Favorite Things Friday

Friday, already?  Time sure flies when we're busy.  But I'm glad to be here with a relatively calm clear day ahead.  I may get to do quite a bit of quilting, and then maybe not.  I'm still decluttering and I may have a load to take to our church for the June Festival - they have a boutique booth for which they do need donations. I couldn't believe the weather yesterday - it was so mild, we had the windows open all day. Usually we have to close them by 10 if it is going to be hot or 9 if it is going to be super hot.  Our high was a mere 78 and I was loving it.  Here's what I saw on my gardening hour outside:
 Here's an opuntia planting above the well behind the house.  It's blooming away right now.
This Opuntia has small round flowers that don't form a seed pod (tuna) of any dimension really.  They are just so colorful and when they are backlighted they look like Christmas tree lights blinking in the sun.
 Here's a close up of them - those yellow ones in the picture will eventually turn orange-red also.
And further down the well is where I planted some gazanias the other day.  I'll be able to see these from the hall window.

 Their blooming their heads off already!  Aren't they a beautiful color?
And here is one of my very favorites - I call it forever flowering bouquet.  Those really aren't flowers  - their inner leaves of the cluster.  This is a succulent and actually a bit tender - once it gets really hot in the summer, I'll be covering it with shade cloth as the edges of the leaves will turn brown from too much sun. 

I'm linking to Shay's Favorite Things Friday , Tootsie Time's Flaunt your Flowers and Amanda's Serenity Now Weekend's Bloggy Reading.  Won't you share your favorite thing with us?  Have a great weekend!

Applique Thursday 5/24/12

I'm a little late in posting this - at least it is still the right day.  Life has been busy!
Here's  a little more done on my fourth Jubilee Album block. 


Good thing I have this to post to or I wouldn't have gotten any done.  I'm determined to declutter and it's taking a lot of time, as each item must be analyzed and determined if stay or go.  It's like that story I read on the internet - the lady was going to the store but stopped to water her flowers but had to get her boots and then on the way she found a book that needed to go to the library....you get the picture.  Sighh.

Need eye candy!  Please share what you're up to applique or not, and you might win a 5" batik charm (comment or link work for me).  And speaking of charms - the winner for last Applique Thursday was Kathy from Florida!  Your charm goes out to you today, Kathy.  Congrats!! 

Fabric Tuesday - My May Craftsy Blocks

With my Mystery BOM block out of the way, I decided to finish my craftsy BOM blocks for this month.  Have ten done (Amy gives us 2 a month) and am beginning to wonder what the setting for these might be.  All I know is I can't see them as on point.  Are you making these?  What are your thoughts on them?

I'm linking with Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story, Linky Party Tuesday, and Esther's WIP (she's in Australia, so they're a day ahead of us - you'll find all of these on my sidebar. 

Progrees is Made

Progress is made, at least some.  More blocks were added to the baby quilt I was working on (see previous post). More scraps were used. I...