Good meals, beautiful roses, and on with the quilt

Lauren fixes us the most beautiful lunches. Every day, I am startled at how beautiful the plate looks. I think he missed his calling, long ago, and I am very fortunate to be the one beneficiary of his wonderful sense of style. Not only are our lunches beautiful, but they are very healthy. I'm a lucky woman, indeed!

We've been spending every Monday working in the back yard, recently. Having the back yard look better is pleasing to us, but we're also getting some very necessary physical exercise while we work.

Our southwest corner is looking pretty good. I've taken the task to pull out all the dead reeds from that bamboo-like plant in the corner. It's been years since we did anything with it. Initially, I thought I'd like to just chop it out, but once I started pulling the dead reeds, it began to look much better to me. I need to look up its name so I can figure out just what the bush is. It propagates by spreading its root system, and it will soon take over a place if it's not properly cared for. Sitting behind the pond (not in use) as it does, I think the mat that it creates on the ground is a great place for pests, including rodents. Ugh!!!



We're so pleased with the tomato plants. I am so glad that I talked Lauren into giving tomatoes a try after we got home from Alaska in June. We have several little green tomatoes growing now. How exciting!


The roses are having a heyday in this hot weather, as long as we keep them well watered. This bush, which sits alone by the back fence, sprouted a whole bouquet from one stem. Delightful.

We've had a cooler-than-normal July, but here it is August 13, and the heat is upon us. Today, we have hot winds whipping the outdoor blinds against the window as I sit here and sew.



The quilt comes along. This week, I'm working on freestyle designs for the six big plain (12") squares in the quilt, and I'm pleased so far. Last week, I spent probably six hours a day outline stitching the many block segments in the quilt, freestyle, and because I'm working with a huge bulk (and there's really no way to organize that bulk, no matter what instructions you follow - especially when you're working a 12-inch spread at a time)my outlines aren't straight. Oh well. So it's homemade! But overall, I really like the way it's shaping up. I will spend at least this week working on the six plain squares and then some freestyle design on each of the other patterns (either a set of three rectangles or an X with side triangles makes up each of the pieced 12-inch squares). I hope a week's about all it will take, but I expect it will be two.

To handle this large bulk (about 120" square, which will be bound to about 110" square), I placed a card table in the L of my sewing desk (really an office desk), and then extended the sides of the card table with two TV trays - one for my thread holder and another for my DVD player. I've just about run out of movies to watch, but I'm not caught up with my podcasts yet, so I think I can stick to it without too much trouble. My next quilting project will be a potholder!! But this is worth the trouble. Not only will it be one of a kind, it will actually be a bedspread to cover those side-by-side twins - impossible to purchase easily, and too expensive even if I could manage to find one.

I've always liked to sew. I can remember when I was in elementary school, I would talk Mom and Dad out of making me stay for church, and I would come home alone and sneak and use Mom's sewing machine. I just knew I could do it! And I did. An expert sewer, I'm not; but I've always known how, and I've gotten a lot of mileage from that craft over these many years.