Let the quilting begin!

This morning, I woke up to a return of nasty head cold symptoms!  I was so sure it was gone for good!  Well, I'd already reserved the room at the recreation center for 9 am so I had to get there to pin the geometry quit.  Here it is laid out on the floor after I had it all pinned together. While I was stretching to get the center pinned--being 5'2" makes it a little difficult to reach the center of anything, believe me.  lol--I began just sticking in the safety pins and not closing them. (If you already know this tip, you have permission to skip to the next paragraph. :)  )  When I had a row pinned, I went back with my stylus and closed all the pins in the row.  Why haven't I done this before!  (Hand slap to forehead!) I discovered that my left hand, not holding the stylus, could keep smoothing the quilt as I pinned across the row.  I hope I've done a better pinning job on this quilt than I've had in the past.

And here's the back that I struggled with the other day.  I think it looks pretty good and it's a good contrast to the dark colored top.  I even used most of the pinwheel blocks across the center, and still had enough left over to make into a little doll blanket.  

Yesterday, I made it to my LQS and bought thread for both the geometry quilt and the embroidered bee quilt, so I'm ready for that when the time comes. I even found 2 1/2 yards of fabric on sale that  I can use for the back of the bee quilt along with leftovers of the fabrics I used for framing, sashing, and bordering the embroidered blocks.  I'll make up the back another time.  I want to get the quilting started on the geometry quilt first.  I'm still waiting for the circular ruler to arrive--maybe today--so I can begin.  If it doesn't come today, I have lots of other things to do while I wait.  

Since I traveled as far as Rice Lake, I went a little further north to one of my favorite garden nurseries to see if they had the bushes I want to plant, replacing the old maple tree we had removed earlier this summer. Lucky me!  They had many Winterberry bushes in stock and I came home with one guy and two ladies.  They should be very pretty with their red berries all winter.  These are photos I got off the web:

Winterberry bush with berries not yet ripe

Winterberry as I expect it to look in our WI winters

When I went to the register to pay for the three bushes, I questioned the total price and the clerk said they were 40% off!  Win/win for me! On the way home, I saw signs advertising mums at the Mennonite Farmer's Market so I had to stop by. I got 3 HUGE mums for less than $10 each!  Triple win for me!  

Yesterday was a very good day for me, in so many ways. I have the bushes and the flowers sitting on the front walkway and am waiting for the dirt guy to come and deliver topsoil for the planting bed and to reposition the large rocks that were moved. Then I can get in there and get my planting done before my spring bulb order arrives in a few days.

I just have to get over this nasty cold so I can get outdoors and do some fall cleanup and planting. I love gardening all summer but especially enjoy working outdoors in the cool, dry days of fall.  I hope you're having a wonderful day yourself!