Almost a Finish

Something kept me busy all day yesterday, but I'd be hard pressed to say what it was. It seemed as if I was wandering from thing to thing with no real direction or destination in mind. As I mentioned yesterday, we went on a little outing to a local nursery and then made a quick trip to the grocery store for two items. Maybe it's always been this way, but going out seems to leave me disoriented. I almost never know what day it is any more. When we're traveling, I'm at least aware of the date since we have only so long to stay in any one place. When we're home, and now with Mike permanently retired, every day looks like the one before, and I lose track of time. It isn't a bad thing. I've realized that being unaware of the day and date makes one fully present in the moment, since we're not distracted by whatever comes next. 

But go out, we did, and we found the clematis we were looking for. There were several to choose from, but this was the one with the dark purple flowers. I tried unsuccessfully to take a picture of the one we bought. It's a little scrawny thing. With a little love, water, and sunshine, it should grow into the clematis it was meant to be. We first saw this clematis in the RV park near Mayfield Lake in Washington. When I first laid eyes on it, I could only say, "It will be mine." Here's the one we saw "in the flesh" on our camping trip last year.

Without knowing for sure, the one from yesterday looks pretty much the same. The one above has fewer petals, but I still think it's the same flower.

Here's another photo I found online. Ours has buds on it, and they look like the buds in the picture below.

Also, we found some hanging baskets. We had to replace the ones we purchased earlier. We were finding dead bees all over our deck. We wondered about it, but then saw two bees fly into the petunias and fall to the ground dead within about 30 seconds. That was all we needed to know, and so we removed them to the indoors. Now they're dead and dumped on our burn pile where they'll suffer for their sins. I've written to the local merchant about it, although it wasn't their fault. It's the grower who is to blame, and possibly the grower isn't even aware they have a problem. Whatever the case, we've replaced them with these two, and hopefully, these won't harm the bees.

In slow-stitching land, I finished stitching most of what was in my hoop for the Appalachian Memories quilt block.

Now I've moved my hoop to the left where I can get that whole section completed before moving rightward.

The quilting is finished on Sweet Land of Liberty. 

When I left off, I was working on this "piano key" motif in the outer border.

Here's how the quilting looks from the back. Also, I stitched in the ditch around the center panel and the outer border.

Now the binding is on, and it just needs hand stitching to be my newest finish. It shouldn't take too long.

The only other thing I did yesterday was to pick all the sage blossoms I could find. I worried today's rain would destroy them, and so I picked what I could, rinsed them in a small salad spinner, and put them in the refrigerator. I don't have nearly enough to make sage blossom vinegar yet, but I'm hoping these will last until a few more flowers open up. And if they don't...well, no biggy.

Smitty caught, not one, but two squirrels yesterday. He's caught three gophers and three squirrels in three days. You wouldn't be mistaken in thinking he's a valiant hunter and provider. And let me just tell you, hunting is hard work. A guy needs a good long nap after heroic work. And even with no heroic work, napping is always a good plan.

Today I'll finish off Sweet Land of Liberty, and then I'll get a start on quilting Hearts A-Plenty. It's another quilt small enough to quilt on my domestic machine. 

I'm also going to start working on a challenge quilt. My prompt is "Love is like a butterfly." I have several ideas about things I could do, but nothing really decided yet. It'll be a mystery for you since I'll only be able to show you peeks for the time being.