Brookgreen Gardens 9-18-13

Trees

  by Joyce Kilmer

I think that I shall never see   
A poem lovely as a tree.   
   
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest   
Against the sweet earth's flowing breast;   
   
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;   
   
A tree that may in summer wear   
A nest of robins in her hair;   
   
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;   
Who intimately lives with rain. 
   
Poems are made by fools like me,   
But only God can make a tree.

Brookgreen Gardens is a National Historic Landmark located just south of Myrtle Beach in Murrells Inlet, S.C..
These magnificent  trees are hundreds of years old, this year they are underplanted with thousands of caladiums.  The gardens moto is " Ever changing. Simply amazing."

Happy First Day of Autumn, Kim.

Caladium of every kind along side of a beautiful woven fence to cover an irrigation pump.

Beautiful! 

Orphan block table runner

Cherrywood hand dyed fabrics with wonky stars made at a Gwen Marston retreat.

I kept over lapping the star arms on my first attempt at wonky.

I've got to practice my free motion quilting so I can do something besides this wave line :0)
This little table runner is off to a doll swap partner after we agreed to a runner instead of a doll quilt.

I'm going to link up with Amanda Jean, you should drop by and see all the amazing finishes on her blog :0) on Finish it up Fridays!
Happy Sewing,
Kim

New Placemats

After 20 years of use these placemats have done their time  :0)
But honestly isn't it fun to see these so well loved?

new placemats and runner delivered to my friend Carol

A grateful friend 

Good friends since 1972

Scrappy placemats and runner

table runner

Four matching place mats

Uplifting messages on each one, this is the runner

The placemats messages are: laugh, love, relax,enjoy :0)

I quilted them with a wavy decorative stitch setting on my Bernina.

I think my girlfriend will enjoy these :0).  Happy Sewing, Kim

Since this is my only finish this week I'm linking up to show it off with Amanda Jean,
come have a look at what everyone is up to. :0)

Can YOU help?

My friend Victoria over at Bumble Beans is busier than I ever want to be,
but she always manages to come up with a quilt when the need arises.
Now she is collecting anvil blocks  and she has a tutorial on her blog for the block plus the address
of where to send them if you would like to join in.
This block is on the way Victoria :0).  It is my little way of helping.
Happy Sewing,  Kim

Anvil  Block for Victoria

Jackie's blogger of the month

Jackie had this great BOM with blocks designed by a different blogger each month, some bloggers you might recognize.  Well after starting it, moving and finding it again I am happy to say I have the top
finished :0).  The free patterns are still available on her blog, just hit the Jackie link.


Now to  quilt  it.

Jackie's Blogger BOM

One corner of the top

Another corner.

Matching doll quilts

My girlfriend gave me some fatquarters this summer  so I cut them all up into 1.5 inch strips.

I found a nice bright fabric to use as the center squares and made some
log cabin blocks.  

Backside of of one of the quilts

Now these are all ready for my girlfriend to take to her adorable little granddaughters who love to play baby dolls together.    And since this is the only thing I finished this week I will link up with Amanda Jean to show them off :0)..........  Happy Sewing, Kim

Doll quilt swap

I enjoy belonging to a doll quilt swap online, here is information if you'd like to join this group.

This is the doll quilt I received this month from my swap partner Diane in Minnesota, the
theme this month is "nine patch".   Diane made me a disappearing nine patch in lovely  shades of pink and violet then machine quilted it, it is pretty darn cute isn't it?

backside

Happy Sewing,
Kim

Coddlers

I've been busy making coddlers for premature babies in our local community along with
my group called the Sea Trail Grandma's.
If you have a premature baby in your life you can go to Michele's blog and
get plenty of free patterns to sew something tiny.

Happy Sewing, Kim

coddler

Baby soft fleece for a premature infant.

Lily's quilt

Lily's quilt before I pack it up to send to the birthday girl.

Back of quilt

Back of quilt with label 

Back of Lily's quilt with a Dick and Jane reader panel, perfect for a little girl just about to read.

Finish it up Friday

I enjoy looking at Amanda Jean's  blog especially on Fridays when everyone links up there are so  many  completed projects to see from her linky party.   It is even more fun when I have something to add!  Yeah for me!  A finish this week of a scrappy quilt made from left overs from a project I made before my granddaughter was born and this quilt is now for her 5th birthday.

Scrappy Birthday quilt

Wall hanging for Lily

Pin basting

I've got my medallion top all pin basted ready to quilt, now I have to decide how I'll quilt it.
Since I am new to machine quilting this is always the hard part for me.  I am calling this my Diamond Jubilee quilt since I am celebrating my 60th year.  This is a sew along done by Lori and Randy and you can see more of the tops on their blogs.  Happy Sewing, Kim

Sew Along

I'm making some progress on my Lori and Randy medallion sew along.  I've added my initials and the year
along with a few colorful birds......next comes some flowers and leaves.  I've gotta stick with this and
get all the cut out bits machine appliqued down....wish me luck.
Happy Sewing,
Kim

Mug Rug

Mug rug

Today my quilt guild is having a tea party where we will exchange a mug rug, dress up in pink and have a hat contest :0).......perfect activity for a stormy afternoon.  I'm going to link up with Amanda Jean since this is my first finish in weeks :0).  Happy Sewing, Kim

Just One Slab

Have you heard?

red scraps

Lots of memories in scraps, I'm so grateful I have not lost them to a flood.

It was so much fun to make a slab that I made two :0).

Cheryl Arkison co-author of " Sunday Morning Quilts"
is collecting "slabs" to make quilts for the victims of the Calgary
floods.  Can you imagine losing all you own in a flood?

  All you have to do is make one and mail it  to Cheryl, all the
quilt making will be done in Canada by volunteers.
http://www.naptimequilter.blogspot.com/2013/06/slabs-for.html

I hope you can help by making "just one slab" into a 15.5 inch block.

Happy Sewing, Kim

Bye Lily

Bye Lily :0) it sure was fun!

Happy Days

4th of July and look who came to visit!
My granddaughter Lily.
I'm in grandma heaven.

Lily

Grandma and Lily on a cruise to see dolphins.

Fabric Giveaway

Maureen and Jackie are giving away fabric to celebrate Jackie's birthday!
Lovely red Kona  fabric........now get over there and  enter.......you can't win if
you don't enter.
Happy 1st day of Summer :0), Kim

New things

Can you see the tiny little  baby bird, it just hatched today :0)

The center of a newly opened magnolia blossom

Magnolia blossom with the leathery shiny leaves attached

Gardenia blossoms

The pedals just opening and they smell so lovely.