Paying attention to my surroundings

Monday night we were driving home from the Lion’s Club Steak Fry.  We happened to pass our old house, which has gobs of peonies out front (and in back, too…).  I said to my husband “You know, we need some peonies at our new house.”

He gave me the long-suffering-my-wife-is-an-idiot look and said “We *have* peonies at our new house.”

Ahem.

Not only do we have peonies, but they are in a really out of the way spot that is hard to see.  Like, right at the end of the driveway next to the mailbox.

Ahem.

So, after noticing them (they weren’t there before, honest…LOL), I decided to take a few photographs of them.

dsc02156 Paying attention to my surroundings

And one of the few blossoms that is open:

dsc02144 Paying attention to my surroundings

I’m glad I know where they are now, I’ll be sure to keep an eye on them.

Yes, I am incredibly unobservant sometimes.  It’s almost embarassing.  I keep reminding the DH that this sort of thing is part of my charm.  He still doesn’t believe.

One last shot:  another 26 Things Scavenger hunt photograph:

Landmark

dsc02160 Paying attention to my surroundings

This beautiful pine tree graces our front yard.  Before the current house was built (about 14-15 years ago), this property was a farmstead.  Somewhere on our 2 acres the remains of an old house and several outbuildings are buried.  I wonder how many years old this landmark of a tree really is — I’m sure it has weathered storms too numerous to count.  It’s getting some rain tonight — it’s raining quite hard at the moment.  Thank goodness!

TTFN-

Suzanne

p.s.  Yes, this post is still part of my attempt to avoid the quilt.  I couched the Madeira around the binding and you know what — it disappears into the ditch created by the binding.  So it was pretty much a waste of time.  Phooey.  Now on to Plan D.  Or maybe it’s closer to about Plan X by now….

Am I Done Yet?

Oy.

I think I’m making this too hard. In fact, I know I am. It’s gotten so bad this week that I have resorted to doing laundry and cleaning the house in order to avoid finishing this quilt.

dsc02122 Am I Done Yet?

Please ignore the phantom chalk lines that appear at the bottom left and bottom right. They were an experiment in potentially trimming the quilt to a funky shape.

Also ignore the yellow pin heads at the top of the quilt. The quilt is pinned onto my design wall. It’s too heavy to stick on it’s own.

You can’t tell in this picture, but the feathers are outlined with a couched-on sparkly madeira thread. You can see a closeup of the small heart in a post from a few days ago.

I’ve wanted to do some beading, or some crystals, or ….something….but I think right now that what I’m doing is trying to embellish for the sake of embellishment. And I most certainly don’t want to fall into that trap.

I’m just worried that as it is, it looks unfinished. Like I just quilted a big heart, and then pebbled around it. I’m worried about that left-hand corner being too big and looking empty. I’ve played with some beading ideas, including a beaded echo of the assymetrical heart motif down in the left-hand corner, but it was looking….stupid….

I’ve had trouble getting a good picture of it that is true to the color and shows off the quilting. The picture above makes it look much brighter than it is — the red wool I used is a very dark red. I’ve thought maybe it needs some more sparkle, but maybe the couched thread is enough.

What I think I’m going to do right now is go couch on some more of the Madeira thread around the inside of the binding. And then I’m going to call it done….unless somebody comes up with some brilliant idea for me. Something brilliant but simple that can be accomplished today or tomorrow, because this crazy thing has to be on it’s way to Kansas City right now! That isn’t too much to ask for, is it?

S

Stop!

For my 26 Things scavenger hunt, technically it’s yesterday’s, I just didn’t manage to get it off the camera and play with it (using Picasa) until just now.

Stop

dsc02097 Stop!

pixel Stop!