Slipcovers

 I made some slipcovers for all the pool furniture.  Nice to see fresh and clean again.

 I made all the slipcovers removable so when they get covered with cat hair ,

they can be laundered!  (Nice to hit the 50% off sale just right at JoAnns!)  The pool is a delicious 92F for anyone who wonders........perfection!

Memorial Day

                       "O Say Can You See........."
                       Thank you to our veterans.
                       Thank You , Lord, for our Nation.

A Fence Exchange

 This is the old stackade fence that was on the property when we bought the house.  It runs along the front of the property where there were no plants, palms  or flowers.

                     Bill has been working to remedy that, growing yucca and planting the robellini palms.

 And after working all week (and waiting patiently) we finally got to take the fence down today!  Yippee!

 Will be listing this for sale this week!  56' of stockade fencing, 6' high.

 This is our new view, giving a right proper tropical welcome to guests and owners alike!

 It really opens up the front of the yard without too much exposure to the road.

 There is still some landscaping work to do, but we ran out of steam working in the midday sun!

 In between yard work, I finished up the skein of superwash in olive green, lime and teal. (Destined for a shawl, too, eventually.)

 I quilted the first project for Millie-this blanket is 56" x 56".

I caught up with the mystery shawl and this shows work through clue #3. (TheWholeNineYarns LYS)

So, like any reasonable knitter,  I cast on a plain sock while I wait for clue #4!

Down at the Fence...

 Bill worked all day laying water lines down to the road where we will have a new natural fence line instead of the old stockade fence from the previous owners.

He is planting the robellini in between the yucca (Spanish sword plant). 

 It is looking good and as he ran out of day, he will have to continue tomorrow!

I am tackling a stack of quilts from neighbor, Millie.

As we sat out by the pool at dinner time, I saw a very pretty but unusual cloud over the roof and mentioned to Bill how it looked like smoke........we ran out front and yup,  smoke-sirens, and smell!

Outside and In

One of our front yard palms, a Queen palm, has died-the last two years of frosty winters did her in. 

 Bill dug it up and added some good soil to prepare for the.......

 new queen palm!  It looks just right!  Nice to have fronds instead of a stump but the crow will miss the old one!

 Bill also planted a new tree, a Mimosa, where the old banana tree lived (another frosty casualty).

 These blossoms are very delicate looking but the tree will withstand the winter frosts.

 My neighbor called to share a mother lode of fabric, literally-her Mom is done with the fabric part of her life and gave it all to Mille!  We sorted, admired and I am thrilled with my bounty-lots for quilts and QuiltsforKids here!

 There was also a large piece (4 yards) of fancy fleece-I am not sure what this will be yet, but leaning toward two blankets with some of my hand spun wool for blanket stitch edging by hand!

 The plain socks are finished-they are really olive green and not as blue green as they show up here.  The temperatures have been in the high nineties so I am not in need of these right away.  (Probably for the next car ride because Bill likes the A?C on his feet and I need protection when he does!)

A new shawl is on the needles, a mystery shawl from Marsel's LYS, The Whole Nine Yarns.  I am using some alpaca in fingering weight that I had spun a few years ago.  It uses a new way to begin the triangle shawl and so far it is engaging to knit!

Inside and Out

 One table runner finished and ready for use!  The angles made it interesting for the binding but not bad once you get down!

 The quilting worked easily this time-nice to have a small project to zip through!

 Had to piece the back-looks interesting, too!

 The baby sandhill crane is almost as big as his mom, but he still has speckling in his feathers.

 They are totally relaxed around Bling-he is such a mellow fellow and the birds know it, they will eat the bread we throw to them even if it is right next to him!

 Outside work included shoveling new mulch around the front of the house,

 the south side of the house,

(see the pretty roses and new bougainvillea)

 and then the back of the house where the plumbago and mexican petunias are spreading out.

Where there was a gap in the hedge, we planted the philedendron and new  robellini palms .

                                             
This hornet is doing his part for the pollination of the flowers.
                                                  
I will leave you with this shot of the morning glories-so pretty!

What If...

 You try a little geometry and get to try a new idea out on some border fabric in the stash?  This table runner needs to be quilted yet, but I wanted to see how it looked!  I will be watching for some more border print fabric to try this again!

You just knit plain socks that make your feet happy and your hands, too?!  The olive green yarn has finally found its purpose ( I have knit a summer shell with this and ripperd that out, too!)  One sock done and 1/2 of the other.  I have been doing a lot of knitting poolside!  The weather is just right!

You try to spin the other superwash and see how that works out before you knit with the other yarn?  It works for me! 

A Sonic Boom

Did you hear the sonic boom this afternoon when I finished the batik quilt I had started in January of 2010!

I bought the acrylic templates for the quilt while in NY in August of 2009, bought my batik fabric from

Timeless Tonga Treasures at that time, cut out all the fabric in January and have worked on it off and on since then!

 The idea of taking the picture by the pool didn't work-the sun cast shadows so I had to wait for the sun to go down to take another!

 I will hang it up in the house for a real picture-it is too big for Bill to be able to hold it up for me but I couldn't wait to get pics of it!  (105" x 98" which is going on a queen sized bed)

 The cats came right over to help-if it is in the pool area , it must be for their pleasure......

Here is a close up of the quilting.

 The quilting is very dense, it took me a half hour for just one row and there are 22 rows of this design! I lagged in my vigor while quilting this but so glad I hung in there........!

 The fabric for the back was just a bit too narrow so I used some left overs for adding a pieced section so it would be wide enough-we call that a design element, you know!

 The quilting shows up better on the back and is very polynesian looking to me.  Just right for this tropical
quilt!
                           

This looks pretty enough to be wall art! 

 I left the quilt for the cats to play under.........

And I went down the hill from the pool area and planted my indigo  and cotton in an area Bill tilled up for me.  I am a bit late in getting the seeds in the ground but the growing season is long enough here that I think I will be okay!  (I only planted half of this area-the other part was the winter garden and will grow in for the summer.)