Rain Break

Good morning, my friends. You'll be relieved to know I survived the dentist yesterday. Even the drive into town wasn't so bad. It's good to have that done for another year. But I'm a day behind with blogging, and so we need to back up to Monday. There was no rain on Monday, and so Mike and I grabbed the opportunity to plant the daffodil bulbs. I had around 22 to plant. Of course, I already have the usual yellow daffodils and white daffodils. I even have some fun ones in the form of this Riot daffodil...

and this Poets daffodil.

This past summer I went in search of some more colors. A couple of years ago, we planted around 60 crocus bulbs. We got to enjoy them one season, and then the squirrels ate every single one of the bulbs. 

So I got in the mood for some more colorful bulb flowers that (hopefully) weren't appetizing to squirrels. Monday, we were able to plant all of them. Mike has a nifty auger bit that attaches to his electric drill. It makes short work of digging those holes.

Except for hitting the occasional tree root or rock, it'll dig that hole in less than ten seconds.

It took less than an hour to plant all of them. More difficult than digging the holes was figuring out space with appropriate sunlight for all of them. The new bulbs were all ordered from Breck's, and these pictures are all from their online catalog. The ones we're expecting now are this Pipit daffodil...

this Fire Drill daffodil...

this one called "Emerald Kiss," (it has a slight green tinge to the petals)...

and, finally, this one called Pink Bomb.

Since we'll be traveling for most of next spring, I'm afraid we'll miss their blooms this first season, but you can never tell. If it's warm enough, they might get an early start. I'm not really counting on it, but I'll come back and reread this post if I get desirous of daffodils.

The kitties were helping us find places for the bulbs when something happened to Sadie.

Smitty, I feel the demon spirit coming on!

And this happens to cats occasionally. It's nothing to worry about. She took off running lickety-split up one of the cherry trees where she scratched the bejeezus out of it before jumping to the ground.

Wait...what just happened?

Well, Smitty was in no mood for the demon spirit to take over, and so he left the area, walking softly so he couldn't be detected.

When the bulbs were all snug in the ground, I went to work hand-stitching the binding for the Time to Stitch piece. And that makes a little finish at 14 x 15 inches. It's already hanging on the wall in my sewing room.

Here's how it looks from the back:

And that brought me to dinner time. We were looking forward to our once-per-year dinner of Chanterelle Mushroom Risotto. So tasty. Chanterelle mushrooms are only found in the wild, and they are only available this time of the year. I didn't pick these, instead opting for the ones I could find at Whole Foods. I haven't been to the farmer's market with Erik and Mae for quite some time, but they tell me they've also been available there.

And that brings me to yesterday's comings and goings. When I got home from the dentist, I had some lunch, and a good nap, and then I went to work sewing together the little quilt top for the "Dwell in Possibility" piece. The pattern for this embroidery can be found right here. I liked this pale orange batik. It reminded me of butterfly wings. I used a green stop border to bring out the green in the butterfly.

Sadie helped me select a backing piece.

This one was a gift from a friend recently. He was helping distribute fabrics from a quilter who had passed away. This will be the second quilt I've made using her fabrics. I liked this one for the green, but also for the rose color that matched the embroidered flowers on the front.

And now, it's sandwiched for quilting. I'll use that same green for the binding.

The only other sewing I've done is to make some more progress on Hanging the Christmas Lights.

This one should be finished in the next day or two, and so I took some time to trace the next blocks for The Story of My Day. These are the ten blocks I have for this quilt so far.

The next two on the list are To Bed, To Bed...

and Type Something Inspirational.

While I was tracing those, Sadie was explaining why my quilt block arrangement is all wrong.

I'm expecting another yard of that fabric on Saturday, but I'm afraid we'll continue quibbling over the quilt blocks until then. Also, I purchased yet another yard of that fabric. I want to put two borders on this quilt, and that extra yard will ensure I have plenty of fabric.

So that brings you up to this morning. The rain has begun again, and it's dark and stormy outside. We'll be driving to Salem this afternoon to have lunch with my friend Lenelda and her husband. Lenelda and I have been friends since we were about 12 years old. We attended school together, but we also swam competitively on the city swim team. Lenelda always beat me in freestyle. I always beat her in backstroke. And that little trip will probably take up most of the day. If there's time, and if I can talk Mike into it, we might visit a quilt shop. I need a backing fabric for Jericho Walls, and there are a couple of quilt shops in Salem I haven't visited. One is an old shop moved to a new location, and the other is one I've never visited. I'm hoping the rain will let up for our drive to and from.

My stomach is growling. I guess that means it's time for some breakfast. Have a good day everyone. Stay warm and dry, and we'll try to do the same.