Time for Tomatoes

Yesterday morning saw me finishing off my fourth and final mystery project. Here's a little peek.

I should be able to show it to you in a couple of weeks. These are the fabrics I'm going to use to finish it off. I'm not sure about that stripe yet. That would be the binding, but I won't be sure until it's all sewn together.

There was just enough time to trace out my next project. You might have noticed my last two stitchery projects have been mysteries, intended as gifts for someone else. Now I'm back on track with my own line-up of projects. I always have five embroidery projects in the line-up at any given time. One of them is a "shorty" that can be finished in one go-round, and that's where I am on my list. The new one is this "Sweet Land of Liberty" from Crabapple Hill Farms.

I'm on a quest to make a table runner and table topper (for our breakfast bar) for every holiday. So far, I have nothing for the Fourth of July. I'm going to use this one to make a table topper, rather than a pillow.

So, I traced it out...

and then used crayon to color it in. I don't know why that blue looks so mottled in this picture. It doesn't look that way in person.

Also, I'm lazy and so I bought the floss packet to stitch it up. Aren't these pretty?

Now it's hooped up and ready to go.

I didn't have time to start on it because I had a date with my dentist to fix my chipped tooth. Yesterday's drive downtown was the worst traffic mess I've seen in a while. There was an accident on the main drag leading to the first state highway. Then bumper-to-bumper traffic on the highway. Then, moving onto the main highway into downtown Portland, more bumper-to-bumper traffic. But it was hurry up and wait for my appointment with the dentist. The appointment itself was quick and easy. As it turns out, the tooth was the tooth beside the one that chipped back during the 17th century, and so now I have a matching pair. Also, the repair lightened my wallet by $400. (I took two tubes of "free" chapstick from the bowl at the reception desk.)

With so much less cash on my body, you'd think the drive home would have been fast, but no. It was bumper-to-bumper all the way. On the main drag leading back home, no less than six police cars were lined up blocking a right-turn lane. I'm sure there was something other than a gab fest going on, but it wasn't apparent to the casual observer. There appeared to be a lot of laughter and back-slapping. It made this crabby driver want to stop and get out of the car and yell, "Does your mother know you're here?"

So it was good I was spending the afternoon on the boat with Mike and a friend. I'm the boat babe, holding up the flag for a skier in the water. It's the law here in Oregon that there must be three people on the boat if there is to be any water-skiing: One driver, one flagger, and one skier. Thus, it was my solemn duty. In our travels, we saw this great blue heron, who appeared to be following us. He was warily watchful of our activities for most of the day.

It would be a waste of rope time for me to do any skiing. I'm happy to stay on the boat and yell helpful comments like, "A little more face plant on that next fall!" This is our friend Tim.

And here's the boat captain.

It was a nice way to spend the afternoon of an otherwise stressful day.

Today we're heading out early to get some breakfast and pick up 25 pounds of tomatoes from the farmers. We're also going to get some apples for applesauce, and so I'll be back to canning this weekend. I'm hoping I'll get in a little more sewing time, but not counting on it.