Busy Week/Garden &Yard Work

This past week has been quite busy and therefore I have neglected to blog.
On Monday, I picked up two quilts from my friend John. He machine quilted a Dinosaur quilt for my nephew Jackson and he also machine quilted a house wall hanging that will be hung in the Habitat for Humanity Lansing board room. When they are bound, I will photo them and post pictures on the blog. John also gave me instructions on how to use a new camera. He is letting me try it out to see if I want to buy it. It is much more advanced than my current camera has 8 pixels and more zoom and I can take more close ups. I will be spending time taking pictures to practice the new camera. Here are a few of my first pictures.

Do you notice the difference?

This is my friend John. I was practicing taking pictures while he was instructing me on how to use the camera.
My first attempt at a close up that was in focus.
A backyard view with the new camera.

Another view of the backyard.
Close up of my Anemone.
Another close up of the Anemone.
Hydrangea.
Muffin looking out the screen door.

I stopped at the Charm group meeting for a few minutes and gave a quick show and tell of the house and dinosaur quilts.

On Tuesday I had a meeting at Habitat and got to give a sneak peak of the Board room quilt. Everyone liked it. I hope to have it bound in time to hang it at the October board meeting on the 28th. We have begun our big project and things are underway. Stay tuned for updates on the wonderful happenings at Habitat for Humanity Lansing. Oh, by the way, the WKAR Radio fundraiser netted enough nails to build 3 Habitat homes. Yipee!!!

I worked diligently on my Quilt a Song quilt on Wednesday. Here is what I have done so far:

The center of Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes.
Auditioning the borders.
The top all pieced, basted and ready for quilting. I will be adding more to the top after it is quilted. Stay tuned.

On Thursday was our monthly CCQG meeting. We had to relocate to a church in downtown Lansing since the place where we usually meet is not available for a few months. We have such a large quilt guild of about 250 that it is often difficult to find a facility large enough to accommodate our needs. Our current location is very near my home and it has been so convenient these past few years. I hope we can stay there. Our meeting this evening featured Elsie Vredenberg. She is a superb Michigan quilter and she presented slides of quilts with interesting backs. It was fun to see what quilters have done with the backs of their quilts. I will have to try piecing some backs in the future. I am usually in such a hurry that I don't take the time to plan the backing. Maybe next time.

Friday was errand running and grocery shopping after work. I noticed the price of gas is down to $2.99 per gallon. Wow! I also picked up some special primer for painting the paneling in my family room. This will be my over Thanksgiving weekend project. I am excited about lightening the wall in the family room.

Saturday and Sunday consisted of yard work mostly. I finally finished the garden clean up and vacuumed and mulched more leaves. I am sure there will be leaves falling for another few weeks and they will be used to help insulate my hydrangea for the winter. The trees and shrubs were all fertilized and the last water hose is now inside. I even pruned my sour cherry tree with my new extension pole pruner. I hope to get more cherries at picking height this coming season. I divided and replanted a sedum Autumn Joy and now I have nine sedum plants. I started a few years ago with one from my neighbor. Its a great plant. The grass seed I planted a few weeks ago seems to be taking hold and there are only a few bare and weedy areas left in the front yard. I will tackle the remaining problem in the spring. My Disappointment Garden is all cut down but it is full of what I call a nuisance perennial, Pink bell flower, campanula. I got one plant from a coworker a few years ago. She did not warn me about the invasive tendencies of this plant and I am cursing the day I planted it. I may have to use a hefty herbicide next spring if I can't get it all dug out. I thought I had eradicated it from my garden last year, I guess not. I did find that I have a few Anemone babies and I really like that plant so it is quite welcomed.

Since my new light outside the garage is such a shiny brass, it makes my brass mailbox look dingy. It is quite pitted and dull so I sprayed it with metallic paint and it looks years younger. Quite an economical alternative to replacing it I think. I managed to find a half size can of the metallic spray paint and it was just enough to do the job. I was quite pleased with the new look. Maybe the house numbers will be next.

I did manage to machine quilt two small wall hangings for the Michigan Women's Historical Center exhibit. After they are bound, I will post some pictures. Stay tuned.