Happy Mother's Day!

Good morning, my friends, and Happy Mother's Day to all who celebrate. We've had our morning pancakes already, and there are leftovers for dinner. I'm going to enjoy the rest of my day, "rest" being the operative word in that sentence. 

It was a very nice day yesterday. We had dinner with Erik and Mae to celebrate birthdays and mother's day. It was an enjoyable evening. I snapped this picture of a Bristly Locust tree growing in front of their house.

It was covered in those purple flowers, and there were two more around the corner from them. They told us a group called "Friends of Trees" will come around on occasion and ask permission to plant a tree. This was one of the trees they'd planted.

Inside, we found Mae in their backyard garden harvesting lettuce leaves for our salad. They got a head start on their vegetable garden this year, and it's looking good.

Cricket was nearby helping Mae.

A lot of things are blooming too. Here are some pretty yellow iris.

This is some Honesty, or Lunaria. We both planted lunaria a couple of years ago. I was trying to get mine going along our driveway, but the animals ate all of it, and I can't find any sign of it now. Mae is going to collect some seeds from hers this fall, and I'll give it another try next year.

Erik was doing a prime rib on a rotisserie. He cleverly made a basting brush from sprigs of rosemary and thyme. 

Erik has, for the past couple of years, developed a passion for Weber barbecues. Below, he was showing us his newest acquisition. He knows all about these. This one was built around 1973, and he knows because their patented vent on the top was only "patent pending" at the time. Also, this color was only built for a short time.

Each of his barbecues was acquired to fulfill a certain cooking method. This one happens to be a wok.

These are all his Weber barbecues. Each one has a different purpose. I love this about him. Who knew this could be a hobby?

This was the set-up he was using for last night's dinner. If I'm understanding this right, it has the taller sides to accommodate the rotisserie. The smaller one to the side is where he likes to get his coals started.

I'd already started eating dinner when I thought to take a picture. This might have been the best prime rib I've ever eaten. It was tender and flavorful. We also had salad (to the left of the meat), mashed potatoes and gravy. In the middle of my plate is a roasted root vegie dish with a toasted crumb topping. It was all delicious. It was just the four of us, and we couldn't have asked for a nicer evening.

Earlier in the day, Sadie accompanied me on my walk around the yard. She was looking for small furry mammals. She's a small cat, and she prefers the smaller game.

I noticed more cherry action on our cherry trees. They bloomed at a good time this year. I'm sorry we'll miss the cherries, but our neighbors can enjoy them.

While I checked on the peonies, Smitty went after some larger game under the rhododendron. Also, this could be his new hiding place. We keep a close eye on them when they're outside. Lately, Smitty has been hiding in some spot where we can't find him. When I saw him duck under this bush, I wondered if this was his new lair.

The plum tree is pretty well bloomed out. Yesterday, I was checking for any plums, and I think I might be seeing a couple where I've circled below. The plums won't ripen until fall, and so we will be home for these. The plum tree bloomed at a bad time last year, and we didn't get a single plum. I'm hoping for a better harvest this year.

This is the dogwood tree. It's flowers all point up to the sky, and so it's hard to get a very good picture of them.

This is the rhododendron in front of the house.

There are more deep blue flowers on the lithodora every day. These will last a long time.

This is the azalea near the front door. It doesn't get as much sun as the others, and so it's one of the last to bloom.

Back inside, I was able to quilt six more blocks for the Joyful Journey quilt. For this one, I did a looping meander around all the different designs.

This one had more bees, and so I quilted a beeline connecting them all.

There were only a few bees on this next one, and so I did another looping meander, but I also added some details to the house...shingles on the roof, and stones on the front steps.

For this one, I gave the bird some feathers and then more looping meander beelines.

This one was done with more of a looping meander.

And this one...same thing. The block quilting is really more functional than anything else. I'll do something a little fancier when I get to the sashings and borders.

There are still three more blocks, and then I'll start with the sashings. My plan is to do a leafy feather motif in all of the leafy areas. I'll probably do some kind of dot-to-dot quilting in the star cornerstones.

So six blocks was my limit for the day. The remainder of my Sewturday was spent sewing together the outer block border for the Girls' Getaway quilt. First, the left side.

Before I could sew the right side together, I needed one more little spacer block. When I unpacked the project for sewing the pieces together, I found a bunch of half square triangles that were marked, "Extra." I was able to use two of them here. There were about half a dozen more, and I'm not sure why I ended up with so many.

With that done, I could sew the right side blocks together, and then sew it to the quilt. 

All that remains now is to sew the blocks together for the top and bottom. This has all gone together with no problems, and so I expect I'll have a finished quilt top by the end of the day. Cool.

So today will look a lot like yesterday...a little quilting...a little piecing...some slow-stitching...sounds like a perfect day. I have one small housekeeping chore, but it will probably take less than ten minutes. For now, I'll get back to my slow-stitching. It's going to be an easy-going day. I hope you have a good day planned for yourself too.