Tuesday, July 19, 2011

steamy hot

Hard to imagine how cold and snowy it was at the beginning of this year, when we are in the middle of a heat wave! It really seems like two different worlds. This beautiful water lily spent the winter in a cube of ice and now is putting on a spectacular display--

It seems almost artificial, but I swear, it's the real deal.

A big thunderstorm moved through at mid-day, which helped keep the hottest temps at bay for awhile. I was at home, and came up from the basement for a breather and found dark skies and stormy weather. I stood out on the porch for a bit, and could hear continuous low rumbling thunder, which gradually got louder, then lightning flashes and wind. Some of the lightning seemed almost purplish, I don't know whether I was seeing things or if that was real. It is pretty awesome to just experience that amount of thunder for such a long time. The storm moved on through in time for me to get out and meet Brita for lunch at the Good Earth in Roseville, a great restaurant that has many vegetarian options.

Yesterday I was outside quite awhile in the morning, trying to get a good picture of my new quilt. It is quite a production, made less enjoyable by 90% humidity and 90 degrees. Oh well, I think it helped steam any wrinkles out of the hanging quilt!

This is a hard quilt to show clearly, it is kind of muted and the scenery blocks just come out looking like an abstract design when shown in the whole big picture. Probably would turn out better with a pro photographer. I'm glad to have this much done, and a draft of the directions being proofed and double checked. The next quilt is on the frame, and with luck and some stick-to-it-iveness, I will get the quilting done yet today and the binding started.
I have to give a shout out to my friend and neighbor, Deb Lewis, who did me a big favor and did the hand stitching on this binding in order to save me a bit of time. Deb is one of our fine state employees who has been told to sit home and twiddle her thumbs while our politicians mess up at the capitol.

I hope you are staying cool wherever you are!

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