A Ribbon in the 2014 Peconic Quilt Show!

This weekend Hubby and I went to the Peconic Quilt Show from the Eastern Long Island Quilter's Guild. This year's theme was "Around the World in 80 Quilts". The cross-stitch in my header would fit right in.

Upon entering Hubby and I each chose a program and his had a sticker for a door prize! This what he won....and promptly gave to me. Maybe all these goodies will spur me to try applique.

You can also see the yard of fabric that I bought in this picture. 

 I entered my Fly Away Blues quilt in the Duet Large category (for quilts pieced by one person and quilted by another). I was awarded second place! This is the first judged show that I have entered. I was so excited. Hubby took these pictures.

This is the quilt that won first prize in my category. It was pieced by Ann Bove and is called My Spring Garden. 

Here are some other notable quilts. Butterfly Garden by Patricia Bandura.

This is a great interpretation of a Log Cabin quilt. It was pieced and appliqued by Beverly A. Delaney and is called My Paducah Splurge.

Tiny Cabins by Barbara A Fein. I love the graphic nature of Log Cabin Quilts.

Another variation is Frost Valley Log Cabin by Dorothy A. Braunstein.

Wander Through My Mystical Garden by Audrey Collins.

Asian Garden by Sandra Curry.

Follow the Leader by Barbara Arnold.

More Than Just Flowers by Cathy Barta. So much great applique.

New York, What a Beauty! by Marcia Schulman. Look at all those wonderfully stitched points.

Hawaiian Quilt by Ellen Weider. I want to try one of these someday also.

The Great Pumpkin Quilt by Patricia Hallock.

Another impressive appliqued quilt: Floral Rhapsody by Judith Craddock.

A Night in Sedona by Rae Wilson.

Angel Wisdom by Judith Roush Knorr.

Lisa's Wedding Memory by JoAnn Maddalena. All the white strips of fabric have hand-written messages from the guests at the quilter's daughter's wedding. What a great keepsake.

I hope you enjoyed your tour of the quilt show!

Thanks for stopping by!

Floral Yarn Along

Sharing some photos of the flowers I planted in pots on my front porch. I have found that geraniums grow best on this south facing porch. I always put a cascading vine in my pots. Below you can see sweet potato vine, variegated vinca and creeping jenny.

I love the little chair above. I also fill my back deck with pots. I used a lot of petunias and salvia.

The pots below have begonias, alyssum and that beautiful pink flower is called "dead nettle". I never used this flower before. It is quite pretty and growing like crazy.

 These two pretty hanging baskets were Mother's day gifts from Hubby. There are two more that are new guinea impatiens.

 These two pots are my yearly attempt at growing tomatoes. The front pot is a beefsteak tomato plant and the one in back is a golden cherry tomato plant. I rarely get a good crop, but I persevere. I am going to try feeding the plants more consistently.  I move them periodically so that they get enough sunlight.  I also have a pot with an orange bell pepper plant.

 I love sitting in either place and look at my pretty pots. So relaxing.

I am also sharing my Granny Square Roses again today. I have added the background color - soft white - to several of them. I love the way they look. They were looking quite dark to me, but now that the background has been added they have definitely brightened up. I haven't made any decisions on buying more green for the leaves yet. I think I will add the background to all the roses that currently have leaves and then decide what to do next. My interest in these pretty squares is definitely renewed. 

My infinity scarf is another matter. I am going to run out of yarn long before the stated length. I don't know what I was thinking when I bought a skein that is 20 yards shy of what is needed. I just may have to resolve to have a scarf that can't wrap around twice or not connect the ends and just have a regular scarf. Another decision to make.

I'm joining Ginny's Yarn Along again this week. What are you knitting/crocheting? What are you reading? Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are up to.

Wuthering Heights is almost finished! Now I can't wait to discover the ending, but as I told my daughter, I will never read this book again. I find it interesting, but my taste in reading definitely leans to the lighter side. I like to lose myself in a book and not deal with constant angst. I don't mind the random tear-jerker, but even those books allow you to actually like some of the characters. I can't say I like or care about any of the characters in Wuthering Heights.

Thanks for stopping by!

Strawberry time!

On Sunday, Hubby and I visited a local Strawberry Festival. Although the festival itself was not what I expected, we did buy a few things. First, of course, were strawberries.

 There is only one pint here because I used the other two that we bought to make Strawberry Frozen Yogurt. It is currently solidifying in my freezer. This is a new recipe for me. 

We also stopped at The Virgin Olive. They sold flavored olive oils, flavored balsamic vinegar and a few different spice tins that you can use in your olive oil for bread dipping. Yum. I bought  the Sicilian Blend Bread Dipping Seasoning and this Strawberry Balsamic vinegar.

What else would I buy at a Strawberry Festival? They had Pomegranate and Mango as well as other flavors too. They offer gift baskets and tasting parties also. Check out their web site for all the rest.

I have been craving homemade cookies so......I made Nestle's Tollhouse Cookies.

Most of them went into the freezer or I will finish them in no time. Not very good for the waistline.

I managed to make a lot of progress on my cross-stitch this weekend. 

I am on the fourth different blue tone on Large Cross-stitch #1. Ugh! It is stitching up quickly but I need a different color to work on.

So, I also worked on my stamped cross-stitch. Of course, the only color I am stitching with on this right now is green. I am so looking forward to finishing this dark green and moving on. 

My lavender colored azalea bloomed this past week.

 It really had a whole bunch of flowers! 

Unfortunately, a good rain has since washed all the flowers away. Well, it was pretty while it lasted.

Thanks for stopping by!

Yarn Along

I am joining Ginny's Yarn Along again this week. What are you knitting/crocheting? What are you reading? Pop on over to her site to see what others are up to.

Just checking in with everyone. Sad to say that my crafting has been very slow lately. I am still working on these granny square roses from Apple Blossom Dreams.

Do you see the light colored green leaves on the dark colored roses above? Well I am running out of it. I have used a much darker, forest green for the leaves on the light colored roses, but it doesn't show off the dark roses at all. Since the lighter green is a yarn I have had for many years, I need to make a decision about buying more yarn. I doubt I will be able to get the same color. 

I think I am going to start adding the beige background color on those roses that have leaves and see how large they become. I still haven't decided whether I want to just connect all the rose squares together or place solid beige squares in between them to make an afghan. 

Yes, I believe some experimenting is in my future.

I have resumed crocheting my Richmond Lace infinity scarf. 

There is a lot more than this finished. I am almost halfway through. This pattern requires some concentration as it is a 4 row pattern with only two in a row being the same. I can't be distracted when stitching this scarf. 

As for reading, I am halfway through Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. Okay, despite the constant angst, I am enjoying this book. At least enough to want to read to the end. I don't think I could read this more than once. I am definitely going to pick up something light and frivolous as my next read.

Thanks for stopping by!

Long Island Fleece and Fiber Fair

Hubby and I went to the Long Island Fleece and Fiber Fair at the Hallockville Museum Farm on the North Fork of Long Island on Sunday. 

This is about an hour drive from our home. It was a sunny, warm but slightly windy spring day.

There were many fiber and craft vendors.

This is the colorful yarn display from Fiddle Knits.

I bought the beautiful variegated superwash merino fingering weight you see below from Fiddle Knits. The colorway is Trifid Nelaula. I am plan on making To Infinity and Beyond with this yarn.

I bought the red yarn from Six Paca Farm. It is a DK 2ply in Apple Peel Red. My plans for this yarn are the Cafe au Lait Mitts. That may change though. This is one of the beautiful displays from Fitch Fibers.

There was also this fantastic wood carver, Dan Tracy. Click the link to check out more of his beautiful designs.

One of these great yarn bowls is sure to be on my wish list for Christmas.

Oh my gosh, can you believe how gorgeous this bowl is! This man is a master craftsman.

The yarns below are from Cozy Rabbit Farm. I know for a fact that I am allergic to rabbit fur so I couldn't make a purchase here, but the yarn was so soft. 

There were several animals on display at the farm. This fellow/gal? decided to pose for me when I approached.

There were sheep and cows also. 

There were several demonstrations going on all day also.

The Paumonok Weavers Guild were demonstrating well......weaving. What else?!

We also saw a sheep shearing demonstration. Hubby and I were surprised at how docile this sheep was during the shearing. 

After our visit to the fair, Hubby and I stopped at Palmer Vineyards. We each had a glass of Chardonnay and shared a bag of North Fork Potato Chips while sitting on the back lawn overlooking the vineyard.

After our harsh winter, the vines are just beginning to sprout leaves. It was wonderful to sit and soak up the sun. 

All in all we had a quite enjoyable Sunday afternoon.

I'm joining Ginny's Yarn Along again this week. What are you knitting/crocheting? What are you reading? Pop on over to her site to see what others are crafting and reading. 

I have made little to no progress on my crocheting. I am still deep into crocheting leaves on the Granny Square Roses. I have about 40 completed with the same amount that still need leaves. 

I am still reading Wuthering Heights. I fear I will be reading this for quite some time as I can only read 1 or 2 chapters a day if that many. I am somewhat enjoying this book, but I really am not a fan of books with a lot of angst. I knew going in that this was not a light read. I will definitely need a light and fun book to follow this.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope all of my fellow mother bloggers are enjoying their Mother's Day. I will be sharing mine with my own mother, my daughter and my mother-in-law, along with a few other family members. Hopefully my son will Skype with us.

I finished the binding on my "Fly Away Blues" quilt. Now I have to sew up a sleeve, make a label and attach both. I was quite pleased with how quickly the hand sewing of the binding went. I must have been in the right mood!

I have made quite a bit of progress on the Large Cross-stitch #1. This is how it looked last week.

And this is the latest picture. I have actually finished a bit more since this picture was taken.

The azaleas that hubby and I planted this spring are blooming beautifully. I should amend that statement, I picked them out at the store and hubby did the planting and mulching. 

We needed to replace two older azaleas that didn't survive the winter snows.

Thanks for stopping by!

Leaves on the Roses

See these roses. They finally have leaves.

  This is the extent of my crocheting this week but it is satisfying to have 5 more roses with leaves. Of course there are many more roses that need leaves, but there is no time frame for these so they will get done when I feel like crocheting.

Actually, the only item I need to finish imminently is my quilt. I have finished hand-sewing the binding to one long side and am halfway finished with one short side. When I sit down with it the sewing goes quite quickly.

 I promised to show you my Easter lily when it bloomed.

 I didn't realize when I took the pictures that the lily would blend with the railing. Still it is quite pretty.

I am joining Ginny for Yarn Along again this week. What are you knitting/crocheting? What are you reading? Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are up to.

On the reading front. I have finished Knit the Season by Kate Jacobs. Although I loved the book, I have to say that the ending left me flat. I don't know why, but I just wanted it to be more. The ending just sort of happened. I was reading on my Kindle and I really expected another chapter. That is one problem I find with reading on the Kindle. Even though there is a percentage bar on the bottom of the page you never really know when you are nearing the end. Especially with this book as there are knitting patterns and recipes after the story is over. Needless to say, overall I liked the book except for the ending.

Now I am planning on reading Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.

My daughter bought several classics during a recent Barnes and Noble sale. She recently finished this book and has lent it to me to read. I have always wanted to read it just to say I did, but I am not sure I am looking forward to it. Even the introduction is somewhat daunting. We shall see.

Thanks for stopping by!