Good Gardening

There was a lot to catch up on outside yesterday. With all the rain the previous couple of weeks, there wasn't much to do outside. After a few dry days, it was time to do everything all at once. I watered the flower pots and hoed the whole vegetable garden. I don't have pictures of this yet, but I found lots of corn and beets sprouting. Also, several more green beans. The vegetables are getting at least a little less worrisome. I'm still heartsick about all my starts dying though. I've been in the process of soaking and then planting more seeds. It's disappointing to have nurtured those starts for the past several weeks, only to have them die once planted in the garden. Oh well. Time marches on, doesn't it? I'll just plant more seeds and hope for the best.

The bird feeders still needed filling, but I was hot and thirsty. I sat on our bench in the shade of the Douglas firs and drank a Mike's Lemonade. I tried to get some cats to join me, but they had other ideas. When I was ready to resume my activities, I turned around to find Smitty sitting behind me.

Sadie was up next to the door. She wanted to go inside for a snack...never mind she could go in through the catio for some dry food and water. She really wanted some treats.

With all that work outside, I didn't get into the sewing room until around 3:00 p.m. It still left plenty of time to quilt the next section of "And On That Farm." Now that I have the tension adjusted and the thread is behaving itself, this is going pretty fast. These are the three panels in this section:

I'm not real happy with the holes being left in the applique, but I don't see any way around it either. I'm using the smallest needle I can for my machine. Also, the holes tend to "heal" as I move the quilt around, so I'm not too worried about it.

When I had that section finished, there was still time to make a little more progress on the "In the Good Old Summertime" table runner. I'm making little Ohio Star cornerstones. They're laid out to be sewn together now.

I covered them with a large ruler when I finished for the day because, you know...mice.

Mice...like this one. This was her contribution to yesterday's sewing efforts.

Today will be a mostly sewing day. I'll at least get a start on the largest section of the quilt...the one below the roosters. 

There are a lot of itty bitty pieces in that section, and so the one-hour minimum rule still applies. If it isn't finished after an hour's time, I'll give myself permission to stop and work on something else. For now, I'm just top-stitching all of the applique. I'll still need to fill in some details and I'll need to quilt the sashings and outer border. It's turning out to be less troublesome than I expected in the beginning.

Starting June 1st, I've been called for a month of jury duty. It isn't too bad in our county. I've been assigned a number, and I'll call in for a recorded message after 4:30 p.m. each day to see if I'm supposed to report the next morning. I'm telling you this because I won't blog on days I have to report. I'll need to be at the courthouse by 8:00 a.m. on those days (Oh, the humanity!), and so there won't be any time for blogging in the morning. Possibly I'll be able to pull myself together enough to do it in the afternoon. 

I hope you have an enjoyable holiday honoring the fallen. I'm honoring my military family, all gone now except for me. A few days ago, I found some old pictures given to me after my uncle passed away. They were in a photo album of his. This is my family, and this picture was taken when my dad, a 32-year-Marine Corps veteran, was stationed at the Pentagon.

If you look closely at the inside edge of my brother's arm, you can see some calamine lotion for his latest bout with poison ivy. He had a knack for getting into things that would cause a terrible itchy rash. Rest easy, my family. Your tour is complete.