Monday's Meanderings

It was a relaxing Monday morning for me. I sat watching the birds in the birdbath for the longest time. It's so much fun to watch them splashing around. We have a mister that runs full time. When we first put up our birdbath, the birds ignored it completely. When I mentioned this at our Backyard Bird Shop, they suggested adding the mister. They explained that birds must be able to see and hear the water to be attracted to it, and that the mister would make it more visible and audible. It worked like magic. The birds came in droves, and they were as excited as Smitty with catnip.

Even the hummingbirds enjoy flying into the shower from the mister.

So that was all well and good, but I pulled myself away. I had things to do, including making four more pints of salsa.

There are still enough tomatoes left to make more salsa or else some red tomato chutney. We both love this salsa so much that I am sorely tempted to make more of it. That will probably mean the end of the tomatoes. We ran out of salsa this spring, and so I'm feeling compelled to make more than I did last year. Better too much than not enough. Where salsa is concerned, that's my motto.

While I was waiting for that to cook down and to process, I was able to trace out my extra stitchery to take along on our trip. A few people asked about this pattern. This is the "Never Underestimate" hand embroidery pattern from Bobbie G. Designs. She has some very cute stuff on her website. 

My background piece is a Kona white, although it doesn't look white in this picture. I think it's the lighting in my sewing room that gives it that tinge of dinge.

So when the salsa was finished, and I'd done my tracing, I started on the "H" block for the Gardener's Journal quilt. The "H" block has these three stitcheries.

It went together fairly quickly.

Here's how it looks along with the rest of the quilt. You can see it in the upper right.

And now there are just two stitcheries left to piece together with the "I" block.

I think I'll have enought time to get that one finished and the blocks all sewn together before we leave on our trip. I was hoping to have the whole quilt top finished, but then I had second thoughts about the fabric I had selected for the narrow stop border. Look at the image below, and see what you think. (I'm soliciting your opinion here.)

The outer border will be from the blue floral. Originally, I was going to use that aqua fabric at the bottom of the narrow border. Now I'm thinking that it needs something brighter: either the turquoise at the top, or the royal blue in the middle. Which one do you like best? If I decide to use one of the darker fabrics, I can still use the lighter aqua on the back, and that will be very pretty. I would need to piece it together. I'm thinking the aqua and a scrappy stripe of the remaining scraps from the quilt would make a pretty back. (And I'm already plotting my entries in next year's Oregon State Fair. We're getting pretty bold around here, don't you think?)

I can order the Kona cottons online, and I usually do. There isn't enough time between now and Sunday, however, so I'll probably take a swatch along and see if I can find some along the way. Still, I'm wondering what you think. I'm still undecided about which one is the right one.

So that's my day. Tomorrow I'm meeting up with my friend Sue for lunch, and then she's going to accompany me to the fair. I'm excited to see all the quilts! That will take most of the day, I imagine, and so I'll probably can the rest of the tomatoes on Wednesday. The plums are still hard as little purple rocks. I'm really hoping they'll be ready before we leave. There is no rushing these things, I've learned.