Back to the Routine

This morning, my bicycle ride got off on the right foot, so to speak. Of late, my pretty red bicycle has mostly been collecting dust, and more specifically in this case, sawdust, because Mr. Peck has been using his various saws to finish up the trim work himself, deciding he was the better carpenter. Well, duh!

Just as I was starting out, I quickly put the brakes on when I noticed a hawk on our neighbor's roofline. Oh my goodness!! Rarely, or maybe never, have I seen a hawk on someone's roof, so of course I had to stop!

Amazingly, this sweet faced, but really not so sweet, raptor, allowed me to get pretty darn close. To give you some perspective, it looked like this from the street.

Some folks say that I notice things others don't, however, how could anyone miss such a big bird is what I say.

This morning's temperature was a tad cool when I began, however, by the time I returned it was already warming up. Too warm? Maybe just a little, but we know the end MUST be in sight as November is, well, tomorrow, isn't it? During my ride I saw more Halloween decorations, including one with a live dog. Oh wait...not part of the decoration, but apparently just chilling amongst the fake headstones.

Another house had this very clever spider web display. Who isn't afraid of spiders?

Can you imagine if they really grew so large? Yikes!!

As well, near the house with the hawk, I discovered that the peach tree a few doors down, is blooming again. What is with that so late in the year?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch house, aka as our house, Baxter is learning to live with hard floors, in particular at night. There were many years that he slept in the upholstered chair in our bedroom, but these days, he just can't make the up and down required. He's growing old, just like we are. So, of late, he'd been getting himself about half way under the bed on Bruce's side. Or that's is what he had been doing when there was soft carpet in the room. Remember when I made that little blanket thing for him that he completely ignored? Not any longer! Bruce trained him from day one to sleep on it, and he seems comfortable enough.

Now his only problem is not stepping on him! The life of a dog...

So, remember last week when I said one of the days was torturous because I could not do a thing while the rooms were torn up and Scott was working? That was not entirely true. What I did was use Bruce's desktop, cutting pieces for another scrap quilt. Once I felt like I had enough, I sat down on the couch, pairing them, the uglier match, the better. I used a Restoration Hardware catologue that came in the mail, lining things up between the pages, until the next day, once Bruce cleared the kitchen table, I began sewing the pairs together.

Back in business in my own space, the process began of putting the pairs with other pairs.

There are some pretty scary "matches" in that pile! More mismatches, and pretty soon, well maybe that's an exaggeration, more like diligence if I'm honest, the pairs go with other pairs and it ends up looking like this:

I've now added six more rows to this with the total number of pieces being 512. I'm thinking this is where I'm going to stop.

Setting that project aside on Saturday,  there was need for another Baxter blanket. As in immediately. I don't know if all little dogs have sensitive ear,s but ours sure does. Baxter went scurrying back to the sewing room when Bruce began using either the jigsaw, or bandsaw, cuddling up in the bottom of the curtains for some comfort. Well, I had some fabric left over from another project, so I put this together using it. Notice how nicely it all lined up because it did not stay this way for long.

Adding borders enlarged it, followed by backing it with this crazy soft fabric called Minky. I mean seriously soft, almost silk-like, but fuzzy. Before putting the back on, however, I decided to quilt the top. Normally that would have been just fine, but for reasons still unknown to me, when I attached the special foot, the stitches were minuscule no matter what setting I used.  Ever the optimist, I kept thinking it would start sewing properly so I kept going. Yeesh...that was a mistake. It pulled it all out of square with the stitches so small I could never rip them out. Nonetheless, Baxter is happy with it just the same.

Amazing how fast he moves when he gets into his back rubbing routine. :)

In other news, our darling neighbor Regina, who I wrote about here, slipped in her kitchen and broke her femur three weeks ago. Stopping by yesterday following church, we were thrilled to see she is her same old feisty self, just with a walker for the time being. Talking on the phone to Corrine in Alabama, later in the day, she remarked that if anyone can get over this, it is Regina. I couldn't have agreed more! Corrine, btw, is doing really well, participating in all of the activities, and staying healthy for a 90 year old. That makes me happy.

So, things are back to normal around here, at least until the holidays. See what I mean?

He's working on his next project, beginning in a matter of weeks in Plano, TX, a suburb of Dallas.

Our friend Irene made a comment about one of my blog posts, thanking me for sharing, "the fabric of life." Wouldn't that make a great name for a blog? I wish I'd thought of that!!

Happy that the windows are wide open,

Gail

p.s. you can imagine how all those bits of thread show up on my floor now...

p.p.s. Cool video of the give away of the Quilts for Pulse tragedy.