a weekend of family and gardening

Saturday being Saint Patrick's Day-included a visit with Alice my grand daughter, as you can see her mom was in the spirit! So, I couldn't resist sharing this photo of her wearing of the green. And, I was finally able to get a good shot of her two bottom teeth showing. A top tooth is on the verge of making an appearance next! Then I went by my aunts and kidnapped her for the rest of the day - which included visiting a local nursery and buying a coral bark maple tree for my front yard. We were enjoying a gorgeous day of blue skies and warm enough to sit out on the new back patio in tee shirts and visit. She took us to dinner and we had a great meal and then back home for more canasta playing. We are about ready to move on to actual score keeping next time-it was her turn to be the big winner. And that pretty much shot Saturday for fitting in anything quilty. I may have done a smidge of cutting but not much. Sunday morning I got more cutting in until I decided it was "misting" outside and perfect for planting the tree. Out I went and five hours later I had a planted tree and a transplanted huge hydranga shrub in the ground. Digging in our clay and rock soil really gave me a work out. At least it was softened by all the recent rain and time of year. In another two months what soil I have not amended will harden into cement-good luck trying to pry out anything once it gets like that! So after that gardening stint, it was time for a shower and a meal. Then, family phone calls to catch up on and baking and soup making took over. The last cookie came out of the oven at about 10:30 pm- a huge batch of what M's sister calls buffalo chip cookies-and the end of the movie -the new Bond one at almost midnight. During take cookies out of the oven breaks, I cut fabric, so I did manage a little more progress on that. and by the way I made chicken vegatable soup this time-a new recipe I had to try out. In a few minutes I will be pressing fabric and cutting during the fifteen minutes or so before I need to stop and get ready for another day at work. Tonight, I will be in cutting mode. I sketched out a color design for these quilts and now I need to make sure I have all the colors washed and ready for cutting. I am not cutting up my scraps as I go in case I have to go back and use a fabric a second time. I am saving them in a very colorful stack and that is a photo waiting to be taken! I am gone on retreat next weekend so having this weekend of doing family and gardening etc worked out well-I won't feel any guilt about being gone.