More Wine, Please

The day started with the kitties and me getting out to fill the bird feeders and to check on every blooming thing. Set free the cats!

Hey, Smitty...I think our humans should erect a meownument to me right here on this rock.

Oh, Sadie...don't make me laugh. Your tail is too short for that. Only cats with long tails get meownuments.

But all is not lost, my furry furriend. Remember how that guy Popeye grew big muscles from eating spinach? Grass can do the same thing for your tail. It's true...just look at my tail. I munch on grass at every oppurrtunity.

Is that true, Smitty? You wouldn't just be pulling my paw, would you?

They seemed to be deep into kitty business, and so I wandered around checking on things. The clematis is in full bloom now. It's draped itself over its neighbor there. I'll have to trim it back some when it's finished blooming. 

Close-up, it's a mass of flowers.

Also, the first azalea blossoms are beginning to appear.

The tomatoes have the beginnings of flowers on them too. This is a very good sign.

From there I did some more work on the Gingerbread Village. Now I have it about 2/3 done. Undoubtedly I'll be shifting things around before I do any gluing or sewing, but it helps to at least have the look of the village.

After I'd covered it up, this little person joined me.

How am I supposed to help you arrange things when you have it all covered in rulers?

From there I went upstairs and did some housework. When I looked outside, I saw these two marauding scoundrels.

This one was eating one of the tulip petals! Little sh*t!!

This one seemed to be aware they were being watched.

Naughty squirrels. Where's a cat when you need one?

Later in the afternoon, I finished framing the Wine Country blocks. They turned out so pretty. Now I'm really glad I held out for the red/burgundy fabric.

Only it caused me to have doubts about this cork fabric. I messaged these pictures to Mike, and he agreed with me. Now the cork fabric looks wrong to me. The gold metallic frame around the blocks gives them an elegant, formal appearance. The cork seems too whimsical now...and not the right color.

I tried laying the other two border fabrics out beside the blocks, but I still didn't like it.

So now I'm thinking I'm going to use that same metallic gold to give them a narrow sashing. I can still use the cork fabric on the quilt back. There probably isn't enough of the wine bottle fabric for the back, especially when I cut the outer border, and so I can use the cork to piece together a back using whatever is left of the wine fabric. That's my new plan. I think it will be pretty. I might decide to use the green for a stop border...or maybe both...I can't decide until I have the blocks sewn together, and I can get a better idea how it's going to look.

The calendar tells me it's time to set a new goal for

Since we'd just returned home last month, I gave myself an easy goal. This month's goal will be a bit more challenging. It seems I need to give myself an extra incentive to quilt and bind the Quiltmaker's Garden quilt. I'm still mulling over how to quilt it and what color thread to use, but I'm committing to finishing it during the month of May.

Fingers crossed I'm not biting off more than I can chew...or counting my threads before they're stitched...or something like that. I'll probably regret giving myself such a formidable goal, but it's also a way to get myself moving on this project that has caused me nothing but grief. I know I'm going to love it when it's finished...if for no other reason than I'll never have to work on it again.

I spoke with Mike yesterday evening. He'd made his way to Indiana, although not all the way to the factory in Goshen. He had about another hour to go, and so he's probably there as I'm writing this. There's still no decision about the roof, but I expect there will be soon. On his way to Goshen yesterday, he passed right by the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and so he stopped and toured the museum. You didn't think he was going to drive right past without stopping, did you? Anyway...he said that was very enjoyable. It's nice he got to see something fun after all the driving he's done.

This morning I'm meeting up with Sue for breakfast and a walk. It's going to be a nice day of weather. I'd set my sites on today as a day to do more weeding, but I forgot I was walking with Sue. Weeding will probably have to wait until tomorrow.