Garden Party

Every quilt has a personality: bold, quiet, happy, soothing.  Often times quilts can also invoke a sense of place or event.  This quilt makes me think of a garden party--streamers floating in the breeze, cupcakes arrange on pretty platters, children playing on the lawn in the sunshine.  Definitely a happy quilt, this one.  

 The top was made by D (on the right).

A party in a garden is sure to include flowers, so that was the theme of the quilting.  Garden Party will go to a young woman recently diagnosed with cancer that D and her mom know.  May its warmth give her comfort as she goes through her treatments and may its happy colors and pattern cheer her heart.  

Haiku Happiness

I am not a poet (nor the daughter of a poet).  In fact, words can be a struggle for me, which is why I often need time to put my thoughts together.  There is a type of poetry I love, though, and that is haiku.  I love that it has a framework the words must fit in.  I love that it is a very short poem so words must be chosen carefully in order to have the impact the poet desires.  They are often playful, but can be very serious and beautiful.  As an expression of my appreciation for haiku, I decided to write a haiku in its honor:

Five, seven, five--form

Musings--beauty, joy, sorrow

Create word pictures. 

Spring Vacation

My hubby's work keeps him very busy, so when vacation times come around, it is always a treat for both of us.  Happily, we are both of a quiet nature.  If I had married a high adventure type of guy, I would be in real trouble. :-)  We also share the challenge of tummy issues, so travel is something we don't do very often.  So what do two quiet people do on vacation?

Hubs took opportunity before the summer heat sets in to do some things in the yard and garage that he can't get to on a regular weekend.  He also took some time to work on paperwork in preparation for meeting with a financial planner in the next few months.  Retirement is approaching and we want to be as prepared as possible.  I am so thankful that he is mindful of things both short term and long.  He also took care of a few small honey-do's.  Thank you, dear husband. :-)

I kept the housework to a minimum and didn't do any work on current quilting projects.  Instead I took some time to play around with a quilt design program I got a few weeks ago called EQ7 (Electric Quilt).  This program has been around a while, but they just recently released a version for Mac. Since it is built on a PC platform, I find it to be not as intuitive and a little more clunky than most Mac programs, but it will make drafting quilts so much easier and faster than pencil and graph paper.  

We also took time, as we do most vacations, to watch a movie together.  Our selection this time was Still Mine.  Growing older gives one an appreciation for the love stories of older characters.  This one was well done, and we both enjoyed it. 

On Thursday we hung out a bit at our local library. 

Friday night was guy's night as husband and sons took in a minor league baseball game.  I kicked back and watched a movie at home.  

On Saturday we headed out to the country for a family wedding.  With the recent rains, the countryside was nice and green, making for a lovely drive. The wedding was simple and the reception laid back, and we had opportunity to catch up with some of the family we hadn't seen in years.  There were even a couple of uninvited guests that stopped by.  

As we drove, we came through an area where there were some of the big wind turbines.  That is the first time I have actually seen them in person.  Though I am not a fan of wind energy, I did find the turbines rather fascinating in an alien sort of way.  Can't say they add much to the landscape, though.  

Sunday it was home again and back to the regular routine.  It was a great week, and we both look forward to his next vacation.