Cardinal Heart

Cardinal 2
Originally uploaded by Iris Susan.

My dear friend Sandie loved the first heart that I did with this pattern so I did this one just for her. I believe the embroidery pattern is from one of Judith Baker Montano's books.

Kitten in Thyme

Kitten in Thyme
Originally uploaded by Iris Susan.

I couldn't help myself this pic was too good to pass up. I had to take it through the glass in the back door. The kittens aren't tame and take off as soon as they hear the door knob turn. There are three of them and they are all cute but ornery...they love to play in the flowers and nap in them too!!!

Red Hot Poker

Red Hot Poker
Originally uploaded by Iris Susan.

This flower just went crazy blooming this year. The kittens have played in it quite a bit. I have yelled at them several times to run them out. Ornery kittens!!!

Shasta Daisy

Shasta Daisy
Originally uploaded by Iris Susan.

I really should have staked these daisies they have fallen over and now they are covering up my hydrangeas.

Bear's Heart

This heart arrived from Australia this week. Bear made it for me...the spiderweb roses are beautiful...I need to take lessons on making them from her. I always pull mine too tight..and they obviously need to be a lot looser.

I worked in the garden this morning. There were a few things I wanted to finish....I had late corn and beans to plant along with four tomatoes plants and four pimentos plants to set out. As I was finishing up setting the plants it started to sprinkle rain...I wanted to put the tomatoes cages over the plants too but when I looked up it was obvious that we were in for a down pour. So I'm still not done in the garden...I have some pole beans that I want to sow in the corn rows and the cages to put on the plants. We haven't seen the end of the rain our forecast is for chance of thunderstorm's the rest of the week. It's great for the garden but my yard is getting carried away...and the mower needs parts...I never seem to be able to get everything looking good at the same time. Does anyone else have this problem?

My Shasta daisies are starting to bloom...they need supports just didn't think of it soon enough. I also have Red Hot Pokers in bloom too...must take pictures and share them here.

Contest Block

Contest Block
Originally uploaded by Iris Susan.

This block was fun to do...it was part of a baggie swap and block contest on the CQNewbies yahoo group. I had a wonderful time stitching seam treatments that I hadn't tryed before. It's my first completed block.

Silk Ribbon Dyeing

Saturday was a very rainy day here in Eagle Valley so after straightening up the house I played with dyeing some silk ribbon. One of the yahoo groups has been chatting about dyes and we talked about using Kool-Aid and what vibrant colors it produced. So Kool-Aid is what I used. The mixture I used was a 1/4 of a teaspoon of Kool-Aid powder with a Tablespoon of water. Lemonade made a very nice light yellow...lime made a bright green...orange of course made a bright orange...and grape made a very dark purple.

To get lighter green colors I mixed lemonade and lime. Adding a little orange to the lemonade gave me a darker yellow. To get an olive shade I mixed a little orange with lime. I'm very pleased with the colors.

For the most part I followed Sandie's dyeing instructions..I microwaved them, then heat set them with the iron..after that I rinsed them in fabric softener. It was easy and not too messy...I didn't use gloves but the Kool-Aid has worn off my fingers already.

Red Buttonfly

This is such a cute pattern and it isn't as difficult as it might look....but after doing over fourteen of them I can still mess one up. I've been tatting butterflies for a motif swap...I love them but I'm very very tired of butterflies. Here is a link to the pattern if anyone is interested. It really is easy.....but it's easy to mess up too...lol.

We are have the strangest weather here in the valley. It was very cold one week.... it was hot and rained all the next and this past week it's been very nice during the day and cold at night. The yard was a mess I couldn't mow for two weeks...I did manage to get it done on Saturday...it looks so nice now.

Sunday I worked in the garden...planted 36 tomato plants...Lemon boy and Roma's. I make salsa and can (preserve) it so I need lots of tomatoes. Last year I entered my red salsa in the county fair and it won Best of Show. I also entered my yellow tomato salsa, canned red tomatoes and canned yellow tomatoes. Everything placed first but the yellow tomatoes...not sure why but they were canned in pint jars instead of quarts. I plan to try again this year...I just hope I have a good crop of tomatoes to work with.

Roses

Closeup of Roses
Originally uploaded by Iris Susan.

The upclose view.

Rose Bush

Rose Bush
Originally uploaded by Iris Susan.

This rose was a gift from my neighbor last spring. I usually don't have any luck growing roses but this one made it through the winter and I didn't have to do much pruning. It was full of buds and I couldn't wait for it to bloom. The blooms smell good with out being overly fragrant. What I like best is that the blooms are very showy and can be seen from the road.....so my neighbor can see them when she drives by.