Quilts

This quilt was one that my grandma or Gram, Alma Coe Green Williams, started before she died in 1979. I took it so I could finish it. Gram had done the piece work as it was called. She liked to cut and sew all those little pieces of material into a design. I think this one is a flower design but it also looks like a strange sort of ice cream cone. She had done all the little stuff then added the yellow stripes between them. She had even put the batting or stuffing between the top and the piece of blue she used as the bottom. What I had to do was finish the edges and do the cross stitching so the batting didn't bunch up in one area. I made long, straight lines of sewing down each of the yellow lines. Yes, I used my sewing machine. Gram did all the designs with hand stitching, but had started to do the rest on a sewing machine. When I found the unfinished quilt in an old suitcase a few months ago I would have sworn I heard Gram's voice in my ear telling me to get it finished. 40 years was long enough. So I did it.

This shows the outer most edge of the quilt.

 Mother might have complained about a cat on the quilt but Gram liked cats and wouldn't have cared. This is Cassie.

This is a quilt that Gram had done the pinwheel circles on when I was in highschool. My mom had the white material we used to put the circles on. Then we put the quilt in Gram's old quilting frames. and spend many an evening siting around the quilt and quilting the cross seams while watching TV. That was doing it the old fashioned way. I am glad I was able to do it that time but would have hated to try to do it by my self. That is why women used to have quilting parties to do a lot of the work on quilt.s

This is Chantilly admiring this quilt. My mom was doing the last of the work on this one in July of 1969 while we watched the first men walk on the moon almost 50 years ago.

The back part was all white.

This is a quilt made by my Grandma, Dorthey Barnett, my dad's mom. Not sure when she made it but would guess back in the 1940's. It isn't in the best shape as it was well used. If I remember right all of her quilts were done with the small squares. Some in the stair step design like this and others just rows of squares. I will never wash this one as I think it will fall apart. Others she made and had kept were in a lot worse condition and had to be throw out.

More Spring Flowers

Although not a flower the hen and chicks that were here when we moved in are doing great. Hopefully some will bloom this summer.

Many people don't like dandelions but I do. They are so bright and cheerful and pretty mixed with the purple violets that are in our yard in the grass. And purple and gold were the colors of the collage I went to - Western New Mexico University in Silver City, New Mexico. That was way back when? Well we won't go into dates.

I can't decide if the violets are purple or blue. They seem to be more of a dark purple to my eye and more blue to the camera.

 Don't know what this wild flower is.

May apples are coming up. The flowers will come on later hide under these umbrella leaves.

I had to buy these lovely pansy's or viola's.

 Flowering Dogwood Tree

 Mini rose blossoms

 These are called spring beauties. Tiny flowers usually found where there is a lot of dried leaves from last fall.

A clematis I had to buy. Will put in a large pot like the one I got last year that is more of a deep blue in color.

Spring Trees

The trees have been so pretty this spring.

ne of my favorite trees is the Dogwood Tree. It has quite large flowers compared to the flowers on a lot of trees. These big showy blossoms can be seen for quite a distance when seen in Kentucky woods.  

 Another favorite is the Redbud Tree. Every stem, branch or twig is covered with tiny, lavender blossoms in the spring. When seen in the woods it is like a lavender mist.

Another favorite is the Bradford Pear Tree which is an ornamental tree meaning it is non-fruiting. You won't find this one as a wild tree but makes a really nice tree for your yard.

Some trees are blooming with leaves coming on but a few are still looking rather naked with no leaves yet.

I have a small Japanese Maple in my yard. Last year it leafed out well but I don't remember any flowers on it. This year it has some but they are very tiny and hard to see.

 The huge oak tree in our front yard is just starting to get tiny, little oak leaves that will grow into large oak leaves. With the leaves are long string of what I think is a flower. I know it was covered in acorns last fall and the birds and squirrels are still digging them up to eat.

Spring Flowers

This little white star is called Spring Beauty. It seems to be very common here and very cute and pretty. Notice the red and black bug on the one flower in the first photo. As with so many spring flowers they are not very tall. So it is a matter of getting way down low to photograph them. I found them mostly in areas that have lots of leaf piles left over from fall. The are mostly white with a hint of pink down the middle of the petal. Spring Beauty is the common name. Another name I found was Claytonia Virginica.

We have lots of wild violets or johnny-jump-ups in our lawn. They are one of my favorite flowers. These don't have the wonderful odor the ones my mom used to raise had. I found this one in a crack in our driveway. I found that when trying to take pictures of these small, low down flowers to be hard to do without getting my shadow in the photo. The best way was to get down on the level of the flower or to take the picture in a shaded area. Yes you can get decent pictures in the shade if you are careful.

See the dew droplet on this one.

 More spring wild flowers or maybe they are just weeds.

This is our Bradford pear tree. I had two of these in New Mexico and was glad to find one in the yard here. Bradford pears are one of the first trees to bloom in the spring. They are a fruitless tree so no messy fruit to mess with and have a nice rusty colored leaf in the fall.

 This forsythia bush is at the edge of our driveway. You would think they would be easy to photograph but not so. I found it very hard to take a shot of a single flower as so many seem to be looking down. I had to lean down and hold the camera up and hope for a decent photo.