Lazy Summer Days

What have I been up to? Really, nothing but reading good books. It has been record breaking hot here in the Northwest. Yesterday was 108 degrees. Unheard of around these parts where the natives, like me have webbed feet from the cool rain! We aren't prepared for this kind of heat for the most part and don't know how to function in it. Me? I just read. I found a couple of good Authors/books I'd like to share. Marie Bostwick wrote  A single thread and a thread of truth which I loved so I thought I would try another of hers, River's Edge. Great read and I highly recommend it. The other by one of my favorite authors, Debbie Macomber is the first in the Dakota series and it was also great. The third was a book by Beverly Lewis called the Shunning and I read it in one day!  When I was a little girl, I would read when things were troubling me, if I was sad or lonely as I was often, growing up with siblings who were out of the house when I came along. Mom said when my best friend and I would fight, we'd each take an end of the couch and a book and ignore each other. So reading has been my friend and confidant forever and I love when I can go back and immerse myself in good books. NOW, to find the second book in that Dakota series. I have the third, but have to keep looking for the second one! The library doesn't have it, Darn. 

Back to reality today, I have ripe plums and have to make jam so I have to get my head out of the books and get to work. Grab a good book and enjoy!

The dining fairies aren't with me!

I have to be on somebody's list and I don't mean a Christmas list, either. A few weeks ago, I met some friends at Applebee's for dinner. I sent my "rare" steak back because it was so done, I almost couldn't get the fork in it. When it came back, same thing. The waiter had me cut it in front of him so he could make sure it was good and rare. He even laughed. Everyone else in my party was almost finished eating at this point so I just declined further fixes and asked for a doggy bag to take it home to Maggie. (I hate over done meat)! To make matters worse, the waitress who cleared the table, dropped the entire tray on my lap. Someone had something with red sauce of some kind and it spilled all down the front of me and onto my slacks. (new slacks at that).   To make it right, they gave me two $10.00 gift certificates. (which by the way, didn't even pay for the pants which it turns out were ruined by that awful red stuff).

Fast forward a few weeks, a quilting buddy wanted to meet for lunch and I have these gift certificates so I said let's go to a different Applebee's just to improve my luck from last time.

I ordered a salad, enough for the steak thing! I had eaten about 1/4 of the salad when I bit down on something real hard and broke my tooth. I took the offending "hard thing" out of my mouth and it was a piece of fiesta ware type pottery. Applebee's uses these kinds of plates, the piece in my mouth was red, my plate was purple.  We called management and she was just appalled. She said they had broken a dish in the kitchen and thought they had got it all cleaned up. NOT! Well, I filled out an incident report, didn't make a big deal of it and left. Two days later, the insurance company called and told me to go ahead and go to the dentist, pay for the appointment and THEN, after they see the bill and determine IF it is a valid claim, they will issue a check to me. Such a deal, huh? Not to mention the time to take off work to go to the dentist. I think I am living under a dark cloud  as far as meals out go. SO, next week, to the dentist (I just had my check and clean two days before this fiasco)!  

I should just stay home and quilt, don't you think!

Baby quilt

Another Finish!

My best friend's son and DIL had a baby girl and I finished this quilt for her. I used prints from the Lakehouse line and  cut the letters out of a panel. I was kind of pushed for time so wanted something simple. Grandma is a librarian so I thought the alphabet was appropriate. I was able to find a sweet flannel for the back that has the alphabet on it as well. Lucky find. I tried to get a picture, but the light was wrong and it's too washed out to show the letters. Now back to more UFO's. I'm now working on a batik that I started over a year ago at a WASIQ (Washington State Internet Quilters) retreat. It turned out ok but I had a lot of Oops, intersections that I had to frog stitch and re-sew. That finished, I am now on to the borders. It's a king sized quilt so a handful. I will have my friend at Hattie and Me Quilting do the quilting on "Hattie" her LA machine. She also did the quilting on the baby quilt.

We've had a lazy Sunday, church, then a short nap and dinner with fresh peas and new red potatoes from the garden. Yesterday I picked rhubarb and raspberries and made a pie so nearly the entire dinner was "home grown. We had fish from Costco, so no fishing trip involved.

Blue Ridge Beauty

It's going to be 90 degrees today so I got up early even though it is a day off. I took Miss Maggie for a long walk and enjoyed all the flowers and plants in yards as I walked. I then came home and watered the garden (at least the part HRH didn't have time to do before he left. I picked a few pea pods to munch on, ate a few sweet raspberries and got Maggie soaking wet as she played with the stream of water. We then trimmed her too long ears and  went in for a little blog reading and quilt planning. 

I have been working on  Blue Ridge Beauty, a pattern of Bonnie Hunter's of Quiltville. I found it in Quiltmaker, Jan/Feb 08 and have been collecting blues/creams, cutting and sewing probably since then although it gets slipped in between other projects. Well, 2668 pieces later, 224 blocks are assembled, pinned in bunches of 10 and ready to sew into rows. I am so pleased with how this is going so far. I think I will love it. I won't let myself start the rows, however, until I finish one more UFO. I'm almost finished with a batik top and when I get the back done and ready for the LA quilter, Hattie and Me, I will show a pic.

Do any of you bargain with yourself when it comes to getting things done? I will put a load of laundry in the machine, start the dishwasher (my two favorite slaves) then let myself read blogs or read a chapter of a book I'm reading or quilt. This way, I get to do what I want and accomplish what I must as well.

I'm going to have a relaxing, although productive day. I hope you do to. Make it a good one.

Carline