes so fast.

I will be linking with Needle and Thread today