Gosh - Has It Almost Been a Month?

Yes, it has, and I guess it's time to make a post.  I have been so remiss the past few weeks in reading blogs and making comments and I apologize.  I think that now that summer is here (or almost here), I've been spending more time outside than I have inside.  So I've been a bad blogger.  But I do have a finish:

Martha Jones 1792

35 ct. Vintage Examplar

DMC Threads

(http://samplers-berlin.com)

I love how she came out and the colors.  What I didn't like were the tulips in the border.  For some reason they gave me headaches!  I love how the words "Paradife" and "difgrac'd" are spelled.  I've never seen that in a sampler - replacing an 's' with an 'f'.

I also liked that there were some different stitches in this piece - like the Algerian Eye baskets and the satin stitching.  There were a couple caveats in the chart though.  There were a couple colors called for that were never used - as far as I could tell.  The blue bird in the tree was suppose to be a different color, but as blue was called for in the list of threads, yet I never came across the symbol in the chart for it,  I made the bird blue.  There was also one other color called for that was never used - 407. Some of the symbols were also a little hard to differentiate also, but all in all, it was a fun stitch.

On the quilting side, I've managed to stay on top of the Cotton Club blocks, and finished up the six that I had sitting around.   Good thing too because the next month of blocks came today:

I love working on these blocks, and I think that I only have a couple more months and the quilt can be put together.

I've also been working on the Chippewa Nine Patch quilt here and there:  All the strips have been made into nine patch blocks:

And they're ready to be assembled into this - I only (yes, only) need 25 of them:

They'll all look a little different depending on how I put the individual nine patch blocks together.  I can't wait to get through these so that I can put the quilt together.  The rest of the fabric looks like this (sorry for the dark pic):

And last but not least, the Phebe quilt.  No, I really haven't started it, but I have traced out all the pieces:

Not the best picture - sorry.  But by my estimation, there are about 209 pieces in just the very center of this quilt.  You hear that Margaret and Cari????  OY!  I think that I've bitten off more than I should have with this.  Because after this, there is another border that is appliqued.  I don't know what the third month will bring, but I'm breaking out in beads of sweat just thinking about it!!

So that's what I've been up to the past month or so.  Part of the reason I haven't been parking my behind the computer so much is that last month I celebrated another birthday (thank you again to all you that remembered) and even though it wasn't a milestone (that's a couple years off), I just decided that I sit too much gazing into the wonderful world of the internet being enabled and getting myself into trouble.  So, I've been doing a lot of this:

Last week I walked 33 miles.

And a lot of this (until I blew out one of my tires):

And eating things like this - yum:

Salmon Fruit Salad w/Raspberry-Maple Vinaigrette

And I'm not going to make this into a cooking blog, but this dressing is wonderful and non-fat:

Raspberry-Maple Vinaigrette

1/2 cup raspberry vinegar

1/4 cup of maple syrup

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. fresh ground pepper

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 tsp. Worcestershire Sauce

1 Tbl. Dijon Mustard

Put it all in a lidded container and shake!  This stuff is great - low fat and big on taste - you don't need a lot!!

So that's what I've been up to and why I haven't been a good blogger.  I find that getting up and taking Bailey for his morning walk,  I don't feel like sitting down after and I then take off on my own either on foot or bike.  You can only cover so much distance or go so fast with a dog that likes to visit every mailbox in the neighborhood!  LOL  My son has also been getting me to do PX-90 with him.  We won't talk about that one!  I hope to goodness that he never makes a video of me doing it and puts it on YouTube.  I'd never be able to live it down.  So anyway, all of this is good for me, but not good for blogging obviously!  But I will get back to it and catch up with everyone.  There are some days - like today when it's going to be 95 - that unless its early morning or late evening, you don't want to be out in the heat.  So today it's catch up time.

Hope that everyone has a great week!  And thank you for all the wonderful comments that you leave.  I love hearing from everyone!