Rainbow Neighbourhood QAL, Feelings, Monarch Applique

Mr. and Mrs. American Goldfinch...I hope they are discussing housing options here at the wooden house. I love to watch them.

Here is a red house for the Rainbow Neighbourhood QAL with my paper pieced star block.

They are being stitched faster but I'm not sure any better. I am planning a lighter colour for the next one perhaps in peaches or summery kinds of shades. 

With my Rainbow Neighbourhood project nearing an end, I'm thinking about an applique project next. Maybe this one, Monarch, from Laundry Basket Quilts. I've had this pattern for years and I just may have enough different fabrics to do these butterflies justice. That was my hold back till now. A wonderful theme for summer.

It would make great veranda stitching too.

Speaking of which, we've been under a cloud of smoke from the forest fires to the north and east of us. Alarmingly bad air quality. Haze is very hard to photograph but this was afternoon of a supposedly sunny day. It actually darkened for a couple of hours which looked and felt terrible.

And the sun was oddly red which my camera could not capture. This is what I got.

It has been a relief to hear the fires are under control.

LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color's prompt this week was about a memory from childhood of eating ice cream. Mine is a common one for North America I think. Much enjoyed summer Sunday afternoon drives with my family growing up in Corner Brook, Newfoundland, often involved stopping for an ice cream cone at a drive-in called Wellon's. That would have been hard ice cream in vanilla, strawberry or chocolate flavours, nothing fancy. 

 Here is Jennifer Mitchell's winter time video showing a small portion of the drive we took so often through the Humber Valley over the years. I didn't appreciate how spectacular the scenery was till much later in life.

I have to mention all the emails and comments I received from the remarks I made about feeling stressed in my last post. I had tears in my eyes as I read them as so many of you took the time to tell me what works for you or to offer a solution or link or kind words too. All so appreciated by me. 

Here's what I've been doing. I'm a doer and like to research, find solutions, make a plan-all that right away. I realized I have to stop doing that; I cannot solve other people's problems as dearly as I would like to. I have to stop overthinking the big picture, trying to solve big problems right now. I also need to stop/slow down the anticipating of issues which my overactive imagination makes me do all the time. Worst case scenarios are my specialty especially in the middle of the night. One day at a time is going to be my challenge and what a challenge that will be for the next while. And as someone said to me if it has to be one hour at a time, go with that too. And that's enough whining from me too!  xxoo to you all. 

Linking this post with Kathy's Quilts.