The dreaded garden got'cha

I thought I had two ripe luscious tomatoes today. This is what I could see deep within the bush, on the fence side of the plant, their perfect backsides turned toward me. But when I pulled them out, here's what I found:

I spray and I spray and I look for bugs, and this is what I get, anyway.

Oh, bother.

Huh?

I just got the weirdest email. Back in June another blogger wrote about the Simplicity strip cutting machine. I commented on it and said this:

The only problem I see is that the strip cutter cuts pinked edges. I can never sew an accurate 1/4" seam with pinked edges. I know from experience using jelly roll strips. As for the bias tape maker, you can buy a little doo-dad that folds the strip as you slide it through. A lot cheaper than Simplicity's machine, I'm sure, and quite effective. You get the strip started through the gizmo and pull it along the strip of fabric following closely behind with your steam iron as you move across your ironing board.

Now, today I get an email from a lady who bought one, was dissatisfied with it and returned it. She said she read about it in my blog. The way she put it, it sounded like I wrote this glowing recommendation of the strip cutter and misled her. Duh? I didn't even post about it, just commented on the other blog. And my comment was definitely ambivalent. So I'm very confused. I'm wondering if she followed the other commenters back to their blogs to get their email addresses and griped to them too. I noticed she commented on the original post on the other blog and said just about what she said to me in the email. I also noticed that her profile is blocked so you can't see anything about her.

Have you heard from her?

It truly IS "always something"

Well, we packed off our fourth of July guests (sister-in-law, her husband and her two teen aged sons) on Saturday night after 3 days of visiting and near-constant eating on the teenagers' part. I don't have much experience with teenage boys, but good heavens, can they pack the food away. I don't think we could afford to have them around much. The grocery trip stocking up to feed them for 3 days cost twice my normal weekly bill. It became quite fascinating to watch the food disappear. And, there appears to be an abnormal attachment to catsup going on. They ate it on everything. Don't know what to think about that.

Sunday was abnormally quiet with just the two of us in the house again. I spent a large part of it in a semi-recumbent position, recuperating. It's exhausting to entertain people, even relatives you want to see.

Then, we both had eye appointments today with the ophthalmologist. His was a scheduled checkup, nothing out of the ordinary, but mine was an examination because I realized I wasn't seeing at a distance very well with my current glasses. Since I've only had them 20 months, and since I kept the last pair for four years before my vision changed enough to warrant new glasses (to be honest, I was tired of the frames, my prescription hadn't changed all that much), I was concerned enough to schedule an appointment before the fall, when I was going to anyway.

Well. Turns out I am developing cataracts in both eyes, but the right one was enough to affect my vision. They can still correct my vision to 20/20 now, but when they can't I will be facing cataract surgery. We have no idea when or if that will happen, but the thought has spooked me. I knew something was up when, during the eye check, they show you the letters in a box flanked by two bright light bars at the top and bottom. She kept adjusting the size of the letters but the glare from the lights washed out the text box so that I couldn't read them with my right eye. I could read them with my left eye after some adjustment to the text, but it was hard.

This was one of those situations where I knew too much. I realized that meant I might have cataracts forming, since difficulty seeing in glare from bright lights is a symptom of cataracts. I had to mentally stew on that fact while they stuck the phoropter lens thing-y on my face to determine my glasses prescription (yep, changes in both eyes, but more in the right) and while I waited for the drops to dilate my pupils. Then the doc looked me over and pronounced what I already dreaded.

So now I'm a bit freaked. I need to keep a close check on my vision, and tell her if it deteriorates any more, and take the vitamins and supplements she recommended which may help. (This last item surprised me, because I never have run into an MD before that suggested taking vitamins or supplements of any kind, or actually seemed to have much knowledge about nutrition.) I consulted medical websites, such as Johns-Hopkins, after I got home and found out that a medication that I take may contribute to the formation of cataracts. Something else to discuss with the prescribing doctor next month.

On to brighter topics. On the quilting front, I haven't touched the sewing machine since I got back from Mom's house, but I intend to complete "In Lucinda's Garden" soon. I posted a photo of the Double Delight quilt on Quiltville's Yahoo group and got two comments. I wasn't really expecting a gush of compliments - but was glad two people noticed! And I have two designs burning a hole in EQ waiting for me to start them, as well as five, count 'em - five, tops to quilt for Project Linus. If I wasn't spending so much time watering the flowers and tomato plants, maybe I could get some more sewing done.

Back home

I was out of town for a short visit at my mother's house. It was her birthday, and I wanted to time my summer visit so that I could celebrate with her. We couldn't do that as easily when I was working, so it's a luxury to be able to choose any time I want for a visit.

I gave her the Double Delight quilt for her birthday. Now, you wouldn't think that being given a quilt would be that big a deal, considering that her house is almost as full of them as mine, but she was very emotional - she cried. Then I cried too and everybody got all weepy. She was very touched I would give her the quilt and loved the pattern and colors.

Another thing I bought for her birthday was a pair of shoes. That doesn't sound very spectacular, but we both have shoe buying problems. I wear a large shoe, and she wears a very narrow show. Both end up being hard to find. When she told me that her favorite store had quit carrying the flats she likes in a narrow width, I jumped on the computer and found them at Shoemall. I wish she wanted to learn about computers; she would love online shopping. With her hearing loss, telephone ordering is hard, and retail pickings are pretty slim in my old home town.

No photos of her birthday celebration - she doesn't like to have her picture taken. I don't either, so I completely understand.

Now I'm back home cleaning for company this weekend. For years, we couldn't bribe family to come here. Recently, though, we've been inundated with relatives. Sometimes I wonder if our house is on the way to a good fishing lake or something.

Native intelligence

We spend every evening after supper sitting on the patio, watering the flowers, filling the bird feeders, and watching the panoply of nature around us. Last night, we got a reminder of just how adaptive that natural life is.

One of the faucets on the back of the house has a slight leak no matter how hard you tighten the shutoff. It hardly drips at all, once every few minutes, if at that. It's the kind of small problem everyone has but doesn't hurry to fix. I didn't know until last night that someone had figured out how to benefit from that drip.

This little fellow sits in the dogwood tree until a large enough drop of water has formed on the end of the quick-connect nozzle. Then he flies over, perches and has a drink! Then it's back to the dogwood tree until another drop has collected. This time of year the water in the birdbath gets pretty hot in the sun. This black-capped chickadee has figured out how to get a nice cold sip.

On another bird front, I wasn't aware that a northern mockingbird had made a nest in one of our japonica bushes in the corner of the yard beside my neighbor's driveway. For one thing, I didn't know they nested this late. And all spring a pair of mockingbirds, probably this pair, harassed me in my side yard, so I thought the mockingbird families were all grown and gone.

Last week, I asked the lawn guy to trim those bushes because they had grown tall enough to block visibility when my neighbor backed out into the street. When I went over to pick up a few clippings after he had left, I found a bird's nest in the bush, now only 4 or 5 inches below the shorn top. I wasn't sure what kind of bird it was but was afraid the sun was too hot on the little downy hatchlings, so I gathered a few long clipped forsythia branch from the brush pile and spread them on the top of the bush to shade the nest.

The next day I visited the nest to make sure the clippings hadn't withered too much to provide shade. Mama mockingbird did not take kindly to my visit and dive-bombed me. She brushed through the top of my hair on her pass, then perched in the maple tree and began to cuss me out in strong mockingbird terms. I beat a hasty retreat from the side yard.

This morning, I was still worrying about the little birds, so I crept out to check the nest, after making sure the parents weren't around. At least I thought they weren't. This time, she whacked me in the back and was circling around for another pass when I hurried back to the house. I don't need to be concerned about the babies - these are diligent parents!

Latest quilts

First, the Quiltville mystery, which is finally bound and will be my mother's birthday present this weekend. I like the blue border and brown binding. It brought some of the less prominent colors out into the edges and balanced the color distribution. Love the quilting. It's a panto design that the longarmer suggested. It's just perfect.

This is one of two little quilts I made from a jelly roll, a charm pack and some neutrals from my stash. Nothing special here - just quilted in the ditch. I'm happy about how it turned out. I'm also happy I have a small quilt on hand if someone I know is having a baby. That's where its' companion went - as a baby gift for my lawn guy's son and daughter-in-law.

This is a copy of a quilt I saw in the local quilt shop, made from a half yard of the red fabric, a jelly roll and neutrals from my stash again. Love the colors and the little blue whirligigs.

This is the back. I bought a length of the orange fabric and forgot that the quilt would come out wider than 42"! So I added the stripe. Very dashing, I think.

This is BlockCentral's 2009 BOM. I reduced the scale by a 1/3, and made a lap quilt. The fabrics reminded me of the colors on my calico cat, so I named the quilt Molly.

And this is what I found for the backing. The little calico cat standing up on its hind feet reminds me of my kitty.

Can you see the cats quilted in the border?

Finally, here's my disappointment quilt. I loved the look of the sample at SuzGuz Designs, bought her pattern (didn't really need it, but want to support independent quilt designers) and hunted down the exact fabric on Ebay. I enlarged it a bit to queen size and it went together like a charm.

Then the problem happened. I took it to a local quilting service I had used in the past and had it done with an allover larger meander pattern. The quality of the quilting is so horrible it broke my heart. The tension is all off, and the stitch lengths aren't anywhere near regular. It looks awful. Here's an example. That's a 4" x 2" patch:

There are 18 stitches in that line from one side of the patch to the other. The stitches are a quarter inch long. That, and the puckering where the machine tension was off (there are several spots where you can see the front thread pulled to the back - it's really bad), ruin the quilt. I went ahead and bound it because it's a nice wide lightweight quilt we can use on our bed, but I loved the fabric and pattern so much, I want to cry when I get it out of the closet.

I want to requilt it so badly, but probably can't find a longarmer to tackle it since it's already bound. I would pick out all the stitches, but it would take weeks. Just chalk it up to experience, I guess, and never darken that shop's door again (and warn others locally about them).

There are two more quilts waiting hand sewing on the bindings - more later, and a picture of my version of "In Lucinda's Garden" when I get further along.

First tomatoes of the year

Here they are, happily esconced on my kitchen windowsill, waiting to become a primary ingredient in tomorrow's BLT's for brunch.