Just catching up!

I've been reading everyone else's blogs but have been lazy about posting to my own, sorry it's been so long!  On Mother's day I mentioned I was feeling kinda blah, well, that developed into either food poisoning or a touch of the flu.  My husband and I both woke up Monday morning feeling rather sick.  Good thing we have two bathrooms!  That passed in a couple of days and we were both feeling fine again.  I didn't do much of anything for about three days.
Now I have lots to show off.  First, I got Patriot's Home basted and it is ready to quilt.

The picture is a little dark but I hope you can see how it turned out.  I love this group of fabrics.  I will hand quilt it, but not sure exactly how, yet.  This will keep me busy for part of the summer.

Two Piece Puzzle is coming along, it is made up of two different blocks.  I have all of this one done:

It is laying on the backing (the tiny navy stars on beige) of Patriot's Home.  There are 28 of these hourglass blocks.  Some rows have the blue going up and down like in the picture, other rows have the red positioned up and down.  It depends which of the star blocks it is with.  Here are the two versions of the star blocks:

One set of 12 blocks has a blue star with red corners and the other set of 16 has the red star with blue corners.  The hourglass blocks go between the star blocks to make the different rows.  This is the quilt pattern that was in the April 2010 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting, I fell in love with it the minute I saw it!   This one will keep me busy all summer, too.  I can do the piecing during the day and hand quilt Patriot's Home in the evening while I watch TV.  With summer re-runs I won't have to pay too much attention to the programs anyway.

My little flower garden is all planted and starting to grow:

Again, the picture is a bit dark but I will take more later in the summer as it grows and fills in.  The cactus in the background has lots of new "babies" growing this year.  We have to occasionally cut some of the pads off to keep it in control.  Hope we get some blooms later in the summer.    Here is the rest of my "garden" in containers:

There are a yellow and a red sweet bell pepper plant in the pot on the left and some green beans in the one on the right.  So far these look great.  And here are the cherry tomatoes and the strawberries:

There are some tiny green tomatoes and tiny strawberries already showing.  I'm hoping for some yummy fruit and vegies this summer. 

I also have finished the May block for Snowbound:

These two are as cute as all of the others before them.  I added the three extra little hearts above the snowmen to fill in the space, I think it looks OK.  I also have the alternate blocks for this quilt all finished.  I can put together the first two rows now that May is done.

 

The Irish Chain blocks go between the snowmen blocks, three in the top row and two in the second row with two snowmen blocks in the top row and three in the second.  I am anxious to get the first two rows completed so I can get an idea of how the finished quilt will look. 

So, I have been lax with posting to my blog, but I have been busy sewing!