Back in Action

When I wrote yesterday's post, I was feeling much better post-vaccine. Today, it's almost as if it never happened, although I can still find a tender spot on my shoulder if I push on it. The fever and malaise is entirely gone. After May 8th, we can breathe a little easier knowing we're fully vaccinated and, hopefully, immune. 

We had just a few minutes of sunshine yesterday morning, and so I flew out the door to get some pictures of the blooming things outside. Things are coming along, but not really blooming. There is much promise however. You know I'll keep you posted on the minutiae as it happens. For now, here's what I have. 

These are the little volunteer pansies that decided to grow next to the bleeding heart.

Below, I had to replant one of the calibrachoa when the squirrels dug one up and left it to die. We were gone when that happened, and so it was long gone by the time we returned home. Squirrels! (Shakes fist.)

The lilac will burst forth on the first warm day...hopefully, by Thursday.

Same goes for the dogwood. I have a dogwood mosaic quilt I want to make one of these days. I was thinking I might do it to urge the tree along this year, but now it seems to be doing its own thing without my urging.

There are buds on all the azaleas, but yesterday I noticed the first flower.

The new wisteria is beginning to climb the pole at the front porch.

If you look behind the wisteria on the left side of the image above, you can see the clematis below blooming. This one was here when we moved into our home nearly 19 years ago.

These are some wild strawberries that serve as a ground cover. They get tiny little strawberries. The birds and squirrels love them.

In the greenhouse, all of the Romas are blooming now.

Also, the cherry tomato has buds. The only tomato that hasn't shown any sign of blooming is the slicer. I expect it will show some signs of life soon. 

Thankfully, the squirrels have not gotten into the greenhouse since Mike covered their hole and made it impossible for them to get access. They could always dig another hole somewhere else, but they haven't tried. Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll forget about the greenhouse. Anyone want to bet on that?

Back inside, I made good on my threat to put the melon seeds inside my bread proofer. The temperature is running a solid 75-80° now. Hopefully, that will get them going. If not, I'll try soaking some new seeds overnight, as suggested by my friend, Kathy. In fact, I may just do that now, rather than waste any more time. I'm still hoping these will sprout.

When that was finished, it was time to sew. Smitty was at the ready, knowing his help in the sewing room is what makes all things pawssible.

Sadie wasn't much interested in sewing, but she was willing to do her part to rid the sewing room of its catnip infestation.

Smitty was appalled at her sloth and lack of commitment.

He likes to live dangerously, as always.

I'd left off with the log cabin blocks half finished. Yesterday I finished them off.

Then, I went to work making the 7 star blocks. These are the star points.

I confused myself during this process because I'd made pencil marks on my pattern indicating I only needed "parts" for six stars. This made no sense to me, and so I went on ahead and made enough for seven. When I laid them out, I remembered what I was thinking with the pencil marks.

You might remember, as I did after a while, that I'd already made one star to piece together the background for the final embroidery motif...the one in the image below.

And that all worked out fine since one of the stars had mismatched points. I finished it off anyway, and then put it in a pile of cut-off and extra pieces for the next quilt in my "trashy" series. The six stars I'll use are shown below.

Then, those were sewn together and sashed, and they're ready to be pieced into the quilt top.

So that was a good day of sewing. I even got some housework done.

Mike and I have to head into town to run a few errands this morning. After that, I'll get back to my sewing, and hopefully get the quilt top to border stage. I'll need to make something like 48 flying geese before I can finish it off, but I'll start by sewing together what I have. There are a few other to-do's on today's list, but nothing that will keep me from the sewing room. I'm on a roll now.