I was in a quilting mood

 Rob came back from his visit with his Mom this week and I could tell that we missed one another by how cheerful our banter was the rest of the week.  Saturday morning brought us different priorities and while he mowed the yard, which practically needed a hay baler because of all the rain we got, and I got started quilting.  

I'm not sure why I felt so intimidated to sit down and quilt, but I was putting it off and picking up multiple other projects to avoid it.  But quilt, I must.   I pulled out the arc quilt and got started on some echo work.  I had a different plan, but as I executed it, I realized that there was a better plan, so I switched to that.  On Saturday, I got 7 rows of echo quilting all the way around the arc quilt.  That took several hours.  

At first, I was just going round and round the whole quilt and that was kind of a pain to drag around and I realized that I could have the overlapping intersections if I changed to quilting one arc at a time.  All the quilting around the arcs uses this overlapping  outline to create a beautiful effect that accentuates the piecing, and it worked perfectly to apply that around the outside the arcs as well.  I had gone around twice by then, so I went to the corners and added the short bits to the ends of the lines that created that effect and then started working them that way in round three.  

Still making plans for the corners.  I have an idea that will give me just a little space to fill and I'm working on ideas to fill it.  

I also did some hand quilting.  This has been in the standing frame for a year, and it's been in the spare room where I do my yoga, so I've seen it nearly every day for a year, taunting me...hellooooo!  over here!  I'm unfinished....helloooo!  

I put it in a smaller hoop and now I can work on it while I watch TV.  I've come up with a plan for quilting it, too...I was in a very creative mood.

Idle hands are the devil's workshop, right?

While Rob was gone, I had planned several vegetarian meals and had stocked up on fresh veggies.  I was using a relatively new cookbook that I'd only cooked from once before, the last time Rob was out of town.  I spent hours making these delicious sounding dishes.  And, none of it was fit to eat.  I threw all the leftovers away, and because this was that cookbooks second shot and still no good food, I put the cookbook in the goodwill box and gave vegetarian a try with what I know.  I ended up making a leek, tomato, and spinach quiche, a peach pie, and a sweet potato casserole that I'm eating like a snack (Rob and sweet potatoes are like Dracula and garlic).  All before work on Friday morning.   Of course, that didn't include washing dishes, which I spent most of my lunch hour doing, but that's the cost of doing delicious business.

It's easy to take pictures of individual flowers in the garden, but it's hard to get shots that show the variety of bloom.  I took this one three times yesterday and this was the best of the lot.  The sun was about to set, but there was still plenty of backlighting to get the shot.  You may have to blow it up to see everything.  It's just a cacophony of leaf shape and flower color.  Lots of red, pink, blue and lavender going on out there right now.  It's come out just how I intended it, even tho there was never any official planning of where things should go.  It was about finding the spot the plant was happiest in, without much regard to who it's neighbors would be.  Now, it's just maintenance.  And water.  It looks this way because we've had so much rain, but that's ending now, and the garden will suffer a little until autumn when it will rev back up.  

Syd came for a visit last night.  We all enjoyed it.  We heard how well things are going between her and her boyfriend and we heard about work and now she can start looking for a new job.  Rob brought in Chinese and she stayed for dinner.  There were lots of laughs.  We carefully curate that relationship, using agreement, approval and silence.  We give feedback and suggestions, but we don't complain.  She's turning into an interesting adult and we are getting to enjoy it.  

We're in a crunch at work.  We need a document by end of day today.  We found out about it Thursday afternoon.  I worked several hours Saturday morning, doing competitor and legal research (no, I am not a lawyer, but I do pretty good legal research...I was trained by lawyers).  Yesterday, the bosses reviewed that work and I got feedback about how helpful it was.  Of course, I also got another research assignment, so I need to get logged in early.  On Friday, they were thanking me for saying I'd work on Saturday and my response was "it's all hands on deck.  I'm a hand.  And, I'm one deck."  They don't ask me to work extra hours often, so when they do, I'm glad to do whatever I can.  

Everybody have a good week!  I hope the rest of the week isn't as busy as my Monday is going to be.  I enjoy what I do and most of the time, can see the challenge instead of the "have to" of work

Lane