A Leisurely Sunday

It was a quiet and peaceful Sunday--no hammering, no buzz saws, no sounds of wood being ripped off the house or water dripping anywhere. Just the birds singing in the trees and bushes around the house. The birds are getting twitter-pated. They know that spring is coming. A recent newspaper article says bird activity in the UK proves that springlike weather came earlier this year, whether we humans noticed it or not. They cite, as an example, the fact that blackbird fledgelings have been spotted (in fact, we saw one dart across a busy road on Friday), evidence that their parents felt the stirrings of spring in late December. Hmmm.

Donald was happy to see blue skies this morning as he and Gordon had their usual golf date all set (one that had to be missed last Sunday). Helen invited us over after the game for a bowl of soup and a bun, which sounded cozy and inviting. We love eating in their homely kitchen (over here "homely" means "homey" not "ugly"), especially in the winter as they have a big AGA range that is always "on" so the room is always cozy and warm. Being with Helen and Gordon is always cozy too, they are such comfortable people to be with.

I have spent the most of the day working on the wall quilt pictured above. It is finished except for attaching the hanging sleeve which I will do at So and Sews tomorrow afternoon. I was thinking of calling it "Where in the World Are We?" but that seems such a large title for such a small quilt (it's only 14" square). And it also seems a rather whimsical name for a quilt that I feel more serious about. (Although I didn't intend "Where in the World Are We?" as a whimsical question, it inevitably will be taken that way by some viewers [note the assumption that there will be viewers].) So its name is "Moons and Manoliths".

The lucious grey background and the rosey "manoliths" (so spelled to emphasise their man-made aspect) as well as their golden shadows are hand-dyed fabrics Marion Barnett passed along to me either in 2003 when we first moved over, or last May as she was getting ready to move from Strathpeffer to Norfolk. On both occasions she overwhelmed me with bin-bags of the most wonderful goodies. The three "moons" are marbled fabric I made a few years ago. I think the moon shadows are also from one of Marion's hand-dyes.

I was so very happy creating this piece as I have been feeling guilty about not using all the gorgeous fabrics Marion generously bestowed on me. I do take them out now and then and "pat" them and I have used some of them, but not nearly as many as I'd like. I think I've been a bit afraid I might squander them somehow, so I've been overly cautious as a result. Yesterday, however, when I got really stuck on trying to create the "new piece" I kept writing about at the end of this week, I decided to get out a stack of Marion's hand-dyes and just pat them and see what happened. The background and then the manoliths came fairly quickly, but it took a long time to decide what else would complete the design. For quite a while there was only one moon. Only one moon? How boring. Then there were two. And then there were three. And then they got shadows. But then the manoliths wanted their own shadows. That's the way it goes. It's a lot of putting things up on the wall then walking back to look, then going back up to change that for another, and going back to look. Throughout there is an energy and excitement that keeps me on my feet when my back says I should have sat down an hour ago. So now I'm going to sit down. Happy.

All afternoon as I worked in my studio, Don was doing some online teaching. Now we'll both sit down for a while with the paper.

Tomorrow we look forward to workmen coming to make further progress on the renovations. This morning the 5-day weather forecast called for sleet on Tuesday and Wednesday, but that's now changed. No precipitation in sight except for a few light showers today. Fingers crossed, it will stay that way.