Finishing one, planning another

 I was reminded by an email from the guild that time is drawing short to get any quilts I want to enter finished, so I made sure to leave time to work on the arc quilt yesterday.  It was a perfect day for quilting as we'd received a lot of rain on Saturday night and there was no going out in the yard.  I'd made a couple of plans to cut the bias binding, and chose to lay the black yardage out on the dining table and cut it using the rotary cutter across all 44 inches.  I only needed five cuts and had almost a yard of binding left over.  I had trouble attaching it and had a couple false starts and then it went on smooth as silk.  As it's black on a dark background, I need lots of bright light to hand sew it down.  It's one of the narrowest bindings I've ever made.  I cut it at 2".  I didn't think about how thick the quilt is with all those seam allowances around the edges, so it's a very tight binding, which will give the edge of the quilt some stiffness and help hold it flat when hung.  I may go around again, sewing it to the back a second time, just to make sure all that tightness doesn't pop a thread.  

I also took a little time to appreciate the quilting in the quilts hanging in our living room.  I caught them in just the right light, so the photos look blurry, but if you blow them up a little, you can see all the detailed quilting in them.  Those were the days.  I'm wondering if I could even do that tiny work anymore.  I'm afraid I'd get impatient.  

I quilted this one on vacation on my Singer 301.  She did great!  In the mornings, when Syd was horseback riding and Rob was walking all over the mountain with his dog, I'd quilt.  We each needed that alone time and then we'd spend the rest of the day together.    

This is my first daylily.  Rob has had a few yellows and I have lots of scapes getting ready.  It's "ditch" orange.  Ditch because it's what grows in the ditches some places and is considered common, but I still think it's lovely.  It's very bright and I saw it right away from the kitchen window.  

Siberian Iris.  Rob and I brought these home from a vacation to New Hampshire about 20 years ago.  They don't bloom often and I lose track of them in the garden, but they're putting on a nice show this year.  I brought one home from Syd's a couple years ago.  I wonder if it challenged the others to bloom.

This is a Louisiana Iris and I got it in Louisiana.  It came from my Aunt's garden and this is the first year it's bloomed.  I can only assume that cutting the trees last year has given all the Iris enough sun to bloom.  

This orange rose.  It's definitely not what I would have picked, but it's so bright that it's really a good addition to the garden.  

This is a Cinco de Mayo rose.  It's a red/pink/orange rose that my camera didn't do justice.  

And, my coreopsis, filing in a small spot along the path.  

We were in Goodwill the other day on a clothes run and found this clock.  I keep dragging clocks home from there.  Some are bargains, some not so much.  This one cost $10.50.  It's a Seiko Lorus from the 60-70's.  It's a 30-day wind up with a nice chime.  I did about a half hour of cosmetic work on the case and then wound it and it's kept perfect time since...and when I say perfect time, that's no exaggeration.  It's in sync with my phone and has been for a couple days.  The case is a little foo-fy, but what a great bargain.  

Everybody have a great week!  Do something you enjoy.  Don't let it be all work and no play.  Last week, I was on a mental break at work, letting my mind rest while I did repetitive tasks.  But, on the weekend, I let that mind go wild on quilting ideas for a quilt made of half square triangles.  No firm plan yet, but I'll keep noodling on it til there is.  

Lane