New books

I am feeling the urge to read novels again, after a long stretch where only non-fiction kept my interest. I came home with four books today and am looking forward to digging into them. The first is "March" by Geraldine Brooks. I had never heard of this book until Morah blogged about it. Since it concerns the father of the "Little Women" brood, one of my favorite books as a child, I thought I would give it a try. After one chapter, I am hooked by Brooks' prose, although I know this is a book that will make me cry.
For relief, I picked up "Round Robin" by Jennifer Chiaverini. I have only read one of her series, "The Runaway Quilt", and that one quite a few years ago, so I will be eager to find out if the others in the series are as good as I remember the first being. Why did I pick this one instead of the others she has written? I think I liked the quilt on the cover!
Tracy Chevalier's book "Burning Bright" was added to the stack, even though my opinion of her books has been mixed. I loved "Girl with a Pearl Earring" (so much so that I have never seen the movie - I don't want my memories tainted) and also "The Lady and the Unicorn". My views of her other books are mixed. I frankly thought "Falling Angels" was a mess; the plot was sloppy and far-fetched, and relied too much on heavy contrivances. "The Virgin Blue" just didn't make much of an impression on me at all; I can hardly remember reading it. We'll see what the latest one is like.
Finally, I picked up "Portrait of an Unknown Woman" by Vanora Bennett, although I'm not familiar with her. It concerns the household of Sir Thomas More, one of my big heroes, during the throes of the Protestant Reformation. It is woven around the two paintings of the More household that were commissioned of Hans Holbein, and the subtle differences between them that may conceal a mystery. I've already started "March", so I'll read it first, but this one will be the next.

These will get me through the spring, but I have to reserve some sewing time too!

First day of spring

For the first day of spring, some outdoor pictures:

First, the japonica (flowering quince) and forsythia on the back corner of my lot. As you can see, they are almost completely finished blooming, although these are what you think of as spring flowering bushes. Here in the southeast, everything starts so early. One state north, my mother's forsythia is just now hitting its peak, and her japonica is nowhere near blooming. It seems spring rushes through so fast here, and before you know it we are in the dog days of summer.This is the patch by the side fence that I had almost completely dug out last fall. It's uphill from the street side where the japonica/forsythia bushes grow, on the left side yard (I'm on a corner). There was an assortment of nondescript bushes and clumps of jonquils and daylilies around the red old-fashioned roses, so much so that you could hardly see the rosebushes, which were the best thing in the bed. You can see them leafing out in a row at the back near the fence. The nandina was there so I saved it and planted another at the far end (cut off the photo, sorry). The rest, except for the roses, were yanked out (thank you, lawn guy! I don't know what I would do without the man who mows and does yard work) and replaced by a row of Japanese hollies for all-year green. Since all the spring bulbs were dormant, I didn't know where they were and figured I'd correct their placement this year. The jonquils and iris were in just the right spot, between the roses and behind the new bushes, but there was a patch of daylilies that was threatening to completely take over a holly and a rose bush. So, I crawled in amongst the mulch yesterday (the DAMP mulch!) and grubbed them out, mostly, leaving a little in the back near the fence to bloom with the iris later.

There were so many daylily bulbs? rhizomes? tubers? whatever they are! that I completed filled a paper grocery sack with the ones I removed. I didn't want them because they can be so invasive and I couldn't find a spot with enough sun that they would bloom well. The ones I left may be removed later if they don't perform. I know that next year I will have to grub out another batch because they spread so quickly. In the fall, I will buy a bucket-o-bulbs and add to the plantings between the roses. Maybe some grape hyacinth and different jonquils. It's nice to have some spring color. They would be good between the bushes in the front also.

Luckily, the daylilies I removed won't go to waste because my neighbor across the stress (a retired gentleman and avid yard-putterer) took them to add to his garden. He asked me what color they were. Who knows, since they would never bloom for me!

And, my little evergreen patch in the front corner of the fence that the lawn guy planted last fall. I may add some spring bulbs here too, if there's enough room. I think they will fit around the arbovitae.This spot was a tangle of japonica and forsythia, always overgrown and overtaken with weeds. Since lawn guy is getting up in years, he pulled in his son do to the digging. It took them several hours to extract all the roots and detritus from the bushes. There were iris that never bloomed for lack of sun, which I transplanted to the side yard, jonquil and some blue bell-shaped flowers given to me by my neighbor, which I saved; they are now coming up on the right side near the fence. The clump on the right edge obscuring the bush is more jonquils which will be moved in the fall.

I also added more azalea in the corner of the back yard under the crape myrtle. This is all such work (and expense)! However, I think my yard looks better than it ever has.

Maternity ward

For several years now, in the time period between the Christmas wreath and the hanging flower basket, I have adorned the hook on the wall outside my den sliding door with a basket containing red silk geraniums, if for no other reason that the weather is dull and dreary and I wanted a spot of color outside I could see from my desk. And, every year I remind myself I must remove the basket before nesting season begins and some opportunistic bird in passing remarks that the basket would be a cracking good place for a home.

Of course, every year I forget.

Almost every spring the occupant has been a mourning dove, for several reasons. First, they have an abnormally low fear of humans. Well, you would have to, to construct your nursery 18 inches from my back door. Then, there is the matter of the sloppy, slap-dash nests they make. In those conditions, the confining shape of the basket has been a definite plus in the construction stability department. And, it's under the eaves, so none of that distracting drip-drip on your head during spring rains while you're trying to incubate your clutch of eggs. Kind of makes my silk flower arrangement look like prime real estate, doesn't it?

So, here's what we have this year:In this photo I've circled the nest area. Enlarged, you can see the mother bird's tail against the left side of the thermometer and her head just peaking over the geraniums, wondering what the blazes crazy thing the humans are doing now.
Since I refuse to live with the den drapes closed for months during the prettiest time of the year, I've taken to slinking through the den past the door very quickly, eyes downcast and not looking her in the face. If you happen to glance up and are nose to beak with her at the glass, she takes on the most alarmed look, and once was reduced to evacuating the nest in a panic. She only went as far as the dogwood tree at the end of the patio, and then dropped down to stand on the concrete with the most pitiful expression (yes, birds do have expressions) until she was sure it was safe enough to go back. It made me feel rather like one of those home invasion criminals you read about in the papers. I am not going to be the cause of a failed incubation, so I make sure not to disturb her enough to leave again.

If I stand quietly in the kitchen doorway, I am far enough away from the glass for her to be comfortable, even though she seldom takes her eyes off me. I can then watch her arrange and rearrange herself on the nest, shifting every few hours to face outward or inward, but always keeping the humans in her sight.

One hardly has the heart to remind her that it's my house, for pity's sake, and the yard is full of trees and bushes which would have worked admirably for setting up housekeeping. It's bad for the nerves to camp on your enemy's doorstep. Nevertheless, there she is and there she will stay until the family takes wing and I can watch them grow up in my yard.

It's still better than the robin who built on the front door wreath, causing me to give up use of the main door to the house for two months.

You know more than you think you know

People's minds are amazing. We have enormous storage capacity but not necessarily a good indexing and retrieval system. I was reminded of this while talking to my sister-in-law, a beginning quilter.

As she showed me some of her first projects, I gave her tips and recommendations on planning, calculating, cutting, designing and sewing. At one point, she said "How do you know all this?"

I don't know. . . I just, well, do.

Every time we read a quilting magazine or book, watch a television show or video, every time we look at a quilt display or cruise through our local quilt shop, we are gathering information. Some of it, we're maybe not even consciously aware of. Because we're interested in the subject, our brains grab onto new things and tuck them away for future reference.

It's the getting these facts back out to use that's the problem.

Glorified nine patch

Here's a peek at my next project, a glorified nine patch in blue, green, brown and plum. I might be just a bit nuts to start into a new quilt with curved seams after practically killing myself on the double wedding ring (can't wait to get it back from the quilter's!). This one, however, is quite a bit easier because of the construction.

At first, I assumed that I would sew together the half-melons and then add them to the nine patch centers, much like you add the rings to the center of a double wedding ring. I quickly found out that it was much harder. All those seam allowances at the points got in the way. So -- rip, rip, rip, let's start over. I had been concentrating so hard on the curves that I didn't think about sewing the half-melons onto the centers. Then, voila, you just have 11" square blocks to join in the regular way. Much easier.

After I completed three blocks, I had to document my progress. The colors are lovely, and the design interesting enough even though it's simple. The only thing that may be harder assembling it this way is accurately joining the points. But, you know what? I'm not going to sweat it like I did on the wedding ring quilt. I will pin and be as accurate as I can, but if a point gets a little snipped off, it's not going to make me crazy. With all those seams coming together at the points, you won't see it.

(Wow, who was that person? It didn't sound like the normal obsessive-compulsive me!)

Cat proofing

Tanya blogged about buying new slipcovers and a commenter noted that it was a good way to disguise cat-attacked furniture. I've had a little experience with that myself.
This is my living room couch. It's leather. We bought it about seven years ago, right about the same time we got our cat Molly. See that skirt under the seat cushions? It's not original.

I was at work one Saturday when my husband called me. "You won't believe what Molly is doing." Well, I've had a lot of cats in my life. I knew she could be doing just about anything. "What?" I asked with some trepidation.

"She's digging her back claws into the sofa and pulling herself along the front of it. I can't make her stop!"

I could just visualize what the cat was up to. And I could visualize what it would do to the leather sofa. The nearly new leather sofa.

"Distract her," I replied. Hah.

Over the next week she continued to play her new fun game. Dig those back claws into the front of the sofa, scoot along the rug the length of the furniture. Turn. Repeat.

Next Saturday, I was at the fabric store, a swatch of leather in my hand that we received when we ordered the couch. I was looking for any upholstery fabric that wasn't too stiff to sew on my DSW. I found a piece that was fairly close to the couch color. At home, I cut a pattern from the couch that would follow the lines of the pillows and make a faux skirt on the front.

It's attached by large safety pins to the seat bed under the cushions and to the cambric dust cover under the couch. It sticks out in these pictures because the leather is more reflective and photographs lighter than the actual color, but behind the coffee table you barely notice it.

After I spent an entire afternoon constructing and installing this cat proofing, she never tried to claw the sofa again. Figures.

A surprise in my mailbox

I found the loveliest surprise in my mail today. As I was walking back to the front door, I shuffled through the stack of mail and found this envelope. The stamps were Japanese. It could only be from one person - Tanya!

All the bills and bank statements and magazines were forgotten as I hurried to open it. Yes, there was her name on the return address label. What could it be?

Inside, I found a beautiful little postcard, a sashiko sampler and thread, and some darling stickers. The sashiko looks so intriguing. I think that you do the stab stitch design printed on the sampler, then wash out the ink, much like printed cross stitch patterns here in the U.S. It will make a lovely little pillow for my den. I think I will border it with patchwork, and find a Japanese design fabric for the back.
Thank you so much, Tanya! What a wonderful gift!