Pardon me, but …

Dare I own up to this incredibly bad pun? Sure, why not. Because who among us hasn’t had the sad realization that the back end of a beloved pair of pants has become threadbare? And no, I’ll spare you the pictures of that.

Instead I’ll show you how this wonderful $2 thrift store prize of a fine-woven cotton skirt …

provided just the right weight of patching material upon which to darn a repair to the back end of my 10+ year old cotton linen capris …

Wildflower Season continues to delight us … the current display of Prairie Sunflowers being worthy of Sting’s Fields of Gold as a background melody (click to enlarge images) …

And then there’s this from Don, who put a sealer on the discarded acrylic paint brush water he has liberally applied to the back porch over the course of one year (dare I call it the backsplash?) …

And some grandkiddo pictures, of course …

Notes:

For those who might wish to indulge, here’s the recipe for snack batch cookie dough, which Griffin made with a friend after learning the ropes during a visit to our house.

And here are the “rules” for Scrabble played my way:

  • The object of the game is to use all the letter tiles … there is no scoring.
  • Each player gets 7 tiles and picks up new tiles after each move, as in traditional Scrabble play.
  • Trading tiles is encouraged. Example: “I really need an R … can anyone trade for a vowel?”
  • The Official Scrabble Dictionary can be used before any move to confirm a word or even to get ideas on how to use the tiles at hand.
  • When seven tiles remain amongst the players, the tiles are revealed and everyone works together to use them up. A letter can be swapped within an existing word on the board as long as the swap leaves a valid word in its place. Example: swap out the T in RATE and replace it with a Z to make RAZE.
  • Celebrate by taking a picture of the completed board … everybody wins!

Half of a half

I’m halfway through quilting one side of My Heart’s Compass … of which this is about half … so I guess that makes it a quarter-side of cloth …

Not exactly a fascinating reveal, but I continue to enjoy the simplicity of the going … even the circular shadow stitching, which I had been apprehensive about.

Here’s the other side, which I’ve managed to keep knot-free …

I don’t plan to put it on the bed “other side up” when it’s done, but I do enjoy looking at the other side when I take a break from stitching.

In the “life happens” category, we went to update our wills, last done ten years ago. A mundane exercise, but our lawyer advised adding a provision that will allow our executor to access our online accounts (who knew?) and we now have everything set up to “transfer on death” which will avoid probate. So we celebrated by getting new shoes, going out to lunch, and buying a small oil painting from our favorite Wimberley gallery, Art on 12

And for those of you who enjoy such things, here are some more end-of-school-year pictures of our grandkiddos (click to see full images) …

Suh-weet …

Undone

There hasn’t been much to show stitch-wise as I’ve been quilting …

Valdani 12 O31 (that’s an “o” not a zero) is listed as “tealish blue” … but I think “ocean” would be a better description as it shifts between gray and blue and green depending on the light and the color of the cloth it’s stitched onto. Which is to say, it’s perfect.

Unfortunately, I didn’t figure that out earlier. I actually started quilting with a strand of white and a strand of black DMC floss …

And honestly, it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t right. I ended up unstitching three days worth of quilting in about three hours. So it goes.

I also took the time to watch a few of Kate Ward’s Zen Stitching video workshops and took copious notes and screenshots of Ellie Beck’s excellent instructions on how to handsew a zippered pouch …

There has been lots of other fun stuff happening … a gallery opening for Billy Keen, whose No Path graces our walls (gotta love those boots) …

Much excitement in St Louis at Jackson and Jace’s year-end concerts and art show (which we visited virtually) …

Not to mention their new backyard pool, complete with neighborhood friends …

Parker and Ellis still come over every week, P on Mondays and E on Thursdays …

Plus we got to go in person to see Griffin portray William Travis at the 4th grade wax museum (step on the display board and the wax figure comes to life, reading a self-written “autobiography” … so now I know about Travis’ “line in the sand” challenge at the Alamo) … Parker was also there with her Kindergarten class …

Yesterday was the girls’ turn to perform, dancing in their end-of-year ballet recital, complete with stage makeup, ballerina updos, and great smiles (minus one front tooth) …

And last, which is always not least, our oldest granddaughter Logan just completed her freshman year at James Madison University …

(Lo is is the middle)

How is that possible when this seems like it was only yesterday?