Pine Cone Pillow +

Even though it has only been a few short days since my last post, I am feeling odd about posting as if the silence has been too long and it's all so awkward. That and I was "hyper" last time so perhaps I need to find a larger divider between topics since one thing is certain, I'll be hopping around.

Blogging twice a week means that I am combining everything I want to share in two posts instead of dividing it up and presenting topics in a daily, unified, semi-coherent package. I'll work on presentation and I hope that this will be the last discussion about being absent, at least, on my part. After all, I dispatched myself. ; }

And, before I forget it, thank you for all the supportive comments and emails about my weight-loss efforts. I know that I can do this having done it many times before. It's the keeping-it-off bit where I fail each and every time.

Another surprise in the mailbox this morning. Beautiful coasters from Suzanne (At Home With the Farmer's Wife). Don't they look like summer? I've used them already and they work great. She tells me not to use them on any priceless antiques because they are not waterproof. Good thing I don't have any such animal. Thank you, Suzanne, I love them!

Coasters

I have decided, after making my very first envelope pillow ever, that the Irish linen just isn't going to hold up for making a State Flower Quilt. As Vicki at Turkey Feathers suggested, it's too wimpy. So even though I'm working on Mountain Laurel for Connecticut, I'm going to turn it into a pillow just as I did for the Pine Cone. I am probably the last person on the planet to make a pillow in this way; in case I'm the next to the last person, I used the wonderful tutorial from Cottage Magpie *here.* For this pillow I had to stabilize the linen on another piece of fabric in order to sew the back pieces on.

Envelope Pillow

Work continues slowly and steadily on the house. We are shopping for a new kitchen window this evening. Hopefully, something like this: 

source

Instead of this:

Gosh I do like that apron sink, too. Guess I just can't justify the cost of it. The window, on the other hand, has been a thorn in my side since the day it went in. I'm so done with it. I want a window I can open in the rain...the one above winds out into the rain. Not so good.

Wave Petunias

Still enjoying the new fence even if I am startled sometimes to see it there. I keep expecting to see the old chippy white one.

A wonderful day to you...