Spool Wall Hanging

I made a spool wall hanging for my sewing room this spring. I finally have it on the wall.



The wall hanging has 12 spools of different bright (happy) colors.



Each spool is made up of 5 or 6 different fabrics.



Mary Lou, a member of my quilt group, quilted the wall hanging for me. She used invisible thread. The different sections of the spools have different quilt patterns and the small white border has circular pattern.

Ladybug Sewing Kit

We celebrated my best friend Linda's birthday this week. She has been making a lot of cute purses so for part of her present, I bought her "The Bag Making Bible". I have the book and think it has a lot of neat ideas for making bags.




Because Linda likes ladybugs, I bought her a set of ladybug sewing tools. The set had scissors, tweezers and a thread cutter to stick on the side of a sewing machine,


I created a ladybug to hold the tools.



Velcro holds the ladybug closed.



On the inside, there are sections for the scissors, tweezers, a needle threader and two other items. One side is padded to hold pins and needles.

Zucchini Patties

Earlier this week my best friend, Linda, gave me some zucchini from her husband's garden.



The nest day another friend, Pat, was telling us about her recipe for zucchini patties. Today she emailed me her recipe and a recipe which had been in the Saginaw News yesterday.




I used Pat's recipe, the first one, and made the patties for supper. They were very tasty, more like pancakes than I expected. I may try the other recipe when I want more of a vegetable side.

Trip to Spain

At the end of June, my daughter, Jenny, and I went to Spain to visit my other daughter, Angela and her husband Austin. This is a photo of Jenny, Ang and Austin in front of the apartment Ang found for us to stay in. (Most of the doorways we saw were very tall, had two doors and doorknobs in the center of the door.



Jenny, myself and Ang in front of a olive tree.



One of the nighttime views from our apartment.



The streets in the neighborhood we stayed in.



Austin is walking down a typical street in Madrid. Most of the cafes had outdoor seating. We paid a premium to sit outside...it was about 100 degrees during our visit.






One of our lunches at an outdoor cafe.



Plaza Major in Madrid.



Streets and cathedral in Segovia...a half hour train ride from Madrid.

Middle ages castle in Segovia.

Ceiling in a cathedral next to the king's palace in Madrid. (full of quilt ideas)

More quilting ideas in a ceiling in the castle.

Ang found some fabric stores for us to shop at. They sold mostly home decor fabric but I did find a cute renmant. I think it's cotton and it measures 25 inches by 104 inches...cost 2.40 euro. The fabrics all seemed to be very wide. I did see some fabric labeled for patchwork but it was not at all like the fabrics we use in America.

Ang and Austin were great hosts and we enjoyed ourselves.

Late Father's Day Post

I'm a little late with my Father's Day post. Years ago my dad made me this birdhouse. He use to tinker in his shed and had a huge collection of odds and ends. The house has a neat tin roof and the main section was part of a leg of an old dining room table.



The clematis also remind me of my dad. He had three clematis plants on the side of his garage. This time of the year their blooms would cover the entire side of the garage. Miss him.



While taking the clematis photos, I noticed that my red lilies are blooming.



I just love their bright, happy colors.

Vintage Style Towel

My best friend, Linda, gave me this cute sewing sack. It is made from a kitchen towel. I love the vintage style embroidery on the top. I remade the bag into a hanging towel because I wouldn't use it very often as a sack.



I refolded the sack and sewed rick rack on the top.



On the back I made a sleeve to hold a large magnet.



I have the towel hanging on my dishwasher and I can enjoy the cuteness daily :)

Spring Can Be Beautiful

We have three trees blooming in our yard. They were gorgeous over the weekend. One of the trees has fuchsia blossoms.

The tree on the corner of the house has pink flowers.

Next to the driveway, the tree has thousands of white blossoms.

It's always a fun challenge to catch a bee in a photo.

Jenny took this photo of one of the bunnies who calls our yard home. He likes to eat the corn and seeds the birds throw out of the bird feeder.

I got this picture of him or his sibling lounging in the sun earlier this spring. He was a little startled... just before I took the photo he had both back legs out flat, sunning the bottoms of his paws.