Time and weather permitting

I spent a lot of the weekend in the yard, cleaning up and moving things.  I don't think we're going to have much of a winter here this year, and this is my favorite time to do the hard and heavy work...while it's cool and I don't need to be done and back in the house by 10 am.  I got a lot done, just cleaning things out and digging up and potting the volunteers so I can give them away.  There's a lady coming soon to take part of it and there are new neighbors across the street who don't have an established flower bed that I hope to share with.  And, I have so much of some of it that I just put it on the street with a "free" sign and it disappears. 

I did get some quilting in.  I've been working on my borders.  I laid out half the quilt, just to see how it was going to go together.  And, I found a mistake I made when I altered the length of the borders.  None of the corners I've made so far are "right", but now that I know what the problem is, it won't take long to re-make them.  It doesn't really show up in this picture, but when you get really close, you can see that I messed up, but look how it's coming out!!!!  Anytime I lose my excitement, I have to remember to lay it out and look at it.  I'm also going to have to remember to stay stitch both sides of the border because that's ALL bias and it would love to stretch.  Taking a half inch out to correct my pattern error is not a problem.  I'll bind it in black so that whatever it's on, the borders won't wash out like they do against the carpet in this picture. 

We took down the holiday quilts a couple weeks ago and hung work we haven't hung in a while.  I let Rob choose and he chose on workmanship and color. 

Over the sofa, there's the Row Houses quilt.  I love this quilt and made it a long time ago.  To make sure I could make it, I used solids and made a smaller version that came out just as nice. 

Here's a close-up.  It's all log cabin blocks made from half inch strips. 

And, this one.  This is from the first quilting class I took.  I wanted a red and brown quilt.  This didn't quite do it for me and I don't think it's a very pretty quilt, but the quilting in it is very beautiful; baskets and vines of apples and blossoms.  But, you can't see it because I was too timid to do it in a thread that would show.  I was afraid every mistake would show up, so I quilted it in threads that match the fabric I was quilting on.  Lesson learned.

And, in the dining room, there's this sampler.  The pattern was for a queen size quilt and the maker did it as a block of the month.  I didn't need a queen sized quilt, but loved the pattern, so I made it in half size, which comes out a quarter of the size because I was cutting it in half in both directions.  It's so densely quilted, it practically stands up. 

And, finally, the last bloom from the Mr Lincoln rose for the year.  One of the things I did this weekend was cut all the roses back.  I wore leather gloves, but my hands are all torn up anyway. 

Syd came last week for a refrigerator raid.  Everybody talks about their kids coming home to do laundry, but for us, it's food.  She washes and returns her containers so she can leave with them full again.  She left with goulash, a quarter of a roast, some baked apples, half the hamburger I made for dinner that night and our old Keurig.  She made out like a bandit!  And, me too.  I hate to waste food and cooking for two has been hard to adjust to for me. 

So, I'm very excited about my garden and I'm very excited about the arc quilt and I'm so excited that we are getting quotes to replace our HVAC system.  I'm even excited about a couple new projects I got at work.  And, I got another great performance evaluation the other day from my new boss.  There is no time leftover to feel bad about the news.  Too busy out there getting stuff done. 

Everybody have a great week!  I hope there's something in your life to feel excited about, too! 

Lane