Quilt Show

One of the events at the Grotto 100-year celebration was a quilt show held in the church. There were so many beautiful ones...old and new.

I had never seen quilts displayed this way before.

This pink and green version of Grandmother's Flower Garden was my favorite. It was entirely sewn by hand. The green background is hundreds of individual pieces, not a solid one. I've put this pattern on my list of designs to try. I can almost guarantee I won't make one as big as this, but maybe a wall hanging will be in my future.    

Seeing these beautiful works of art has once again gotten me in the mood to sew.

100th Anniversary of the Grotto

The Grotto of the Redemption is 100 years old this year. This past weekend there was a celebration of this remarkable landmark in my hometown.

No celebration is complete without a parade!

Art Show

  

Statue of Father Dobberstein



Baby swans

Garden and Flower Update

I finally got my garden planted, and it was a lot of work this year. The ground has always been hard as a rock in my veggie garden, and I usually just dig a hole for each tomato plant and call it good. This year I used the garden fork to dig it and ended up with clumps the size of boulders! I used the hose to soften them and then a small garden claw to break them up....and ended up breaking the claw! Not a good start. After a couple of nights of soaking the soil, I had fairly small clumps. I then added three bags of compost and a bag of peat moss. 

I decided on four tomato plants and a few kohlrabis for my sister and me. I would like to get a cherry tomato yet. 

In the background of the garden photo, you can see my rhubarb. It died out like it would in the Fall. I only got one picking off of it and have no idea what happened.

 My clematis is absolutely beautiful this year. The coralbells and coreopsis are looking good too. This year I transplanted some of both of these to the other side of the clematis so now they'll run the length of the garage. No more $$ spent on annuals for that spot.

I got a red hydrangea from a friend and can't wait for it to bloom. I'm still looking for the perfect spot for it in my flower beds, so for now it's in a large pot.

Outdoor Lights

Over the past couple of years, the lights in the front of my house have broken one by one.  First, the top of the plastic housings broke off. Then last fall when I had my roof replaced, a couple of them got bumped and the bulbs broken off.

When I first thought about replacing them, I had no idea how low-watt lights were installed. I did some checking around and decided that it wasn't something I thought I wanted to tackle...even though I could use the existing cable.

So I tried solar lights and just wasn't happy with them. I don't think they were getting enough sunlight because of the tree cover. And it was early Spring so the trees weren't even at their fullest yet. 

Last weekend when Mom was visiting, we picked out some new ones (not plastic!) and got them installed. 

It wasn't near as hard as I thought it would be. I just dug up the old light and snapped the new lights to the cable that was already in the ground.

 They look great and give off a LOT of light.

 I moved the solar lights  to along the garage at the back of the house. They fit much better there.

One more project checked off the list!

Super Moon

There was a Super Moon on May 5. There were storms earlier in the day, but the sky had cleared by afternoon and made for an incredibly bright night.

Bedroom Carpet

One of the things on my to-do list from when I moved into my house was to replace the carpet in the master bedroom. It was really in desperate need, but after moving the furniture in it was a lot more work, so it kept getting pushed further and further down the list.

Until yesterday. This coming week is clean-up days where I live, so yesterday at work it came to me that this should be the year to pull it up and haul it to the curb. And knowing that I wouldn't want to live with a sub-floor for too long would spur me on to get something new more quickly.

 This is what I found in one spot that was really worn...dirt and disintegrated carpet and pad. I don't even want to think about what the carpet was like even though I had shampooed it. Gross!

 At this point I had all of it removed except under the bed.

 I just moved the bed to the other side of the room and rolled the last piece up.

 It took me about two hours to remove it all (and the staples that the pad was secured with). So now I just have to go shopping and decide what I want.



More Spring Flowers and a Freeze Warning

These are new tulips this year that I got from Pella after Tulip Time. I love the color.

The freeze that we had Tuesday night/Wednesday morning made them a bit sad. But they've perked right back up like nothing happened.