karen ponischil

Here are a few pictures of Megan and Moonlight at this weekends horse show. Megan did great! She won two 5th place ribbons and a 3rd place ribbon. Way to go Meg!

Her she is before the show warming up.

This rose bush is very special to me because it was grown from a rose clipping. When I was a little girl my mother and I would visit a very dear family friend, Maurine. Maurine and mother used to go shopping, bargain hunting or go out to lunch once or twice a week. I must have spent one afternoon a week at her house when I was little. Maurine has always had an incredible green thumb. So, her rose bushes were incredibly beautiful. One summer afternoon I was in her back yard and her roses were blooming. They were just so pretty I just had to have some of the flowers to take home. So, Maurine clipped several roses for me. About a week or two later one of the roses began to grow roots. It kept growing and Mother planted in her patio garden and the rest is rose history. Every summer I’m amazed at how big the bush has gotten and how many blooms are on it. I was doing the math and the bush is over 30 years old. Amazing!

Here’s mother with the rose bush 30 years after she planted it.

A beautiful sunflower for a Happy Thursday. Things are beginning to settle down in my life again. Hopefully, I will be able to do some sewing again soon, like this weekend.

I just can’t help myself. The tulips are calling out to me, “take my picture, I’m so beautiful.”

I also discovered several wonderful wood carvings on the Little Sugar Creek Greenway (just behind the Park Rd Shopping Center). Here is my favorite.

Yes, it’s me walking in your yard taking pictures of your beautiful flowers. I’m sorry but I can’t help myself. I LOVE tulips. They are my favorite flower and they only last for about two weeks so I MUST get the pictures while I can. Again my apologies.

March 31st was Riley’s 3rd birthday and we celebrated on Sunday the 30th with a family get together. (L to R: Maureen, her daughter Megan, Great-Grandma Margaret, Elizabeth and she is holding Jack-Jack, Patty, Riley and me.) You’re probably asking yourself where are all the boys in the family? Well, for the longest time there hasn’t been a male born in the family. But thanks to Jim and Elizabeth they have broken the all-girl spell by having Jack. We are all thrilled! I know Daddy is smiling down from heaven on us and he’s especially happy because his great-grandson has his name.

Here is my latest project or the project I keep looking at on my design wall and saying to myself…”what can I do with this?” I think I’m going to add the stems and leaves, a small border and bind it. I have a beautiful hanger that is about 12″ long that I can hang it on. Now I need to figure out where to hang it in my house.

Although this isn’t a great picture, this is one of my favorite quilts. It was done by my sister Patty a few years back.

Here is a close up of one of the sunflowers. Patty used a very innovative approach to the center of the flower….fabric is bunched and stitched with all types of threads.

Since it almost my favorite time of year, I wanted to celebrate with some flowers.

Can you smell them? Well, almost. These 2 blocks will be part of a larger quilt that hopefully will include all different types of flowers and greenery.

But first, we have to have the Daphne-Do seal of approval.

I’ve been practicing and practicing and it’s time to quilt the quilt. I’m using my fancy new Bernina 440 to do the quilting on my black and white and a little lime quilt. I’ve made progress with the quilting but I still have a long way to go. And, now it’s actually kind of fun. But, I must remember to stretch my shoulders and breathe and keep practicing.