Kitting for the Day

Today is my major maintenance scheduled for my 2004 Dodge Ram.  I will patiently wait with it for about three hours.  I am taking two projects with me to pass the time.  Hopefully I'll get there early enough to get the little cubby area that faces the wall like a desk.

The maintenance is sort of expensive but worth it.  For Christmas in 2024 my transmission gave it up.  The shop that handled my Forever Warranty has to replace the transmission FOR FREE because I kept up on all the service of the truck.  You can read about that in the blog post.

I need to cut the leaves and stems and background fabrics for six tulips that I made last month.

The other project I will take with me is my hand quilted crib quilt.  I don't need the cubby area to work on this project.

A fun thing that our son and I are doing this summer is T-Mobile Tuesday deals.  He is LOVING exploring new places for CHEAP lunches and getting deals like swag from T-Mobile.  Here he is eating his lunch that we got for $3.99 - $4.59 each (he had the "premium" mac & cheese vs. the steamed broccoli.

It's a great lesson on how to download the app, how to access the deal on Tuesdays on the T-Mobile app, how to pay with the app.  There's a lot of following directions and entering data like name, e-mail, address...  Food is his love language.  Might as well utilize it to teach.  He learns soooo much faster when he is really interested in the topic.  He's even getting good at remembering passwords and/or saving them.  Sometimes it's me that needs a little of his help (or at least I act like it so that he has to help me). Teehee.

T-Mobile didn't used to work very good in our area, but a new tower was installed less than 20 minutes away.  We were told that we would not be able to access our AT&T landline after 6/30.  Spring break was a great time for us to switch.  The price averages out the same, but when we utilize all the freebies (like Netflix, Hulu, Paramount Plus, and the food/movie/event stuff...) It works for us.  If you are thinking about switching, give them my name and I think we BOTH get a savings!

Ours is a little more expensive due to our remote area and our son needed a personal hotspot to utilize his laptop in the garage and on the road.  We are very happy with not losing service and a lot less buffering on the things we are streaming.

My husband was working out of town yesterday.  We finished the evening with eight wings from Pizza Hut for $1 each.  Luckily it was right on the way home and pick-up was a breeze.

Slow Sunday Stitching

I'm back to working on this hand-quilted crib quilt in the evenings.  I do it when I don't have something that needs the binding hand-stitched.  Guess I need to get some things on and off the longarm...

This is what the Random Blue Blocks quilt looks like:

I'm still stitching on this row!!!  I knew this would be a long-term project.  When I finish the current block in the top photo I will be 25 percent done with the hand quilting.  I'll take it with me when our son goes magnet fishing if I don't kayak that day.

I'm linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching here.  Can you believe it's the end of May?

 

Poppies and a RSC Finish

School is DONE for the 2025-2026 school year.  I did not work on any orange scraps this month.  I do have these beautiful orange poppy blooms to show:

I do need to thin out that hosta.  The yellow buttercups (to the left of it) have not bloomed yet.  They need thinned as well.  I'll have plenty of time for that this afternoon!  Woohoo!  I'll also move more of the purple sedum to another bed.  I checked on the deer-resistant plants that some of you mentioned or e-mailed to me.  I have most of them.  Yeah!

I finished this RSC project this week.  I call it Kite Girl.

Kite Girl started as part of one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenges (RSC) in 2014 (I think).  The block is made from 2" squares.  The block pattern can be found at Q is for Quilter blog.  I then started to learn to do the chain stitch for the kite strings and stems in May of 2017.  In enjoyed finding things that fit easily into my school bag that made me feel productive vs. doing cross stitch projects where I had to focus on counting and couldn't keep a good eye on students in study hall.  I randomly stitched kite strings with pieces of floss from my grandma's tin. I made the last orange block in 2017 and waited until I knew what I wanted to do with the border and sashing.

This quilt does not have a specific recipient in mind yet.  It measures 61" x 87".

I was going for an old-fashioned look when I picked the green for the sashing and borders.  It was a great fabric deal when I purchased it at JoAnn Fabrics years ago using a 50 percent off coupon.  I miss JoAnn Fabrics.  But then again I save money by not going there so much when I have to wait on our son to finish one of his activities in the area.

I backed it with a gently used sheet that one of my friends gave to me.  The quilting design is Baptist Fan (using my Circle Lord giant template board).  I used taupe thread to blend into the backing.

It has been such a busy month.  I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders with this eight-week long-term sub job complete.  I will be going back to the same job at the start of the school year in August.  

Graduation has come and gone.  Thank you so much for those that sent him a card in the mail. Special paperwork for our son and the next chapter of his life is 75 percent complete.  Bring on summer.

I'm linking up at Angela's blog, SoScrappy, for the RSC26

6 finishes this (Spring) quarter

Here's my Spring 2026 Ravelry UFO Club Projects:

1.  Bit Con quilt -- Needs more rows of strips sewn together -- size yet to be determined

2.  Rail Fence 3.5" RSC block -- 900 blocks needed/need arranged

3.  Piccadilly Circle -- Need a few more circle blocks

4.  Kite Girl --finished 5.28.26 -- 6th finish

5.  Folk Art Birds -- Need more birds and alternate blocks

6.  Hourglass Mini -- Needs a quilt back and then quilted

7.  Maroon Sampler -- Needs two more blocks

8.  Dicey -- Blocks need sewn together with sashing and cornerstones

9.  Fireflies Wall Hanging -- Blocks need appliqued

10.  Red/White basket crib quilt --finished 5.15.26 -- 5th finish

11.  D9P Red/White -- finished 5.11.26 -- 4th finish

12.  HST -- Needs more blocks made and sewn into rows

13.  Red/White House in Center baby quilt -- finished 5.2.26 -- 2nd finish

14.  Fish -- a 12-block RSC26 project

15. Scarborough Fair -- Needs more blocks made

16.  Random Blue Blocks -- Hand Quilting -- In the hoop

17.  Acorn Harvest -- Quilt top needs assembled

18.  Horsen Around Crib Quilt -- needs a back and then quilted

19.  Horsen Around Scrap Quilt -- needs blocks cut and sewn

20.  Pink Houses crib quilt -- Needs blocks made

21.  Lupine and Laughter (Bonnie Hunter 2025 mystery quilt) -- in the piecing process

22.  Christmas Memories 4-patches sewn, need more

23.  Dinner Party (school print blocks) blocks cut, needs blocks sewn

24.   Layer Cake Lattice -- pink blocks cut -- needs blocks sewn

25.  True Blue Sew Along (started 1/15/26) -- needs corners sewn to blocks

26.  Zip It Sew Along -- finished 5.1.26, 1st finish this quarter

27.  Classic Meets Modern QA from 2014 -- block complete, need sashing

28.  King Rosebud embroidery quilt --finished 5.5.26, 3rd finish this quarter

29.  Kathleen Tracy Mini #1 (pinwheels)

30.  Kathleen Tracy Mini #2 (squares)

31.  Kathleen Tracy Mini #2 (HST and a Square)

32.  Cheddar Jack crib quilt -- cat blocks are sewn, some 2.5" squares are sewn

You can find the 2026 Spring Ravelry UFO club here.

Dinner Party on the Frame

 This dinner party lap-sized quilt is on the frame.

I am quilting it with the Circle Lord Wanders design.  It's probably not the best choice I could have made for it, but I wanted to see how my longarm responded to a design without circles or curves.  Hmmm.  It quilted for about an hour without shutting off at all.  That's starting to tell me that maybe cleaning or replacing the vertical sensors for the stitch regulator might be worth another shot.  I'll discuss the situation with my husband and he will help me troubleshoot more.

I'm putting off calling the service person.  He charged almost $300 just to come to the house last time (not including any parts or service.) I also want to try more trouble shooting before having to ship the head to Iowa again.  Shipping to and fro gets expensive as well.  But like I said, it worked GREAT last night with NO turning off or breaking thread.

I found this feathery flowery print in my stash.  It was the right size for the backing and I felt the right colors.  I'm quilting out of my comfort zone with lavender thread.  

Danish Delights by Emma Jean

Yesterday was my day off.  I made a Danish Delight block and then reduced the size to see which one I liked.  I think the smaller size would better suit a crib-sized quilt.

The blocks above measure 9.5" and 12.5" unfinished.

I still have not put my pink scraps away from April RSC26 (Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2026).  They were handy for these samples.  I now have all my notes in my binder with the sample quilt blocks and the pattern.  It will be waiting for me when I want to whip up a quilt with squares and rectangles.

I was attracted to the pattern because of the floating look of the blocks with the sashing.  The pattern is Accuquilt friendly.  It will work great with my scraps!  Bring it on as future quilts.

I waited for the sun to come out a little bit before I started digging plants away from the outer chicken fence to move them to a safer area out of the neighbor's way.  I replaced the plants with tall ornamental grass to give the chickens a little more of a place to hide from predators (specifically chicken hawks.). I'll try to post some before and after pics of that if I get it done.

 

Danish Delights Layer Cake Quilt pattern was designed by Little Louise Quilts.

You can find the pattern here.

Graduation Day

Graduation day is now behind us.  We are so proud of our son graduating high school with a REAL diploma--not a participation certificate.  

Here's our little family of three.  Yes, that's me on the left, our son, and my husband.
 

My husband and his two sisters also graduated from the same school (but different building)... Aunt Diane, Aunt Jo, our son, and my husband.  It was a day of memories and reminiscing.  

One of my friends (that also works at the school) gave him this beaded necklace with the plastic graduation cap on it.  He has worn it every day for at least a week.  There's something about these $1 beaded necklaces that kids with Down syndrome just love.  I know I shouldn't be the person to categorize kids with DS, but if you need to brighten a kid's day at church or just any day, give them a cheap, beaded necklace.  I have a drawer full of them.  They are definitely a big hit as party favors for my kid's friends. 

School staff and school board.  The guest speaker is a doctor that graduated around 2004.  His grandma lives across the street from us.

The class of 2026 -- sixty-six students were in his graduating class.

The gym was packed!  This might be the most people I have seen in there to support the 66 graduates.

The processional had students walking on both sides of the gym, then onto the stage, then down the steps to their seats on opposite aisles.  It was sweet that our son just happened to line up alphabetically with one of his friends.  They gave each other a fist bump right at this spot on the stems.  It brought tears to my eyes seeing the friendships that he had made being in general education (inclusion) classrooms all of his school career.  At the end of first grade they wanted me to bus him to another school that had a "resource room" where he would have been separated from the general education population for "better learning".    The other school was about 25-30 minutes away.  It's one of the first schools to call off on a snow day because the roads are even more rural and slick in the winter.  We made the decision that our son will stay in OUR school district where we pay taxes and my husband and his family went.  By law our school district was forced to deal with it.  

After two more years, families of  students that were also given the option to go to the other school district with a specific special education program saw that we did not move our son.  They started moving their students back to our school district.  Now that there were more students that needed specific attention, the school broke students down by groups (high, medium, and low--like many area schools do).  Job positions seemed to be shifted.  A classroom aid was moved.  Our son never had a one-on-one, follow along aid (as many of his friends do.) I remember the look on the other DS moms in my moms' group faces when I told them the first day of kindergarten that I pulled my truck into the car line, unbuckled my kid, made sure that his backpack strap wasn't stuck in the truck door when I shut it, watched him walk from the truck and into the school.  It was up to the six-year old entering kindergarten in a new school to navigate how to get to his kindergarten class all the way on the other side of the school at the end of the hallway.  HE DID IT!

My philosophy was that the school was a safe environment for him.  Yes, he was a runner from time to time.  Hindsight told me that he was trying to run away from hard work and frustration in the early years.  Leaving a classroom after fifth or so grade was a different story to see what he could get away with!

Not having a personal aid also forced him to learn to do things for himself (such as opening the paper on a straw or opening a fruit snack--holding a pencil, communicating...). All are such important skills.  It was either hard to watch or rewarding to see his accomplishments.  It just depends on what perspective you see it.  I only became a substitute teacher so that I could slide under the radar in different school districts to see which program was best if we had to move his to another school.  What I found was different ways to introduce things to him from other school districts.  When I learned about Touch Math, our school district told me that it could not be done because they just didn't have the resources for it.  I took that following summer and taught our son Touch Math.  He became the math wiz in his group!

After the school saw how our son was now the additional and subtraction in his small learning group of about six students, Touch Math was taught to the others.  Imagine my surprise when I went to visit our son at school and saw all then numbers with the dots on them laminated and on the wall in that room!  Hmmm.  I guess the resources suddenly appeared by using some of the IDEA money...  Somehow I felt that we blazed a trail.

For years our son was the only student involved in the Exceptional Olympics.  That's a day where special needs students get a little field trip to another large school district stadium in our county and play silly field-day games.  I remember the announcer would introduce our school in the singular form - Go, Hornet.

But another trail was blazed!  Look at all that participated in the event in 2026.

Similar situation happened on the bowling team.  Our son joined the bowling team.  His bowling average was higher than typical students--they had to keep him.  He loves to bowl.  A few years later a couple other special needs friends joined the bowling team.  Here he is receiving his letter in bowling!

Here's a cute video made at the school.  Oh the emotions run high with me on this one.  I'm happy to say that our son is the HAPPY one at the end of the line of students.  He even does "the floss" at the end of the line.  He has the biggest smile.  I also understand why graduation day was emotional for him as well.  He will miss the fun he had in school.  There will be new fun to be made.  Here's the video link.

It's interesting to me when I watch the video that the girl that sticks out her tongue in the high school hallway (mind you, the valedictorian!)-- is the same girl that would have tattled on our son if he did that.  Hmmm.  Most of his class were trained at a very early age to tattle on our son of his actions.  He was under the microscope for so many years.  The relief of that feeling is now gone.

It's amazing how God directs our footsteps in miraculous ways.  I would have never found the love as a substitute teacher position if it had not been for our son.  I can't wait so see the next chapter of his life unfold.  We are going to take a real summer break.  Oh there will be budgeting, shopping, and map skills required this summer.  Cooking classes, exercise classes, and social activities will be in full force.  Riding public transit and scheduling his own rides will happen.  It will be a full summer of learning in a different way before moving on to vocational training in the fall.  Stay tuned.

Slow Sunday Stitching -- Kite Girl Binding

I'm working on slow stitching the binding of Kite Girl this week.  I am hand-stitching the last side of the binding and then I'll have another finish to show.

I'm enjoying looking at the kite strings and flower stems as I sew the binding onto the quilt.  This quilt is where I learned how to do a chain stitch.  I used colors at random from my grandma's embroidery floss tin.

This is what the quilt looks like...

Kite Girl started as part of one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenges (RSC) in 2014 (I think).  The block is made from 2" squares.  The block pattern can be found at Q is for Quilter blog.  I then started to learn to do the chain stitch for the kite strings and stems in May of 2017.  In enjoyed finding things that fit easily into my school bag that made me feel productive vs. doing cross stitch projects where I had to focus on counting and couldn't keep a good eye on students in study hall.  I randomly stitched kite strings with pieces of floss from my grandma's tin.

For some reason the blocks sat idol until I made the last one in orange in 2017.  But idol no more.  :)

This quilt does not have a specific recipient in mind yet.

Below are a few more flower status pictures.  I was so excited to see this pink poppy.  I threw down the seeds two falls ago and didn't realize that the new plants were going to bloom pink.  I just assumed that they were plants from the orange poppy that were re-seeded naturally.  Woohoo!

I'm hoping this is a black-eyed Susan... The jury is still out on this one.  It cold just be a weed.  Could it be a dinner-plate dahlia that survived the winter without being dug up and didn't bloom last year?  Is it a stray peony that had a tuber mixed with the dahlia bulbs?  I should look closer at the stem, but then again I just love a surprise!  Hmmm.

This pretty sedum is just waiting for school to be out so that I can divide it and make other areas that need a ground cover pretty.  The hollyhock leaves are very spotted for some reason.  I don't know what that spiky plant is in the bottom left.  It looks like blooms will be coming on it.  I think it was a bulb.

The old apple tree is dead now, but this peony will bloom and possibly be moved when the time is right.

The catmint came up around this apple tree that died this winter as well.

OH DEER -- yes, I mean deer.  Looks like they thought the tomato plants were for them.  I planted them in my raised beds anyways.  I still have other tomato plants to acquire and plant.  Only three of my raised beds are planted so far.

The mini blue iris are always fun to see.  I transplant them here and there when needed.  

This is a newer flower area along the driveway.  I've been moving plants now and then to see which ones the deer won't bother.  It seems they really like the hosta varieties that have lots of white on the leaves or the very dark green ones.  They don't seem to bother the golden edge leaf variety.  That is so interesting.

It seems that the deer aren't to interested in the foxglove.  You can see some of the mini blue iris plants in the photo above that got thrown there in a clump.  There's also a large variety of weeds that will get some attention after school is out.  One more week!

I trimmed the dried blooms off of the foxglove last year and scattered them all up the lane in 6" to 8" chunks.  The very next day I rode the 4-wheeler up and down the lane.  I could not find one!  Did something go along and eat ALL of them?  Hmm.  The ones you see blooming in the photo above were put there as plants that came up from seeds by the pole barn.  They were sprouting up in all kinds of places and needed moved.  They didn't bloom last year.  Hopefully they will re-seed themselves in this poor soil.

Yesterday I took our son to the post office to check his PO box.  He is so happy receiving cards.  THANK YOU soooo much for the cards you sent him.  Today is graduation day.  He loves his pocket quilt with a cross in it.  He is a mighty young man of God and has child-like faith!

I'm linking up at Kathy's Quilts for

Slow Sunday Stitching.

Also linking up to Life in Pieces #20

RSC26 -- Orange

May is just too busy for me.  I have not played with orange scraps at all.  Here's the beautiful orange poppy I have to show:

There are more blooms coming this week.  It's a large poppy variety.

In the fall of 2024 I threw down some Mixrug poppy seeds near the orange poppies above.  This is happening right now:

I'm hoping more of these bloom.  How exciting!!!  I wasn't expecting this one to bloom since it didn't grow last year.  But now I know it did, it's just the plants were too small to produce blooms.  YEAH!!!

Why is May so busy?  Our son is graduating TOMORROW!!!  He is LOVING the kind birthday cards and grad cards coming to his PO Box!  Thank you sooooo much!  Quilters kindness is amazing.

I'm going to try to do a little quilting on the longarm today so that I have a binding to sew at school on my lunch periods during the last three student days.  But first I must get all the math grading done and the room ready for the regular teacher next year.  We have a teacher work day on Friday and that will be a wrap for this year.  I'm ready.  Bring on summer.

I did make it 3/4 of the way around the quilt with the hand stitching of the binding on Kite Girl.  This is what the quilt looks like.  Hopefully I'll have a finish to show next week.  Stay tuned!  It doesn't have a designated home.  I do love the old fashioned feel of the green I picked.  I hemmed and hawed for a long time if I should do pieced kites in the border or something.  I'm happy with it like this -- and not a UFO much longer.

I'm linking up at Angela's blog, SoScrappy, for the RSC26.

Plant Progress

 My plants are making beautiful progress.   Below are photos of some of them.  First up is the strawberry "birthday cake" raised bed that my husband made for me.  I planted old garlic bulbs in here as well.  Hopefully that will keep the dear from munching on them.

Bleeding heart plant that I got free with my "points" at a locally owned greenhouse last year:

This iris really took off.  I just transplanted it last year.

I'm expecting the poppies to bloom this week.  The hollyhock in the bottom of this photo came up in this spot this year.  The short little plant that is really thick is rose campion.  It came up in a different spot as well.  I love that stuff.  I'm moving it to other areas on the property.  It seems to be deer resistant.

I love it that these are starting to spread and come up in different places.  They might be corabells or Columbine?

The pink one below is pink Columbine with that terrible viny weed growing on it.  Gotta keep at those vines or they take over everything.  Notice the fence...  These plants are in a protected dog kennel in the chicken yard.  Otherwise they would be part of the all-you-can-eat buffet for the chickens.  I don't remember the name for the purple things.  I asked my friend for "purple things" meaning bellflowers and she gave me one of these.

These are the purple things I really wanted.  I think they are bellflowers.  I LOVE them.  I keep moving them all over our property--ditches, by telephone poles, other beds, by sheds, around the house... They spread fast and seem to choke out most of the weeds.  I'll definitely get a photo when they bloom for you.

The little blue flowers are forget-me-nots.  They were once just dried stems and seeds that my friend grabbed out of her flowerbed and threw into a Wendy's paper bag.

Simple buttercups, Verbina, and a lot of weeds that will be addressed Memorial Day weekend.  That's the deer-resistant rose campion in the bottom of this photo.  This one blooms bright pink.

My last day of school is May 29.  I'll have plenty of time to work on my flowers.  This year I am taking the full summer (until August 20) off!!!!!!!  There will also be some of this:

The pool boy opened the pool on Sunday, May 16.  I did't get a pic of it with the top off.  The water under the top was very clear.  He carefully pulled off the cover to get the leaves that gathered in it over winter.

Let's give a hand to the pool boy.  He seems to love the science experiment of making sure the chemicals are right in the pool more than swimming in it.  My sister-in-law, son and I do most of the pool lounging.