Spring Cleanup and Easter Day

Saturday was a busy and productive day but not for my sewing machine.  When I went to bed Saturday night I realized I had not gone and looked at what the kids put out for Jared for Easter morning so I went in and found my sewing machine looking lonely in the dark so I had to take a picture of it.  I did sew a couple rows today while taking a break from yard work but not much today sewing done.

We did find us a bunny on Saturday though and it seemed fitting for Easter so took a picture of it this was at the community garden where me and the kids went to work (while 2 younger ones to do Easter egg hunt)

And you cant have any eggs with out the chickens.  This one belongs to a lady down the street from me she brought it over to the community garden for the kids to see.

Jared and Rebecca looking for eggs

They were told they could find one real and 3 plastic each.

And this is one I spied and let Rebecca know where it was.

James on the other hand was a big help to the garden he laid out carpet that they put between the rows to keep weeds down and keep your feet from getting muddy smart idea

Sadly dad watched and let my kid do all the work.

I do have to point out this one I tilled all but 2 rows James came and finished.  Along with the garden tilled again we bought 4 tree's and planted them a pear, a apple, and 2 cherry tree's I got in a gardening mood at the community garden and after talking to some one about tree's decided the 5 fruit tree's I had was not enough and now I have 9.  Not bad for a small lot living in the city.

The girls stayed home and did what they do best while the rest of us worked outside today.  We did end the day well by having steak, hamburgers, and hot dogs on the grill outside and invited friends down to share them.

Julia Easter Morning did have to show off her new slippers even though they are so huge on her.

My first John Deer Quilt is sewed together.  Once the wife is done doing what I call the hard part and she calls the easy part (cutting it) It will be ready for her dad for Christmas it will be a day or so for that so expect its finish soon.

Casey's Quilt

Like yesterdays quilt we took this out on the swing set.

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Scott's Quilt was organized lines, this one was random.  Or as my wife says, not so random. I ended up getting almost every row on one column identical, made me giggle.

As you can see Scott's on top is nice straight rows.  Casey's is all over the map.. You would have to look at the pictures closely to see that the top quilt has 6 rotating blocks 2 darker 2 lighter and 2 in between. The second quilt has the same blocks but 2 of the 6 I had a lot less of , which is why it got the wild random look.  This finishes my "Man Quilt" Project as I only have a few blocks left over from each of them, but all of them together 6 total quilts Paisley Parade, Dad's Zag Zag, A few of my favorite things, and A Twist of Red and the 2 above Casey's and Scott's.  I think I am done with black and white, it is out of my system.  It is so out that I could not think up good names for the last 2 quilts.  Oh well had fun with them.  Now on to bigger and bolder designs.

One last thing on the St Paddy's Day blog hop I won this a candle holder and Twirl charm pack.  My wife loves Twirl, she bought the FQ's of it so this will go to good use in something. Thank you Grace And Favor for the great giveaway.

Scott's Quilt & Re-Stash

I finally got a finish on my 2 week dry spell. I am sure many of you wondered what happened to me.  I took the quilt into the backyard after work and took some pictures on the swing-set don't look so close to the back ground the yard is a mess.

I caught this one as it fell off the swing set.

Then it slid down the slide

Back is gray (at this point I realized I forgot to put my label on that will have to do that Saturday).

Friday when I got up for work, this is what I found. If you are not looking closely you might miss the almost inch of snow inside the van.  It seems that some how we left the door open all night, oops.

 This was before work.

This is after work, you just have to love spring in Utah.

Julia did not look so happy for this picture but she does look cute in a few on her blog taken the same time you can find them http://juliadawnhealey.blogspot.com/

My wife took me to Jo-Ann's, OK I guess I dragged her to make me not over do it on the buying. I don't think it worked.  The 3 blues on right and 3 purples on the left are for baby rag quilts.  The yard of fabric and the fat quarters one or the other will go with our Case material for a rag quilt for my brother in law.  The John Deer fabric is for my brother in laws rag quilt, our first buy did not have enough to make 2 quilts.  After cutting all of the fabric on Wednesday I realized we could not make them as big as Tanya wanted (for her brother and dad) so we needed a little more to stretch what we had.  Last of all, 2 queen size batting's.  Not a bad shopping trip, I got every thing for half price or better.  A savings total of 162.95. For some reasons, I save more when shopping with my wife.  I end up buying 10 times more, spending in the long run way more then I would have alone.  Hum good thing she is thrifty.

Link a Finish Friday #10

The Goal for me this year is 52 Finishes in 52 weeks help keep me honest and show off your own finishes at the same time its a Link A Finish Friday!!

This week and even last I have not finished any thing (I am a slacker) In the morning I do have 2 rag quilts that will be finished I guess I will post them Saturday.  For this week lets see who can finish more then me?  Wait that should be every one I did work on this though.

I also tried to do a quilting challenge but so far its flopping not that many people have opted in.  So if you want to save me from flopping please join in the Challenge more info Here challenge based on these chairs.

So link up what you have finished.

So for the rules.

1) Who likes rules. Toss them out.
2) Add a link to your finish blog or where ever you show off your finishes (Not limited to quilts but I like them the most).
3) Visit a few of the finishes and comment or encourage them on.

Not Required but fun to do

1) Follow my blog.
2) Follow the blog of all those that link.
3) Link back to my blog.
4) No finish, go quilt and stop reading the web.

Another day and another rag quilt

Here is the newest stack of things I have been sewing.  My son decided to take more pictures of Julia tonight and he snapped a couple of me.  You will notice in the bottom corner of the above picture the corner of one of the "Man Quilts" I have sewed the last 2 of them together.  They are now in the hands of the cutter (Tanya my wife) She has one about half done at the rate she is cutting it will be done by Saturday.

This project I am working on is 2 rag quilts done in all John deer materials.  The material has been around for a month and a half and its part of my no more buying stuff tell some of the current projects are finished kicks.

Speaking of Tanya here she is hard at work on her most recent project.  For some reason I get more comments on her project lately then mine.

Tanya while I was at work today got some pictures of Julia and posted them on Facebook today to celebrate her 1st week birthday.  Ack I am already celebrating weird dates.  Speaking of Celebrating Tanya and I celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary this year by taking Julia to the Dr and getting her arm checked out Go here for more info about her arm. And then Eating fast food.  I think this is the first year we did not do something more exciting.  Its funny how your priority's can change

Last but not least my oldest son decided to hold his sister tonight and does it not figures that she would just scream bloody murder poor James.