New Life

We planted a baby oak tree today to replace the grandfather oak lost in the tornado. It won't grow huge in our lifetimes but it's an investment in the future and in our confidence that someday it will be massive and sheltering for some other family.

And as long as the tree guys were coming, they brought several more red maples for the back yard.


As with the oaks, it's going to take awhile, but even a little more fall color will make me happy and remind me of the flaming hillsides back home in northwest Pennsylvania. I don't care what New Englanders say about their home turf, the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania have the best fall color anywhere.

And so it goes...

Another new beginning of a quilt variety:


I think we've pretty well established that I'm an acolyte of Bonnie Hunter, and of her super ideas for dealing with scraps. And so, here is another scrap quilt underway. This one is her braid with cornerstones. There's lots of sewing yet to do in this quilt, but this will be one to peck away at on sewing evenings with friends and at quilt retreats. And maybe even on my own.

I really like these scrappy projects--they use up bits of fabric I've collected and they make me feel virtuous, making something from nothing. Well, about five drawers worth of nothing...

It's also just so much fun to see the strange bedfellows marching next to each other in the braids.


The dogs-behind-the-Chinese-restaurant fabric sits next to a bright basketweave, which is next to my all-time favorite Smithsonian repro (From the Rising Sun line--it came in four colors, you know, and I still have some of all four). Then there's one of those pesky fruit fabrics I'm STILL trying to get rid of, and then ...sliced green peppers. Who says they can't all play nicely together??

Even the lights make for some wacky combos.


I think I'm going to be pretty happy with this one, and I'll post my progress, no matter how slow it may be.