Wow!

This morning, the mailman brought my quilt from Donna's-In the Attic. Multi thanks to Susan for getting the quilting done for me. It is purely gorgeous, and the wave-pattern quilting is perfect. I still have to trim the edges and sew on the binding, which I want to do RIGHT NOW!

But I can't, because book club meeting is at one-thirty, so I have to get a move on. Quick shower and a pair of jeans and a sweat shirt--no, not a sweat shirt. The temp outside today is about 50, and the sun is shining. I may wear a sundress.

Well, here it is.

When it's quilted, it'll have a narrow dark red binding, and probably loops for hanging. I've been feeling so relieved to have it done, and thinking I'll lay off of quilt-making for a while. But now that I look at the picture, I want to hand-quilt it. Soon.

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The house block isn't smaller than the others; it has a flocked white strip at the bottom to represent snow on the ground.

Another Country Heard From

Jed drove from Atlanta to Decatur, Alabama yesterday morning, worked in Decatur all day, then stopped by here about 7 p.m. on his way home. We ate dinner at the C. Barrel, then he went on. But not before he looked at the quilt blocks and made a remark or two. He said the block representing Giles and Kit (although he didn't know this) was messing with his brain. I wish someone else would read the book so they'd know what they're looking at. I think Susan has read it, but not sure.

Today is bill-paying day, and after that star-making day. I've dropped behind on the quilt top, as I've still got 16 (little) star blocks to make. And after that, I'm starting on a writing project which I won't talk about, lest I talk it out and then don't do it.

"I have spent my days stringing and unstringing my instrument, while the song I came to sing remains unsung." - Rabindranath Tagore

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P.S. I finally canceled the order for The Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, with the note, "I'm very sorry. This book has been lost." I know I'll find it, and when I do, I'm going to tear it into tiny pieces and burn it. No, I'll probably send it to the customer and tell her not to send me any money and never to mention it to me again.

Shhhh! Artist (?) at work.

I think I'm working on the last large pattern block of my project. It started out as a wall-hanging with one central block and a couple of borders, but it grows as it goes. Anyway, here's a glimpse of my work table at present.

My son Jed came over from Atlanta Saturday, and we spent a nice weekend admiring the deck and the chimney. Saturday dinner we ate out, and Sunday I made cornbread and a very fine beef stew, if I do say so, and I do.

Fits and Starts

Late yesterday, I was seized with a fit of furniture moving. I cleaned out the "art room" and restored it to a dining room, resulting in not being able to walk through the kitchen for all the junk piled up. Today I'm doing a major throwing away of things that I know I'll want next week, if not sooner.

Jed is coming over today, and I hope I can remove a few piles of stuff before he arrives.

The quilt project is not going well, or at least not quickly. I've made three blocks, but two of them are no good. I made a Milky Way block on the sewing machine, and ought to have known better. Maybe someday I'll learn to machine-stitch in a straight line. But I'm not discouraged yet.

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I just thought of a funny book title I saw on Amazon.com. By Lewis Grizzard, of course: If I Ever Get Back To Georgia, I'm Gonna Nail My Feet To the Ground.

It's still Monday.

Had to do another post. I finally got around the error message and onto Susan's Blackberry Creek blog. There I found two delightful projects that I want to join. First, Suze's friend Kai sent her this award, with strings attached. Susan passed it along to me as one of the "strings," which specify that you have to name 7 things that you love, and pass the logo on to 7 more bloggers. Well, since I don't know 7 other bloggers, I'll just name 7 (unexpected) things that I love, and won't really take the award.

1. Rain
2. Black velvet
3. Pink sequins
4. Fireflies (lightning bugs)
5. Rocks
6. New lumber--the looks of it, and the scent
7. Snow

The second project I joined through Susan's blog is at Kelly's Charming Girls' Quilt Club (see link in left column). Kelly challenges members to post an unfinished sewing project, and finish it before the end of the month. The rules include prizes for finished projects, but I think the chief reward is getting some of my dozens of unfinished pieces done.

My project for July is to finish the top for my Una quilt wall-hanging. So far, all I've got done is the central block and a pile of discarded attempts at more blocks and borders. Plus cutting out all the diamonds for the star border. There's a better picture on my quilting blog (link in left column).



I really do aim to finish the quilt top by the end of this month. I really, really, really do!

One down, a heap more to go

I finally finished the central block of my Una quilt.

It's going to have a full border of Lemoyne stars. I have enough such star blocks which were made by my mother, and would like to use them, but I'm not sure the colors are right for this quilt.

The carpentry continues on the deck. They have just about rebuilt the thing. We won't have to think about replacing it for about fifty years, it looks like. Willis noticed that the railing was loose, and the deck sagged in the middle because it didn't have enough beams under it. He has replaced all the posts and top rails, and as soon as they get the new beams in, he'll paint the whole thing and MAYBE BE DONE!!!!! at last. It really is an impressive job.

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The heat is about to get me down. But I ain't down yet. Yesterday seemed the worst so far, even though we had a few drops of rain. By evening, I was feeling like Beetle Bailey flat in the road after a tank ran over him. I slept from 7 p.m. until 6:30 this morning, waking up 2-3 times and going back to sleep.

High Hopes

I got all the hydrangeas planted. The holes were just right, but this soil, even wet, is hard and lumpy and obviously has a lot of clay in it. I put Miracle-Gro in the bottom of the holes, and the plants were in little plastic pots with dirt around the roots, so maybe they'll do OK. Yes, I was smart enough to throw the plastic pots away. Must say, I'm proud of me for digging all those holes, and of Mo for helping.

Even if the plants don't do as well as expected, even if crows and other critters dig them up--I've already got a lot of satisfaction out of knowing I planted them right. And just imagining a row of tall green plants, with huge heads of beautiful blue flowers, is better than not having tried to grow them.

The hydrangeas by the side of the house are blooming, but this year they're pink and lavender. You have to add minerals to the soil to control the colors, acid (aluminum sulphate) for blue, alkali (lime) for pink. The new ones ought to be blue without extra acid, under the trees with all those decaying leaves.
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The week ahead is going to be Una's Quilt Week. I'm going to get a good start, Lord willing, on completing the quilt top.

Belmont Disappointment

Calvin Borel rode Mine That Bird,
But he didn't win--they came in third.

Wouldn't you know it--
I'm still a poet.

Before and after watching the Belmont, I've washed five loads of clothes today--not all dirty, some just hadn't been washed in a long time. This time I'm separating out the fall and winter stuff to store somewhere other than my bedroom closet. Instead of a walk-in, it has almost reached the point of being a crawl-in. Trish Suhr, where are you!

I've also designed two blocks for my Una quilt. One is a mariner's compass that had to be a 10" block, so I couldn't use the patterns I've got, all of which are much larger. The other is a whale; I found a whale block on the internet as a base, but mine will be different.

This morning I repotted the lilies of the valley. They were drowning in the first planter I put them in; it had one hole in the bottom, but apparently that wasn't doing the job. I lifted them all out and replanted them in a big planter with a row of holes all around the bottom.

After all that work, I deserve a pizza and a movie. Strangely, though,--maybe for the first time in my adult life--I don't want pizza.

Hey, Mr. or Ms. Weatherperson!

I've got lots of running-around to do today, and here it is raining off and on, which makes me want to go back to bed. But I can't. I've got to go buy dirt to fill up the big planter, to plant bulbs. Also, Mo is out of cat food again, and he hasn't yet learned to drive the car, so I'll have to go.
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Jed came by yesterday and we celebrated Mother's Day. He gave me 3 movies on DVD, and the neatest thing--a big round brush with a telescoping handle! Imagine what-all I can do with that, and besides, it's blue! I gave him a room and bed for the night, after we watched "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." (Brad Pitt will never look the same to me.) This morning Jed headed back to his Atlantical home.
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(8:30 p.m.) So I went and bought dirt. I had made a resolution, that any time I was in a fabric store or department, I would only buy one piece of fabric. So I got the pink dots for my Camilla quilt.

But the blue is so perfect for my Una quilt that I'm going to make. Now that I've got started, at least I'm pretty sure that the tops will be finished someday.