Lemons and Lemonade

Good Monday-morning!  Right up front I'm going to show you the lemon.

Last fall I became momentarily enamored with Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Mountain Majesty quilts and copied off her tutorial to show our quilt ministry group.  Decided to make one.  Well, that turned into a bit of a disaster, and I put it aside for several months.  Got it back out a week ago to try again, and a few things became quite obvious.  I'm way too dyslexic to make these blocks correctly, and beyond that I just don't like making them!  So, this little pile will eventually wind up being finished off to donate to the local nursing home for one of their wheelchair-bound residents.

But, with lemons there's always an opportunity for making lemonade!  A couple weeks ago, Randy at Barrister's Block showed a child's donation quilt she had made using the Arrowhead block.  She indicated she would be sharing her pattern/tutorial soon.  Since I have a big stack of leftover squares from the failed attempt with the majestic mountains block, I decided to try my hand at making  something similar to Randy's blocks, and ended up with these.

I love these little blocks!   I'm looking forward to seeing Randy's instructions to see if she has an easier construction method, but these weren't all that difficult and one of the best things about them is that there are no bias edges around the block perimeter!  That's a pretty big win-win in my book.

After a light frost last Tuesday it has warmed up considerably and has even been sunny for three days in a row!  Seems like a small miracle this year.  The ground is still extremely soggy so much of the garden is not yet planted, but hopefully soon.  We can't complain though as so many in the country have endured far worse in the way of floods and tornadoes and now the fires in the west.  Our hearts go out to all the farm families whose livelihood depends on being able to get their crops in the ground in time for a full season's growth.

Here in our neck of the woods, the late spring flowers are coming into bloom.  The blue irises were the first to open.  These are my favorites.

I think these are Johnny-Jump-ups, correct me if I'm wrong.  They apparently self-seeded from a couple hanging baskets from last year, and they've been coming up all around the property, and have bloomed since very early spring.  Some yellow, some purple, and some a combination of colors.
Last week my husband found this tiny one, only about 1/4 inch across!  I couldn't get a good angle in the bright sunlight, but here's a shot of that tiny one compared with a dime.

The first poppy bloomed on Friday.  There are several more opening each day.  I do wish the flowers lasted a bit longer.  That first bloom has already begun to fade.

Our creek bed is full of fossils of various sorts, but these two are kind of unique, in that the two pieces seem to fit together perfectly!   More and more of these little treasures seem to be finding their way up to the various flower gardens and all along the base of the back porch and decks.  Country decor!

And speaking of country decor, my yard sale find from last weekend, this sweet Wheeling Corrugated Company (WVa) washtub, probably from the 1950s!  In better condition than the battered one hubby dragged home from the hillside (now doing duty as a planter), but with much less patina since it had been stored in someone's garage for years.  It will be planted with flowers as soon as I can make a trip to the semi-local nursery.

The first of the peonies bloomed yesterday.

This variety reminds me of the ones my mom had in her little flower garden when I was very young.  I loved them so much I would fill my pockets with the fallen petals, and even took a big bag of petals to school to share with everyone in my kindergarten class!  You can take the girl out of the country but ...

Til next time, happy quilting!