Back in El Paso and My Jane B-5 and B-9

Encouraging Words of the Day

A gentle answer deflects anger, but harsh words make tempers flare. 
Proverbs 15:1, NLT
Have you ever tried to argue in a whisper? It is equally hard to argue with someone who insists on answering gently. On the other hand, a rising voice and harsh words almost always trigger an angry response.  To turn away wrath and seek peace, choose gentle words.  

 Where has the time gone for crying out loud?  I don’t know why I didn’t post anything on Monday.  I was prepared to post something on Wednesday for One-Flower Wednesday.  That was the day we drove 7 hours from our ranch in the Texas Hill Country to New Mexico where my parents live.  They were at the ranch with us so we drove them home before continuing our trip the next day back to El Paso.  I had my hexie flowers made but just did not ever post anything so that’s what happened to Wednesday.  Then yesterday I just didn’t get to my blog at all so here I am on Saturday.  We had a pile of mail but the best part was the packages waiting for me.  I received my hexie flowers from my March partner in the "Inchy Hexagon Flower Swap."  Larissa from Australia sewed these beautiful flowers for me.  She also included a cute, crocheted heart and a lovely card.  Thanks, Larissa.

Another package in the mail was a giveaway I won from "Kenna Quilts Leap Day Giveaway" way back on February 29th.  So Kenna’s family all came down with something and were sick and that delayed the shipment of the package.  I understand completely.  No problem.  In the meantime, I was on my trip and the package arrived at my post office but I didn’t receive it until I returned and “Wow,” was it worth the wait.  Look at these 7 beautiful fat quarters.  Kenna, thank you!

I did a lot of prep work for “My Jane” blocks before leaving on our road trip so I was able to complete a few on the drive out.  Here is B-5.  It was easy paper-piecing and appliqué.  

 B-5

And here is B-9.  It looks rather “goofy” for some reason.  That little white square in the middle looks so tiny and lonely.  I’m thinking that I probably made it the wrong size but I’m not doing any of these blocks over unless they are absolutely wrong.

B-9

Then I sewed two more Little Houses for "Little Dutch Houses from Scraps."  I have a total of 9 now.  These last two houses were all hand-sewn.  Man, is that ever hard.  Well, I paper-pieced them and it’s hard to sew through the paper with a hand-needle so maybe that was the problem.  Maybe I should have just cut out the little-bitty pieces and done it that way.  I’ll try that next time or maybe just continue to machine-sew them.  Here are my little crooked houses:

That is all.