Forging ahead

Block 1B, originally uploaded by Marty52.

I'm blogging this using Flickr's "Blog This" feature, so we'll see how this goes!

Three more seams done. I especially like the gray and purple one in the center section. I'm out of practice at doing seam treatments so it has taken a bit to get back into the swing of things. I added my name as a seam treatment, since I wanted it in the lower right hand corner of the quilt. There's probably a tradition that the quilt shouldn't be signed till you are done with it but I didn't think of that till I was almost done with my name.

I noticed as I was stitching that I had missed a crossover on the green ribbon, so I tried to fix it and only succeeded in making it worse. Oh, well... that's what buttons, beads and lace were made for - covering up the mistakes! ;0)

We have been having glorious weather here in Phoenix. It was in the 80's on Sunday and it was fabulous. We got out and worked in the yard off and on. More off for me since I am so out of shape! Got some pruning done and dug up some seedling mulberry trees that were in the gardens (they sprout everywhere). I also pruned up the ginormous 50 year old junipers that hover over the front walk so the mailman doesn't get his hat knocked off while Glenn mowed the lawn. It was soooo nice to get outside without the stifling heat!

This year we hope to rework the front yard... or at least get a start on it. We need to remove a couple of trees that have seen better days, plant a couple of new ones and decide if we are going to put a small patio out front and enlarge the sidewalk. We have to think long and hard about it because anything we do needs to really enhance the house so it increases in value. We won't be retiring in it so anything we do has to be done right.

The next thing on the agenda is to figure out the ultimate fate of the kitchen. It's driving me crazy and I've decided I need to start seriously thinking about it. Now I just have to find an online kitchen planning tool to play with. Anybody used one that they really liked??