Easy Afternoon

Good morning, my friends. What a nice day we had yesterday. For whatever reason, it felt less hurried than usual. I finished one project, and I'm on the cusp of finishing another. Possibly the lack of projects half finished made it seem less busy. 

Of course, I have lots of projects half finished, but I take them in stages. When I'm talking about "projects," I'm meaning whatever stage it happens to be in currently. Take the Barnyard quilt as an example. I made the blocks one per month. When they were all finished, it went to the list of quilt tops to finish. When that was done, it went into the pile of quilts to be quilted. And now...it's at it's final stage of development...fully-formed quiltdom. It's kind of like welcoming a new baby quilt into the world. Have a good life, Little One. Make lots of warmth! Be colorful!

So, yeah. That's where I was yesterday. Quilting, finishing, gardening, and relaxing. The Sashiko piece is finished. This is all I can show you until November 1st. 

It ended up at 15 x 17.5 inches...a good size for a wall-hanging, and I have just the place for it.

As I was getting ready for the next thing, I caught Smitty hard at work on his catio. He was engaged in his latest photo shoot. He's been given the Mewble Peace Purrize. Just then he was posing for a spread they're doing about him in an upcoming issue of Cosmeowpolitan magazine. The light was good.

Okay, so I had the vertical sashings in my sites for yesterday's quilting. When I had them all finished, I laid the quilt out on the floor for a look.

Here's another angle.

Here's the whole thing. I just need to finish that outer border.

Here's a peek at the back.

The quilting looks good to my eye. I was thinking of doing something more traditional in the outer border. Now I'm thinking I'll do something similar to what I did in the sashings, but at a larger scale. Maybe I'll try doing something fancier. I'll just have to wait and see what my hands decide.

If I'd been in the mood, I might have done some more sewing. It was a nice afternoon, and the dahlias needed some attention. I noticed this red leaf maple. It'll be flame red in about a week.

As for the dahlias, we're still waiting for this Firefighter dahlia to do something. The bud is growing larger, and there are about a half dozen flowers on the plant. It's always the last one to bloom, but it is super slow this year, for some reason.

The other ones are continuing to produce fabulously huge flowers. Dahlias are my favorite flowers. It took me years to grow them successfully. This is the Checkers dahlia.

This one is Fuzzy Wuzzy.

This is Bumble Rumble, just starting to open.

With the recent rains, they were heavy with moisture, and the stems were all weighted down and pulled over. I cut the largest flowers to make way for the smaller buds. They'll continue blooming if the stems don't get broken off by the rain. I kept a handful of the cut flowers and brought them inside where I can enjoy them.

With those safely stowed in water, I went back outside to fill the bird feeders. When what to my wondering eyes should appear? Holy sh*t! I think those are chanterelles! They're growing all along our front sidewalk. 

Well, actually, I sent a photo to my son, Matthew. He knows about this stuff, and he says they are not. Oh well. A girl can dream.

Okay, so it's back to work Monday. Only...I'm retired. Monday is just like Sunday. And Sunday is just like Saturday. And Saturday is just like Friday. And the worst part about retirement? No vacation. Can you believe that? 

We have some daffodil bulbs to plant, and I'm going to tackle the laundry. Also, I'll get back to my quilting. I have a design in mind, but I'm not sure how time-consuming it will be. Quilting with rulers is slow-going. If I can make my way around, I'll get it to binding stage. Sewing on the binding will be a bonus.

So, I can hear my embroidery needle and floss cracking the whip downstairs. I'd best get going.