Oops

Yesterday was a beautiful, breezy day; DH, the darling he is, carted me hither and yon, a welcome outing. We picked up the two quilts, and I washed Kayla's today. It's beautiful, but a yo-yo came undone and will have to be repaired. Today has been cold and dark, not a good day for photographing quilts, so that will have to wait for a more propitious moment.

I overdid yesterday and am paying the price today. It's my right shoulder, dominant hand. I feel good enough to be real bored, but obviously need to take it easy -- not too much handwork or knitting yet!

Gratitudes:

long-arm quilter did a fabulous job

all three grandkid quilts are done (except for a yo-yo)

I can wash my own armpits!

I'm baack!

Trail Ride

The last three days have seen an amazing improvement. Nights are still rough. Last night I took my iPod to bed and listened to Bach for 90 minutes before deciding he wasn't going to put me to sleep. So I got up and sat in DH's recliner with a lapdesk playing solitaire for a while. I haven't played it since I was a kid; I still can't win, even when I cheat. Finally my eyes started to droop. I got about four hours of sleep. But PT is going very well and I'm really pleased.

Tomorrow Jim is going to drive me to Whitewater to pick up two quilts from the long-arm quilter. So I'll have new stuff to show you. The quilt above is old stuff. The story that goes with this quilt is that I cut a lot more 2"x5" batik strips than I needed for a table runner, so I made this king size quilt out of the leftovers.

Gratitudes:

Gorgeous day today after the heat wave

Finally feeling better

DH has been a saint through all this

Going on break

I didn't make it to the retreat, I was still too sick, but I did get to the Fest, which was wonderful. So many good, good people in one place, so much affection and kindness and care -- like quilters!

I'm still coughing and saw the doc late this afternoon. He conferred with the surgeon, and I had chest x-rays, and I got the green light for surgery tomorrow. I don't know when I'll be back in business here again, not for a while, at least.

DH helped me take photos of the quilts this afternoon. I don't deserve any credit for Bodie's, as it was a kit. I don't make labor-intensive baby quilts! I save that for their big kid quilts, which they won't outgrow so quickly. I thought the Hungry Caterpillar fabric was fun for a baby boy; the backing fabric is white with colorful bugs, too, and the long-arm quilter used a pantogram with flying bugs and their flight paths. Very cute. I got a copy of the board book to go with the quilt.

Here's Coplan's, which has a lotta seams! It has wool batting, so the quilting will at least show a little more in relief in such a busy quilt. The fabrics are ethnic and faux-ethnic, good for a sixteen-year-old-not-a-little-boy.

Kayla's is done too, but I have to pick it up yet, which will have to wait until I've recovered a little. I can't wait to see it.

Gratitudes:

a wonderful 'family' reunion with my religious order

getting this surgery over with tomorrow

some good recorded books for recuperating time

Bad couple of weeks

I have had a nasty virus and a houseguest; poor pet -- it has to have been a bummer visit for her. Very little accomplished, just a lot of coughing and blowing. One day we did make fiber postcards; here's mine:

Coplan's and Bodie's quilts are finished, but I haven't had a chance to take photos of them yet. I still have to get the final border on the Four-Patch Posies quilt. But I will be out of town through Sunday, at the annual retreat of my religious order. If I can go, that is. I doubt I'm still contagious, but I can't cough all through the silent retreat, that would be most unkind! I do hope I can attend; this year promises to be very special, and every year is important.

The day after I get home, I will have surgery on my shoulder, for several problems, including a torn rotator cuff. I'm looking forward to getting that over with.

So my knitting and sewing, and perhaps typing, will be on vacation for a bit while I mend. I'm enjoying a couple of new books by Mark Schweitzer of St. James Music Press. They are laugh-out-loud funny, about a chief of police who is also organist and choirmaster of an Episcopal Church in Appalachia, and also aspires to write hard-boiled detective novels, which are truly awful. Good reading for when my mind is mush.

Gratitudes:

cool summer so far

a pileated woodpecker near the house

a red-headed woodpecker for the first time in years

Decision Time

I have most of the pieced border together, and am trying to decide whether to float it thus:

or insert it right next to the quilt top and make the outside border plain blue:

I think I like it best this second way. I decided against the soft orange 1/4 inch inner border as it makes the quilt too busy. I make enough loud quilts; I want this one to whisper.

Meanwhile the kitchen rug is growing. It take much longer to get around it once, but each round adds about 1 1/2 inches total width. Still, I'm only about half-way there.

Lots of friends have been saving selvages for me; I've even received some in the mail! There will be some fun new colors coming up, as I was given a big bag full last Wednesday when my friend Diane came over from Lake Mills and we made scented soap. She had collected selvages from everyone at her last retreat.

We've had a beautiful weekend so far, not too warm, nice and sunny. I can hear a scarlet tanager in the tree tops. We don't often see them, as they stay up high, but they have a lovely song. Tomorrow I will assist (probably cutting up oranges) to provide refreshments for the 5K Power Walk for Parkinsons' my friend Mary and her son Peter are holding for the second year.

Gratitudes:

Great talk with grandson Noah this morning

birdsong

woods lush with ferns and cranesbill

Wildflowers and Birds

The woods are a riot of wildflowers, and we have had quite a wildlife show this past two days. Here are the wild geraniums, also known as cranesbill. All twelve acres are carpeted with them:

The lilies of the valley are just opening:

Last night a doe and two newborn fawns crossed the driveway into the woods. They were so spindly, they can't be more than a day old. I couldn't get a photo, alas. But we also had technicolor at the bird feeders. Here's the female oriole eating an orange.

See the indigo bunting on the ground under the feeder pole?
We also had hummingbirds, cardinals and purple finches, rose-breasted grosbeaks, goldfinches, downy and red-bellied woodpeckers, nuthatches, chickadees -- it was busy out there!

And here are the bluebells in my friend Fran's woods (hers are later than mine).
It has been a glorious spring. Today summer has arrived with all its heat and stickiness. Yuck.

Gratitudes:

wildflowers and wildlife

time to enjoy them

dinner tonight with old friends

Woods Full of Wildflowers

The wildflowers in our woods are grateful for this long, cool spring. We have never had so many trillium:

I realized recently that I never posted a photo of The Quilt That Won't Show Cat Hair (formerly known as The Quilt From Hell). Here it is in use now:

Happy Spring!

Gratitudes:

+ MRI results now known and surgery scheduled -

+ SO there's light at the end of the tunnel

+ going to see Word With a Bird at Audubon with Olivia June 7