Bits and Pieces, May 6, 2021

Turkey Tracks: May 6, 2021

Bits and Pieces, May 6, 2021

Well!

Somehow my post I thought I published May 1, didn’t get posted. In part because wordpress now puts all drafts in a separate place, not on my main listing of all my posts.

I can now say that along the way of all my clean-up/clean-out projects I pulled a muscle in my upper back that has been REALLY painful. AND, I used a water bottle for heat, wrapped it in a towel, and it felt so, so good. But it blistered my upper back. Who knew?

Today is the first day I haven’t been in a lot of pain, and that feels really great.

So, I mailed the big log cabin, “Peaceful,” and I’ll post final pics when it arrives at my niece’s home next Monday—hopefully, God Willing and the Creek Don’t Rise.

BUT, I did get “Bokey” quilted on the longarm, and here it is, getting its binding installed:

I was going to quilt with an interesting geometric pantograph, but my longarm wouldn’t hold to the line and kept jumping off in really ugly ways, so I stopped, took out those stitches, went to the front of the machine and quilted freehand, which I actually like to do. This episode is one of the reasons I am trading this machine and getting a new one—which has a hopping foot that will move upwards when it encounters fabric thickness.

But, I really like how my quilting came out, so it’s all good:

You will see why I chose this warm gold colored thread when I show you the quilt with its backing.

Everything is so green and lush outside! The lettuce in my cold frame is ready to be eaten now:

The daffodils have just been beyond glorious this year. And this is the time of year when I vow to plant more, and I chuckle as I always wonder why I ordered more bulbs when fall and planting time rolls around. Down in the meadow, there are hundreds and hundreds of daffodils now. I planted them the first fall—in 2004–so it’s been 17 years as of June.

The raspberries I planted last spring are THRIVING. They have sent up shoots all over the place. And I’m spending time today getting the weeds out of the strawberries—to the left of the raspberries. They just run loose in that space, and last year I filled two gallon bags for the freezer.

And I’ve mowed twice.

I need to do massive weeding—but the black flies are in full force at the moment. So, I wait for a breeze rather than slavering myself with something natural (peppermint essential oil, for one thing) that will repel them.