I went outside to read for a bit. Took a blanket, a book ("Pigeon Post" by Arthur Ransome - a children's book that still pleases me long into adulthood, as do all of his books in the Swallows & Amazons series), and of course I took the cat. She's been going crazy with the screen door lately so accompanying her oustide is the least I can do for her.
Oh yes - and we have Wildside Salmon snacks. I give her these whenever she comes running back to me when I call her. These days I can call her name once and she comes from wherever she was, immediately, and even comes back inside the house. She really really REALLY likes these.
We lay in the shade of my gorgeous birch tree...
It shades the whole side yard and makes even the hottest day liveable, when stretched out beneath it. Peeking into the photo is my little apple tree - last year it had two apples.
*Someone* was extra cute this afternoon:
And here she is getting into the picture when I was trying to photograph how the quilt is tied together:
This little faux-quilt was made by my mother about 30 years ago, for me to take to summer camp. We picked out a cheater material that already looked like a patchwork quilt:
Mom got yellow material that matched and we sewed two pieces of the top and two pieces of the bottom together to make the resulting blanket a bit wider, then sewed two long front and back pieces together. There's no batting inbetween the layers, I didn't need warmth from this - just coverage. Then in the middle of every large flower, Mom and I stitched a piece of red yarn through and tied in a knot on top:
I can remember sitting and tying these knots with Mom, debating how long to make each piece of yarn. These days they're just little yarn nubbins, they're so worn and washed and used.
I'm not sure how I'll patch this, I need a 6"x6" square and a 2"x2" square for two different rips. After that first summer, Mom patched one corner with the old 70's iron-on patch:
But that won't work for these larger portions: The poor used worn spot, where you can see the backing...
Mom and I still joke about how we "made a quilt" all those years ago. We know it isn't really a quilt, it's just our silliness.
Thirty years later and I'm still using this blanket frequently. It went to summer camp many times when I was a camper, many times when I was a counselor. It went to the ranch in Wyoming with me, on numerous camping trips, to college dorm rooms and first apartments, cookouts on the ocean beaches, picnics on the shores of Puget Sound, and for many naps over the years it's covered myself or my friends. It deserves a really good patch so it can keep on blanketing for many years to come!
I need to start reading up on patching methods - this is 30 year old cotton material, soft and warn.
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