Satur-Day In

Finally - RAIN :)  What a perfect excuse to have a Satur-day in.  There's been the chance all week, but finally today we got a thunderstorm.  I LOVE the rain, the storms.  I LOVE the excuse to stay indoors and do things that have to be set aside because yard work needs done.

We started our morning in the garden - before the rain came.  It's still producing so it's still fun to go out and see what's still left.  I chased (I hated to, but . . .) a buck out of my garden last night. He's eating all the new growth and floral buds off my peppers.

 

 jalepeno peppers - letting them get dark.  

They are almost purple instead of the dark 

green usually sold in grocery stores.

                      

                    Banana peppers - hot ?  No sure :)

                                                   

Rubarb - have to do some research on this.  I don't know how to use it, but Mom and BFF like it, so I planted for them.

  

Flat leaf parsley - just love it.

Broccoli - still picking every other day.Today, I picked all the yellow and brown leaves off.  They don't need to take nutrients from the rest of the plant.

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I read and follow quite a few blogs - not as many as some of you, but enough.  Many bloggers have written books, designed their own patterns.  In fact most of the ones I follow have.  That how and why I started following and how I ended up with my own blog, at the encouragement of another blogger.  The first two blogs I started reading were Jenny and Kristyne.  Both have designed patterns and Kristyne has written a book.  If you've never read either blog, check them out.  They are both very inspirational.  I discovered other blogs, designers, patterns, books by checking out who they follow until I developed my own list.  Most of them have patterns and books.  Many offer free designs.  Most of them have tutorials to learn to do new things or just refresh or simplify things we've been doing for years.

Once I finished my coffee this morning, I started a new design of my own. I got my inspiration from a quote I heard Friday at my Bible study:

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass,

but learning to dance in the rain.

As soon as I heard it, I thought about this book and the cover design.

Little Stitches by Aneela Hoey

I borrowed the book from the library.  It's on my wishlist with Amazon.  It may be in my shopping cart soon :)  There are 101 little designs that can be used in any number of ways.  Anyway, I put the picture and quote together and came up with this:

I haven't exactly decided how I'm going to stitch it yet, but I think I may do some filling in just for something different.  So much of what I do is outline stitchiing.  Either way, it should be another one of those quick little projects that make you feel good because you accomplished something.

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Speaking of accomplishments . . .

I am so pleased with how this one turned out.  This one is going to be a birthday gift.  Remember this one?

This is where the projects started.  Sister bought a jelly roll and the strips were five inches wide.  She left me the "scraps" to do with what I wanted.  She debated about whether or not to do a stitchery in the center of her quilt and decided she wanted to do something more simple and chose to just do squares.  I wanted to surprise her for our next visit with a pillow made from the scraps and this one is hers.  I still had plenty of scraps left over to do another cushion.  But just to change it up a bit, I cut the strips down to four inches (one of them Sister nicked with the rotatry cutter and some had selvages to be trimmed), then I cut them in half to make more of the checkered pattern. I am so happy with the results and both ladies will be happy with their individual cushions.  AND I still have scraps left to do something for me :)

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Thanks so much for stopping by.

Wishing you a creative day.