What a busy day!

After Don and I had our morning coffee (Diet Coke for him) and discussion of all the world's woes, I got going on laundry and geared up for a bit of snow shoveling.  Jo and her Golden Retriever will be coming home on Friday and she always lets Fergie into the back yard as soon as they get here, to go pee and so forth. Since we're going to be gone on Thursday and Friday, I realized that Fergie won't be able to get off the deck to do her business, so out came the snow shovel.  

It's warm (40 degrees F or so--warm is a relative thing!) and foggy out so these pics are rather dark. The first is what I saw when I opened the door to the deck--This snow is about knee deep on me.

Maybe you can tell better from the snow shovel stuck in the snow. 

This is the pathway/tunnel when I'd got to the edge of the deck. And that was enough shoveling for me. Fergie will have to make her own way around the back yard!  I have to remember to tell Jo to bring her snowshoes so she can go around the yard as well. Knee deep snow is a bit difficult to walk around in.  

In the quilting area, I've been working away at the Veteran's quilt--slow but steady.  I have all the quilting finished but for the narrow white stop border.  I think I'll do a series of simple ribbon-like lines the length of the border. In the square blocks, I did a very simple crosshatch, but in the light colored blocks, I did a loopy pattern, free hand.

This is the very center of the quilt.

The back of red-white-blue stars.  I have enough of this fabric for the binding as well.

This is the cable design I used in the navy border. 

When I finish this post, I'll go down and get the white border finished, trim up the quilt, and get the binding strips sewn on, ready for hand stitching tonight.

Speaking of hand stitching, I've been making great progress on my Year in the Garden embroidery. I finished the April block.  I used peachy colors for the roses and they show up better than in the photo.

Instead of the lady bugs that Jennifer stitched, I used a bright green floss and made them Japanese beetles since they attack my rose bushes without mercy. You can see the beetles in this closeup.

I'm also nearly finished with the May block. I only have to do the bugs and this time I think I'll make them orangey red and black Asian beetles which we have so many of where I live. These bugs are pesty and stinky but they don't damage my flowers like the Japanese beetles do.

So, that's what I've been up to. Tomorrow we go to Madison for a quick visit with Dan and then Johanna will be here for the weekend, so I'm not sure how much time I'll be spending in the sewing room.