August OMG, Solidarity Blocks, My Selfie

 "And into the garden I shall go

To lose my mind and find my soul"

My garden is overblown these days...all the beds have so many interlopers I don't know where to start with the weeding. I actually enjoy a chaotic garden so this isn't bothering me that much. I did pull out the Wild Grape Vine that had wound its way through the daisies. But even that has pretty leaves to my eye. 

                  

Above is a Cedar Waxwing with its gorgeous lemon belly I captured down by the pond a few years back. The sun is shining just like that today and we have no tornado, thunder and lightening, heavy rainfall, or high humidity warnings. A banner day!

I had promised to show you my hair in the humidity.  Here it is. I'm terrible at selfies...don't think you are supposed to show the phone itself and I needed glasses on to see what I was doing. This is how much my hair has grown out from that pixie cut I gave myself back in January this post. At this wild stage, I can barely put a comb through it -truthfully with curly hair, I don't use a comb, mostly a pick. On the plus side, it makes it look like I have much more hair than I really do.

It is time to set another Elm Street Quilts OMG...can't believe it is for August! Think I'll choose the Solidarity wall hanging to finish the hand quilting on for this month. 

Here it is in beginning stages, blocks on the design wall.

Then as a flimsy

                

And now the hand quilting of it. I love using Perle 8 cotton thread for this and do not do any sophisticated designs. But on that, I've been looking into hand quilting templates to try more detailed patterns than the simple echo quilting I mostly do.

I've got a few of the blocks finished. Hearts and Hexies

Snowballs in an unusual design

And one of my favourites, the House Block

Someone...so sorry, can't remember who, asked about the size of the hoop I use. This one is 14 inches.

I reread this little book, Claire Keegan's Small Things Like These.  Outstanding writing style- I admire it very much...simply but eloquently written sentences relating a very big story. Tony also read it-rare for him to read a book, and declared it "very touching". 

Are you watching this? We are and enjoying it very much.

I've got a list of things to do outside with the air being so enjoyable today. It all has to do with the flower beds. And I'm hoping to get in some veranda stitching later on. I've already made a meat loaf for supper and will do homemade oven fries if it stays cooler; if not I'll make baked potatoes in the microwave which are passable. 

Hope your day is going well and you find yourself likewise engaged in activities that you love.

Happy to link with the To Do Party at Quilt Schmilt, Alycia Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Quilt Fabrication.