Mountain Home is Home

I got a nice surprise in the mail today.  One of my art quilts that has been on exhibition arrived back home.

This quilt has been part of the Breaking Traditions exhibit organized to raise money for charity.  Sponsored by Lynn Krawzcik, it raised money for A Place to Bark, an animal rescue organization.  The theme was "Home."  My quilt was named Mountain Home.  I made it during a previous online class with Pamela Allen.  The challenge for that lesson was to create an art quilt that was a personal symbol.  If you have followed this blog at all, you know that creeks, mountains and wildlife are a big part of my life.  We have to cross Peak Creek to get "home" to our mountain cabin.

The owner of yesterday's customer quilt has not seen her quilt yet, and is heading out of town on a trip.  I don't want to reveal her quilt via the Internet until she has seen it or given permission, so it may be awhile.

A few days ago I started training my new dog, Kasey, with Don Sullivan's Perfect Dog system.  I saw it on an infomercial, and decided to spring for it after several bad experiences on walks.  Kasey is an almost perfect house dog, very sweet-natured, but is occasionally aggressive to other dogs when we are walking on greenways.  She also barks aggressively whenever someone rings the doorbell or knocks.  And, she does not always come when called if she is off leash.

The system involves "correcting" your dog by yanking on what he calls the Command Collar.    Apparently it is uncomfortable, but it has not made Kasey yelp with pain or anything like that.  You are supposed to start with gentle correction, raising the level of correction until the dog complies with the desired command. 

On Day 1, Monday, we had a perfect walk.  You are not supposed to let the dog pull on the leash at all.  Kasey responded to this with no problem.  No pulling.  We also did the Sit Command.  She already knew Sit, but we added a hand signal and she has to sit until released.  Very good marks here, too.

Yesterday, I added the Down Command.  The dog must drop down when given the Down Command and hand signal.  This one was a little harder.  I had to make her drop down.  Now she knows it, but is not consistent yet.  They are also supposed to stay down until released.  She is getting the hang of it.

Today, I thought we would walk through the new Heritage neighborhoods near us, which have nice roads but no traffic yet.  At the intersection with Rogers Road, traffic was backed up in all directions due to road paving, so I made a U-turn and we went to the Mill Bridge Park via the back way in Rolesville.

Normally, if I get there before lunch, there might be one other car in the parking lot.  Not today.

 We got there just in time for a special event.

The parking lot was full, and there was a fire truck and police car at the far end.

I was not sure I wanted to test our new skills in front of about forty people including the mayor and police chief of Rolesville.  We took the trail that forks to the right of the main trail and stayed along the creek and woods.



Since that walk was fairly short and the morning was beautiful, I decided to try a new trail.  This one begins at the back entrance of Main Street Park in Rolesville. 

I have been on the Main Street Park trail when it was just a paved loop through the woods behind the playground where I take my grandchildren.  It has been greatly expanded, and was a lovely walk.  Rolesville is an area where geologic forces have deposited huge expanses of granite on the surface.  The park entrance from the Granite Falls neighborhood is lined with big chunks of granite rock.  Shortly after commencing the trail, there is a vast expanse of granite.

You can walk onto this rocky area.  Dogs can drink from the puddle from yesterday's rain.

The trail has markers every one tenth mile.

They have added many wooden bird houses of assorted sizes.

The trail continues on to the Main Street play ground, and loops back around.  The part nearest the playground has exercise stations and equipment along the way.

This nice bench and planter area was built by a Boy Scout for his Eagle Scout project.

Farther on there is a frog pond

and a new wooden bridge.

Behind the elementary school is a large picnic shelter.

I was quite happy to find these additional trails. Kasey did very well about not pulling.  We met one man walking two dogs.  She started to do her aggressive barking, but I was able to easily get her to sit quietly until they passed by.  Much better!

It is nice to see the trees starting to leaf out again.

At my house, the camellias are just about to finish their bloom time

but my azaleas are getting ready to burst open.

There is nothing any prettier than the combination of azaleas and flowering dogwood.  This is a native flowering dogwood in my backyard.

The loropetalum (Chinese Fringe Trees) are in glorious bloom.

and my bulbs are blooming all along my shrub border next to my front porch.

I hope you are enjoying your day, too!

Indoor Blooms

I am glad we went for that scenic walk yesterday.  Today it is cold and raining buckets.  Kasey's only walk this morning was to the mailbox, although she is standing expectantly by the door, still soaked from that little outing.

With all the lovely flowers blooming outside, I decided to add a little seasonal decor to my kitchen.  We have tall windows and a glass porch door that allows what little light is available today to enter the room on three sides.  I brought in a few stems of miniature daffodils and pansies.

The bunnies are swinging away on the sill while the dogwood blooms behind them in the back yard.

There are some painted, trapuntoed quilts on the wall in pastel colors.

Yesterday, my friend Marcia received the little baby quilt that I finished using her mother's patchwork.

  I added a label trimmed in pastel rickrack and a photo of her mom.  There is space to add the baby's name if they choose to.

Still working on my quilted jacket.  I will check with the Quilt University instructor for permission to post photos of our work.  So far I have partially finished only the yokes.  Slow progress!

Spring Meadow quilt

Here is another of the quilts made from the die-cut machines (Big Shot) sold by Stampin-Up rep Martha Armstrong of Zebulon.  Martha must have had a good year...while I am slaving over her quilts, she is off on a cruise to the Bahamas that she earned from Stampin-Up.

This one has a lovely color combination of yellow, blue, and green.  It has a square shape for the outer petals, rather than a third round shape. 

 The flower shapes are just attached to the background fabric with glue stick, so I have to go around each one to attach it to the quilt.

The backing is a bright blue, which really shows off the yellow thread of the quilting.

You can see from the back how I framed each flower with leaves and vines, then went in and out of the flower rings with a wavy freehand circle.

This quilt reminds me very much of the fabrics and colors in a Yellow Brick Road quilt I made when I first got my Gammill.  I call it "My Favorite Things."  The prints have hummingbirds, dragonflies, flowers, an angel or two...

For some real spring pics, here is a shot I was able to get while Mama and Papa Bluebird were out of the box and not guarding it from their usual branch.  There are five babies, although only four beaks show in the picture.

Here are some woodland violets that I photographed in the mountains last weekend after it rained.

And this good fellow was looking rather grumpy and red-eyed after the night of rain. 

And finally, here is a blue salvia that I planted where our driveway forms a "U" going uphill to the cabin.

I am also still working on the online journal class, and hope to have two more pages finished by tonight using paper collage on watercolor backgrounds. 

Another Finished Quilt, and a Nature Walk

Today I finished the last of the four quilts that Teresa brought for me to quilt.  This one was fun, a patchwork quilt of richly-colored squares. 

The quilting does not show up too well on the top, but it does on the pieced flannel back.

It was so nice outside today that I walked for about forty-five minutes around the neighborhood.  There were some nice azaleas, like this mailbox display with clematis in front...

and a big "snowball" bush beside the driveway.

This Paulownia, also known as the Empress tree, was in bloom.  It is only a few years old, probably grown from a seed carried in a bird dropping, as it just "volunteered."  They say this tree might be the original "Tree of Life."  This tree grows incredibly fast.

The roundabout on my street looks nice with all the pansies in bloom.

When I got to Hidden Pond, I noticed there was a brood of baby goslings swimming among the flock of Canada geese. 

 That made me check my bluebird box when I got home.  Surprise!  Five newborn bluebirds in the nest.  I did not take a picture because the parents were very anxious, swooping down on me.  One of them stays nearby in this pecan tree to keep watch.  Do you see it ?

My own yard looks pretty good.  All of my azaleas are in the back along the edge of the woods.

and the pink weigela bush is coming into bloom.  It is huge, maybe ten feet in diameter.  Here are some of the blossoms.

Spring Flowers

Look what I saw when I came back from the mailbox today! This bright little burst of sunshine was peeking out amid last year's brown chrysanthemum stalks! The first crocuses! (Croci?)


So, I started looking around the yard for other signs of spring. Yes, the camellias are all in bloom.

And the daffodils have buds.

If spring flowers are a long ways off where you live, visit my Blogiversary Post and see if you can win some sunny flowery fabric bundles! Leave a comment or send me an e-mail by Wednesday, March 10.