Quilting, Planning, and Loving Winter - Looking Out The Window

Iris Quilted Table Topper Or Wall hanging

     During the long cold snow days I started this quilt which is appliqued, pieced, and then hand quilted after the three layers consisting of the top, batting, and back, to give it depth, and the backing held together by the red binding.  The pattern came from a Angie Hodapp editor-in-chief of Quilters Newsletter.  I got it from McCall's Quilting Inspire-Design-Create quilting DVD Collection that I get in the mail once a month.  It was shown in blues and greens but I chose to use the colors above.  For the Iris I used a flat applique decortive stitch from my Viking Sapphire sewing machine.  Close up picture follows.

 I used a sewing machine stitch that looked like a feather stitch, to applique the many pieces in place.  Quilters safety pins were then used to baste the three layers of the final project together so I could hand quilt around the flowers, giving them a little more depth. The pins were removed after the binding was turned to the back and sewn on all by hand.
     The reddish batik material I bought from Jinny Beyer web sight.  She has oh such a wonderful assortments of colors. In her blog she teaches using contrast with a deep color which I followed and it just popped out when I got them appliqued on to the peachy orange material. So happy with the results.

Looking Out A Window At My Rock Garden Buried In Snow

On a cold cold snowy day during this long winter in Wisconsin I decided looking out the window at all that snow was not exactly a fulfilling way to pass the day.  Yes it all was a fairy land out there!  But inside it could get to feeling like I was quite house bound and restless.  There are hundreds of those very beautiful scenes in my collection of  prints stored in my computer.

Dick Snow blowing Lower Path With His John Deere Tractor

Many a day I gazed down on the lower gardens where the antique chicken coop holds 11 laying hens.  The path along side of it lined in now leafless limbs of the crab apple trees.
The many gardens of the lower area filling the space between  the house and the horse barn are invisible because of the knee high drifts of snow.  The pastures lay empty.  Horses were kept in day after day, protecting them from the many storms that came through Wisconsin.

February 27th 2013  behind out home the many high drifts going
up the hill.

What this very long snowy winter brought us, was many evenings and early morning views of the deer sauntering through the woods, the gardens and the upper hill that is behind our home. Even though I set up my Canon camera with its 75-300mm Zoom lens on the tri pod I have yet to catch any pictures of the deer.
One day with my daughter and her husband were here for a Lasagna supper we had just finished eating.  The doe with her two now yearlings strolled along the back eating at the brush, and of course my evergreens.
I was so excited to see them I forgot entirely to take pictures I had so patiently been waiting to take.  Oh my they are so beautiful!  She seems to know that our barking Airedale dog has to stay behind that big bay window that we all were peeking out of. Another time as sunset was at its end, almost dark, we saw 22 deer walk through by our creek and then out to the back wild area of our 27 acres.

Newly planned vegetable patch 20 x 30 ft.

A week ago my husband Dick, and I decided to put our confinement of yet another storm to good use.  I got out graft paper I had used to plan The Free Spirit Therapy Gardens years ago.  We talked about getting organized so many times with the big expanse of our land where we grow our vegetables, but over the years in the very hectic time of trying to get all the spring jobs complete, the vegetable garden was more or less thrown together in a Hodge podge spur of the moment time .  It is out behind the horse stable in a sunny spot where no one but us see it.  I take care of the 2 1/2 acres of perennial flower gardens and Dick was in charge of the vegetables.  I would help him sometimes to get the seeds in, or our grand daughter Katie would come and work with him.  I helped harvest but the in between time more or less was left to when we had more time which never seemed to await us.
     On the above photo we have a plan drawn up to cover a 20 x 30 foot space.  The rectangles show what is to be grown there.  Many include a rotation of planting like lettuce with green beans planted in the middle of the rectangle .The big open space to the right will be for pumpkins and cucumbers, etc that take up a lot more space.  The red word is Path which will be mulched with waisted hay the horses have stripped of all seed and blossom and have left the bare stalks.  The paths in between the rectangles are two feet and the path down the middle is wider 3 ft. so a wheel barrel can be pushed down.  All are to be mulched with the waisted hay we rake out of the horses pasture, to eliminate the many hours of weeding!!

My new Writing Course by Lauraine Snelling

     AND.......the most exciting thing that happened this very long snowy winter was when I sent for Lauraine Snelling's WRITING GREAT FICTION!!  Six of the most interesting DVDs that really opened my eyes
to the art of writing.  I love writing but I am such an amateur.  Sitting in my nice comfortable chair by my desk, I let her cheerful and often humorous teachings soak into my soul and mind.  Lauraine Snelling is a most interesting and fun Christian novelist, not at all preachy, but her books are full of adventure, mishaps overcome, and of course a little love story intertwined in between all the exciting chapters. I have all her books and sets of fiction both modern, and also vintage dated in North Dakota and out west.  I found some out of print books on Amazon in the used book section.  But also bought many new.
     She sells her set of Six DVDs along with a very rewarding workbook through her web sight for a
price that is well worth all the tools of writing she includes.  Soooo  much fun!!

        SO LET IT SNOW SNOW SNOW, BLOW, BLOW, BLOW  My life is filled to the brim of Joy.  If I find myself board, frustrated, or in the sulks, I shake myself loose and let the Grace of God give me direction to the next inside day of being snowed in.  Re-adjusting my attitude,,, Re figuring,,,Planning,,, sewing,,, and   yes my favorite, Writing in my Journal everyday, having a quiet time with my Creator God.
Letting life dish out what ever falls, whether it is snow, rain, or even tears. Me and God have control of my day!!

Double ruffled daylilly in my garden.
SPRING IS COMING
SUMMER IS RIGHT BEHIND
ENJOY TODAY IT IS RIGHT HERE
THE PRESENT IS FINE

Blessings to you all, may your troubles be small

PEACE TO YOU ALL
Kate