When I say this is a large quilt, I mean it! It measures 100" by 120"--and Eleanor Burns (who's pattern I'm working from) calls it a queen. I'd say it's more like a King! I have a queen sized bed and when I laid out the top on my bed, it flowed over the sides and covered the entire mattress--about half way to the floor. I enjoy the challenge of working on it and I think it's going to be beautiful when I'm finished with it, so I hope that it brings in a good amount of money at the auction, and that's what it's all about.
No gardening done by me at my house--my entire focus is on getting this quilt done as soon as I possible can. My dear husband took on one of the flower beds last night and cleared the weeds out of it, but there is so much more to to do. Maybe he'll do another one this weekend ;)
I have bird feeders out in my yard and I keep them filled all year except when the bears are getting ready to hibernate in the fall and when they rouse in the spring. At those times, they'll come into the yard and raid the feeders, they're that hungry. Earlier in the week I filled the feeders again, and I am so pleased at the variety of birds that I'm seeing in the yard. When we moved into the house 7 years ago, there was no landscaping at all--just 1 1/2 acres of grass with a very sickly looking maple tree struggling in the center of the front yard. Don and I have worked like dogs to plant trees and bushes, built sidewalks, created veggie beds and flower beds, built a pergola and patio, etc., and now it looks pretty good. In the beginning, we had no birds--not even a sparrow--and I have yet to see a squirrel in the yard--but each summer, there are more and more. This year, in addition to the gold finches, hummingbirds, and robins who arrived a couple of years ago, I've seen redwinged blackbirds, cow birds, grackels, and yesterday I saw a rose breated gross beak at the sunflower feeder. What a joy to see visible proof that our yard is becoming a wildlife habitat. Here it is:
I kow what you mean about scrunching the fabric of a large or superlarge quilt in your machine. It takes some real muscles sometimes. I'm sure you'll do a great job on it. I want to see a closer picture of the whole thing when you're done. When I was growing up in Wis. we never saw bears except in the dump several miles from our house. Now I understand they are sighted in our old area every so often. I don't feed birds in the summer. I hang plants where the feeders were. The birds are a little confused at first, but they can eat other things. You got a great picture of the rose breasted gross beak. I haven't seen one this year, but they have gone through here in the past, along with Baltimore Oriols. I bet it's been fun watching your place develop. I know you've put a lot of sweat equity into it.
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