One of those seasonal pop-up thunderstorms forced me out of the water yesterday, so I finished sewing my Wee Play charm squares to the white squares! (and what possessed me to put them on the table with the white tablecloth for the picture??!!) Then I cut them apart and pressed them open. (still have the bunny ears to get rid of, though) The more I look at these fabrics, the more I like them. Can't remotely decide which to get for border/binding! Seemed like whichever one I was pressing would be the best one . . .

These are postcards-in-the-making. (is it obvious I'm still on my turquoise/red jag?) I finished all I had in my little project sack upstairs, and now it's time to trim them and finish them up and get them in the mail. I have managed to trace some new ones in spite of last week's fiasco, so there are more to take upstairs for my evening handwork.

Beth is progressing nicely on her new quilt, and when she brings it out here next, I'll try to get a picture of it. She took it to Mississippi when she and Joshua went down to visit his folks for a couple of days and in spite of his mother having been a home ec major, Beth had to explain the quilting in the ditch. They thought she was sewing the pieces of fabric together even though it looked like they were already sewn together. tsk tsk task Guess no quilters in their circle of family and friends, huh?

Our 4th was great, as usual. Lots of good food and good fellowship and then great fireworks! We are so blessed to live in this place.

Yesterday I heard the katydids for the first time, and they make me a little bit sad because they always make me realize our summer is running down.

Gratitudes:

• my sweet family
• my ladies' Sunday School class
• the glories of this earth

Just a quickie morning post when I should be watering the flowers on the porch . . .the above is looking across the driveway one afternoon from one end of the porch where the driveway turns up to go behind the house and the road goes on down to the gate to go up the holler (that's "hollow" for you non-hillbilly folk).

I have been enjoying "lurking" around some blogs and seeing what's happening even though I haven't really had time to comment or post. Somehow so many of you manage to get so much more done than me!

The heat let up for a couple of days, but today it's set to be over 100 yet again. At least the humidity is down a bit, and that really helps. So far Evan is managing to survive the heat while he's drilling and shooting as part of putting a new waterline for a subdivision. And, thankfully, the rheumatoid arthritis is under control at the moment.

I think I mentioned that we performed in a fundraiser for the local museum a couple of weeks ago - done and forgotten. Forgotten, that is, until folks I see at the clinic or the grocery store or wherever who tell me they just saw me on tv - the local cable folks filmed the silly thing and keep using it for filler! We had no idea it was to be filmed. We live in out in the country and are happy to have satellite tv (after several years of no tv) but we have no local programming, so it always catches me offguard when folks talk about seeing us on tv. Various performances, whether actual plays like A Christmas Carol or the annual Christmas concert we sing in, get shown again and again at the right season. It's just a hoot.

Guess what!!! Friday I'm going to the AQS Quilt Exposition in Nashville!!!! It's at the Opryland Hotel, and it is truly an extravaganza!!! It actually begins today, but I can only afford to take off the one day for it. I won't be taking any classes this year, but I sure will enjoy seeing the myriads of quilts from all over the world and all the vendors. One year I took a class from Mary Ellen Hopkins that was wonderful, and one year I took a class from Becky Goldsmith that was also wonderful. It's so cool to see folks that you've previously only seen on tv! Eleanor Burns is usually there, too....Ami Simms....all sorts of people. The quilts themselves are the best part, of course. The creativity and skills displayed are mind-boggling in the extreme!!! You can't touch them, but you can get very close and peer at the fabrics and the stitches and ooh and ahh to your heart's content! There are quilts for everyone's personal preferences - pieced, appliqued, art quilts, vintage quilts, painted quilts, wooden quilts - if you can think of it, I can just about guarantee it will be there. Can't wait!

Just can't seem to focus. It's hot and dry. Then stormy with hard downpours...we're thankful for any rain but wish it would rain slowly so all water could soak into the ground instead of running off. However - Evan did find a few ears of corn for us today - they're small but still fairly well filled out with juicy kernels thanks to those last 2 bouts of rain. We really enjoyed them. I've played with cutting out pieces for a Crazy Eights quilt and also tracing some embroidery and words for more quilted postcards - AAACCCKKKK! Meant to scan the last two before sending them off via USPS!! Can't believe I forgot. Again. The ones I just sent had designs from Powdermill by Diane Arthurs. The ones I'm working on now are designed by me with free embroidery traced from Needlecrafter designs and then words of my choosing. Hopefully I'll manage to scan one or two of them before mailing.

Found this applique block when I was hunting a needle - I added little beads after doing the blanket stitch. They look kind of cool. Just something fun to play with. Here's another . . .with no beads . . . yet

Sorry they're so wrinkly - they just got lost in a bag of odds and ends.

Blessings of the day:

my beloved husband and daughter and son-in-law

rain

good friends who asked us to go to Huntsville with them to see a local production of Nunsense - a few years ago, OUR theatre group did it, and I was the Reverend Mother and my friend was Sister Mary Hubert. We had a blast!

It's summertime!

It's summer, full-blown summer! I want to know how that happened since Christmas was only a couple of weeks ago and then we had that big freeze here in Tennessee that did so much damage....no spring, really.....but now the temps are in the 90's and it's D R Y (we're umpteen inches below where we should be in rainfall).

AAACCKKKK!

Seems like I've only spent a few brief periods at the pool and yet I've been watering my few flowers like mad (fortunately we have free spring water) and watching things die anyway. The farmers around here are really suffering - the beef farmers are already feeding hay because of the lack of pasture (and a pitiful hay crop in the works for the current year) and the row crop farmers are seeing tiny seedlings and plants die for lack of moisture. Our corn is tasseling at about 3 feet in height - no ears....the beans won't bloom or have beans without rain..

Things have continued to be really crazy at work - sick folks and vacationing folks - just staffing holes everywhere that have to be filled by already busy people. And insurance companies get crazier and crazier in their journey to paying fewer and fewer claims and those at lower and lower rates. Times are really tight for physicians.

But here's a lovely sight . . . the lowly marigold in all its beauty. And, you know what? Both Evan and I love the scent of marigolds, even though most folks do not. The scent is kind of pungent and reminds me of tomatoes and geraniums....which remind me of the smell of electricity - as in from the transformer of my brother's electric train.

The tablecloth is one from my childhood . . . and it was old then . . . so it probably came from the 40's. I got the little blue jar in a set at Pier I - I LOVE colored jars, vases, etc...and these tiny ones came to about $1 each in the set.

OH - almost forgot! The new wren nest is not in my old backpack but in my hanging pot of lantana!!!!