The birds were from a lunch invitation from the Taft Museum of Art. The lunch is called Modernism on the Menu.
I'm not going to the lunch, but I loved the birds and cut out the picture for my planner.
The exhibittion will be called Edie McKee Haarper: Modernism at Play. And that I will go to.
The museum is in Cincinnati, and is practically in my back yard.
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I won't be surprised if s the pour is postponed again tomorrow, there's a 50% chance of rain then. It's ok, we're close to the end.
The drain part of the project worked out better than anyone expected. The trap part at the beginning was packed tight with mud, no surprise there. But the clay tiles under the driveway were clear and unbroken. No sump pump or repair needed there. And now there is a long trench drain
Sometimes I need to stop and think that the biggest reason for starting all this was the drain repair. The rest needed to be done too but I could have put it off a little longer and probably might have.
That procrastination thing.
I don't remember where I got the red sashings and backing. It was a large piece of batik with Christmas designs. There was also a large piece of green batik that I used for the binding.
It isn't the kind of fabric I might usually buy these days, so I'm guessing that I got it at my neighborhood Hancock Fabrics, back when there was such a thing. Their Christmas farics would be half off after Christmas.
I was spoiled by that store. Five minutes from home. Any sewing notion that you could want, even buttons, even quilting notions, and they were half off on holidays. The good thread, including serger thread. And a huge selection of fabrics and trim.
It was a sad day when it closed.
This weekend, I'm enjoying the quiet, no jack hammer, no excavator. Just quiet.
No chunks of concrete or dirt hitting that huge sturdy trailer. Just quiet.
Just for fun, there were two giant sanitation trucks woking just up the street too. Different project. Not noisy, at least I don't think so.
The church pastor started a four-part series today with football analogies. And last night I got started on the banner to coordinate with the series. "Getting started" was pressing the green fabric and adding the stripes.
This morning I got up early and added the football.
The white stripes are just basted on since I'm sure I'll at some point take them off and use the green fabric for someting else. The football is stitched too but also fused with Wonder Under. I'm hoping it will pull off.
I kind of like that football.
I usually email a friend in a nursing home by 9:00 am. This morning I just didn't have the time, so I sent her a picture of the banner on the ironing board and a brief explanation.
She emailed back saying, "That's nice, but it's a mess." It just needed 30 more minutes.
This week I made her project and later today I'll take it to her. As you might expect from a pattern printed on a little card, it went together quickly.
I like it because it used all the fabrics in the charm pack. The pieces left over are duplicates. Part of the fun of a charm pack is getting to enjoy all those 5" fabrics.
I did buy the background fabric with the tiny acorns and pumpkins, but I found the gold binding fabric in my ridiculously large stash. I considered, but only for a moment, of seeing how long I can go without buying any fabric.
It would be a good goal, but sometimes, like with this background fabric, the right piece just isn't in my house.
It starts today. The big excavator is in the driveway, taking down the old stone retaining walls and removing the concrete on the driveway. Dirt and concrete all go in the big dumpster trailer.
It's less noisy than I thought it would be. And bigger, whatever than means. I knew the project would be big, but maybe I didn't realize just how big.
I'm trying to not consider all the pieces of the project and just look at what's happening now. These changes are the big ones. Some of the smaller ones, the repairs, won't even look different when they're finished.
I'm thinking about color of the new block retaining wall. A pretty tan, I think, would look best with the strange tan-ish brick on the house. I have a couple of days to decide. I think the thing to do will be to walk around the neighborhoods and see what other people have done, color-wise.
Earlier in the summer, there was one monarch caterpillar on the milkweed plants, just one. I looked hopefully every day.
Just when I was about to give up, there were suddenly three. And it's just so thrilling to see those little striped creatures.
I have plans for more milkweed next summer.
A couple of weeks ago my friend and I went to Apron Quilt Strings Quilt Shop in Maysville, KY. The day was pretty, the quilt shop had many lovely fabrics, and we rode the Augusta ferry across the Ohio River after the shopping.
One of the fun things about Apron Strings is that the have a sale room, called The Vault, open just on Fridays and Saturdays. And in The Vault were some panels perfect, if you bought two, for a baby quilt. So I bought two.
As these things go, I quickly had a request for a baby quilt. A little sewing, a little free motion and the quilt came together. The backing has little paw prints, actually little kitten prints, but all the animals have paws.
The stripe on the binding was part of the panels, and you know how I like a pieced binding.
I've loved the bright pink flowers on my back porch this summer. The pink colors are almost shocking. Petunias and impaients.
I'm been lazy with gardening this summer. Including with these flowers.
I brought them home from the big box store and arranged them on top of the soil in the big planter - and never planted them. And yet, somehow, they thrived, root bound in their little pots except for a few roots that escaped and found the soil.
Maybe I'll do the same next year.
Last year's morning glories came back this spring, but never took off. A few vines trellised up the upright railings, a few purple flowers ame out, and then nothing.
We've talked about comforters distributed by Mennonite Central Committee, but there are also school kits. Last year almost 90,000 were sent to disaster areas overseas.
My church usually picks up already-sewn bags from a distribution center and fills them from a list of supplies. This year people were especially generous and we had more supplies than bags.
It was my first time sewing a few bags. I followed the directions for some, then used the serger to speed things up. It was sort of like serging pillowcases.
It brought back memories of making Girl Scout kit bags and threading the drawstrings. Back then, I just couldn't figure out how to make my drawstrings draw - I think my mother ended up doing it for me. All those years later, I can do it.
One of the events marking the 50 year celebration is Cook Through More-With-Less. Participants signed up to receive a recipe assignment, make the recipe, and send back a photo.
My assignment was Dill Bread, which I'd never made, despite making the oatmeal bread recipe over and over again.
The deadline for sending photos is today, so of course I was making mine last night. It's a savory bread, really good. It took a long time to rise, probably because I added the cottage cheese cold out of the refrigerator. Next time I'll warm it up.
We thought he could just buy a new pair of suit pants, but the color had been discontinued. it's a very, very dark navy. I'm grateful that th jacket still fit and now the pants do too.
I wanted to start out this week with a mindless project before going back to comforter binding - four mor to go, my goal for this week is two.
I had four blocks left over from the Moda Blockheads project, so it was easy enough to sew them together for a table topper, then quilt and bind.
I'd never tried out the laser feature of my sewing machine - it projects a thin red line to guide the sewing. This quilting probablly wasn't the best project for using it, but it was fun to try it out. I'll come back to it again.
This year there are three milkweed plants in my garden, but so far just one monarch caterpillar. I keep looking hopefully for more, but so far there is only one.
Lots of seed pods, one faithful bee, but just one caterpillar. Maybe there's still time. Maybe I'll have to be happy with just one.
Every morning, I look.
It's been a long time since I've had pretty marigolds, but this seems to be their year.
Of course they came marked down at the big box store, looking just a little unhappy, but they've thrived in a tub of Miracle Grow potting soil.
I added a couple of day lilies which languished on my back porch all winter. They don't seem to be doing as well as when they sat in their containers on the porch. Maybe they like just plain dirt rather than the good stuff.
There is a new butterfly bush growing happily in the "just plain dirt." I know it might b a little invasive, we'll see. But it's all by itself in a spot where nothing else seems to grow. It's in the back yard, away from the pollinator plants.
If you have concerns about it, Master Gardener Joanne, let me know.
It's raining on and off, and when it rains, it rains hard. It seems like we've had a flood watch for days.
I met my cardio goal for the week sweeping water in the basement toward the drain, so there's that. Not a flood, don't worry.
My only trip out today was to the quilt shop, I'd been thinking about that all week. I picked up the fifth block of the month (and still haven't started the first one.)
Then there was a pattern for a zipper bag, a very simple one that I'll use again and again. And a kit for a table runner that I've been admiring in the shop.
I rarely buy kits, but the sample looks so pretty and I can use the basic design for other projects.
But first, an embroidery job needs to be started.
I'm way behind on sewing binding on comforters for Mennonite Central Committe. Our group got a nice stash of comforter tops some time ago from Indiana and we've been knotting those, one or two a month.
Only thing is, there are only two of us who can sew on binding, and we've both ended up behind because of various health/travel issues.
This week I've binded five, which put a nice dent in catching up. I need to pivot now because of an embroidery job, then I'll be back.
My favorite binding method is machine sewn, starting with sewing the binding on the back, then flipping it around to the front and turning it under. A hot iron is so, so helpful for getting the binding flat. Binding clips speed things up, just a quick pinch instead of putting in a pin.
A three-part zig zag stitch ensures that the binding won't pull loose if it gets snagged. That stitch slows down the process but it's totally worth it.
As I stitch, I enjoy thinking about where the comforter will end up, it could be anywhere.
For my birthday, around the summer solstice, my neighbor gifted me with a beautiful bouquest. And now, on this seventh day of July, some of those flowers are still looking pretty and summer-y.
Like many others, I'm glad that last week's heat has lowered about ten degrees. We've had a few nice showers. I'm no longer itching from misquito bites that come with summer watering.
The raccoon saga - a neighbor saw a raccoon going in and out of my chimney. After a while I had a chimney cap installed, the chimney guy didn't see raccoons, and the projected time for raccoon babies to be born and grown had passed.
Only thing was, mama and babies must have been hiding in an L at the bottom of the chimney flue. After a few days, mama got desperate and worked at the flue covering in the basement and was able to work it loose.
She ate a couple of bags of Cheetos I had on a table, also sampled most of a bag of flour, drank toilet water, and went back to the babies. Her tracks were in the flour and she left a mess behind.
I don't do critters well, two neighbor men nicely helped make sure she was back in the chimney, and they wedged the flue cover so she couldn't make her way back. My daughter helped me clean up the mess she left behind. Thankfully, the basement is unfinished.
The chimney guy came back and removed the chimney cap so mama could come and go and the babies could get bigger. And now we wait. A couple of nights ago there were still little squeaks, so the family is still there.
Apparently several neighbors have had similar stories, chimney caps have appeared, and mama moves on to the next house.
