Life in the fall...

The leaves are dropping on the grass. I hate to rake but Victoria loves it. Perhaps I'll send her out tomorrow! I'm glad I was able to get my bulbs planted on Saturday as it's been overcast and grey since then. My lovely gladioulus plants never bloomed; the summer was too wet. I didn't have to water my lawn *once* this summer.

The winter pansies and the fuschia are still going strong. I'm not sure what I will do with all the fuschia. I think most of them are hardy and will winter over but I'm sure being in pots will kill them. I think I can plant them in one of the pocket gardens and then transplant them back into pots in the spring. That will be my project on the next sunny day.

I took the girls to the children's museum yesterday with some friends. It was lovely and calm - the toddler set was there when we first arrived but they cleared out by 12:30 as the mothers take the toddlers home for naps. Today we did lessons (math, handwriting, reading) and are going to go to the post office, drop off checks for Denise the organizer (lady I ebay stuff for), then ballet and swimming. Travis gets to stay home and play with Brad. I enjoy the time at ballet and swimming as it is uninterrupted stitching time. I need to get working on my MTP so I'll be on that tomorrow.

Yesterday I finished most of the top on my star quilt. I have to add the narrow border. I'm going to try something new - on other quilts I've just sewn on the border and that was that. BUT I saw on one of the quilting shows, or maybe I read it in a quilt book, that I should MEASURE the quilt and then cut the strips and sew on the border. You apparently measure across the center of the quilt, not along the border, then pin the border on and sew. The advantage is it squares your quilt and you won't have wavy edges. We'll see if it works. I have definately gotten better in my piecing over the years. I look at some of my early pieces and whoa, they weren't the greatest. It's the same with needlework, though, you get more experienced with time.

Unfortunately, all my recent quilts just go in a bag underneath the bed as I can't afford to get them quilted, nor to I have the money for a long arm machine. And yes, I've quilted on my regular sewing machine and basically ruined a couple of tops that way. It's fine for little quilts but nothing sizeable. Someday I'll be able to buy a long arm machine. :)

Anyway, enough rambling. Time to head out!