Divine Swine

We were up and out early yesterday to finish up our grocery shopping. We have a short camping trip planned for next week. Most of the food for that is already made, and so I'm hopeful we can get by for another week or two without having to make another major trip. When we got home and had things put way, we set free the cats, and I took a walk around to check in on the blooming things. 

The Fairy Princess peony continues to thrill and delight. It puts on more flowers every day.

Also, the rose bush is covered in flowers and buds. The deer have left it alone this year, and so we're enjoying it.

Speaking of deer, they haven't been by to nibble on the newest geraniums. Maybe they don't like the pink ones. You can see the chewed off stems of previous generations of flowers in the image below.

As I made my rounds, I caught Sadie on the hunt. She refused to look at me, and she shushed me...I was blowing her cover.

Smitty was really hoping she'd bring him something good to eat.

Then...she sprang! Didn't catch anything though. Bummer.

Back inside, I went to work top-stitching/quilting the pig. It was the last animal on the quilt. Yay!

Now, I have the machine lined up to quilt around the appliqued border. The end is in sight for this much-dreaded project.

There is still a small amount of quilting to do in the outer border and sashings, and I'll probably add in some details here and there. If I can avoid jury duty tomorrow, I expect I'll have the quilting finished by Friday.

After that, I sewed together the next row of blocks for the City Bank quilt.

There is just one more row of six blocks to go before I'll be able to start sewing it together. Here are all the blocks I have so far.

When I finish my quilting today, I'll start working on drawing out a pattern for the Sonora Desert landscape quilt. I've been thinking about how to do this, and I've decided to do it in the way Ruth McDowell might tackle it. I'll draw some vertical lines, and then divide them up horizontally. And if this doesn't make sense, I should have some pictures to show you tomorrow.

For this project, I'm going to be using the pretty fabrics Lyndsay brought back from Bali.

Okay, and I'm just about ready to wrap up the second Hartland Barns block. While we watched the news, I stitched up most of what was left in my hoop.

Moving the hoop, I encircled the last of it. That's what I'll do this morning, although I can't say for sure I'll finish it off today.

This morning, I have PT, and then I'll get back to my sewing. We had some good rain showers yesterday, and so there's no need to water anything. I'll give myself a break from hoeing on a day when I have PT. My shoulder is doing great though. I've made some progress on the last range of motion challenge, which is to be able to raise my arm straight overhead. Time, patience, and exercise...that's the key.

Before I go, I want to tell you about a web page I found. I've been trying to unload an old iPhone 4. There's nothing wrong with it aside from being old, and no longer supported by Apple. 

(Image credit: "iPhone 4" by superstrikertwo is licensed with CC BY-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/)

I tried giving it to my kids and my friends. I tried listing it on Freecycle. Literally nobody wants it. Then, my social worker brain recalled reading somewhere that phones could be recycled for use by people escaping domestic violence. Even a phone that has no data plan can be used to dial 911. And so I Googled it, and came up with this website that tells 20 Ways to Donate Old Cell Phones. There is a nice listing there of organizations that will accept them, and it explains how they will be used. 

The organization I was hoping to find is 911 Cell Phone Bank. It's the first organization listed. All I have to do is pack it in a padded envelope and use the prepaid postage label they provide. Then I'll drop it in the mailbox this morning, and my phone will be gone to be used by someone who needs it. It's easy for me, and it won't end up in the landfill. Consider this your retired social worker PSA of the day. Let's see...that would be RSWPSA. 

And now...I'm off. But you already knew that, didn't you?