Allen came home from yet another week in Denver, but unfortunately, he wasn't feeling well and landed on the couch. Louie thought that was an invitation to get some attention.
Louie looks pretty worried. You're okay, aren't you, Allen?
So if you are going to sleep on the couch and ignore me, I am going to steal your glasses. So there.
This morning, Louie took his walk, had his two scoops of Science Diet, worked on a new chew, and generally enjoyed hanging around the house.
He heard me take his picture, so he took off running, hanger and all. Louie knew he had something that didn't belong to him, so he wouldn't even look at me.
Caught him in the act of stealing something. What do you have? Hey, sit. Leave it. It's not yours, Louie.
That is my shoe, you little pug, you.
This Bama birdhouse is ready to hang outside. Roll Tide! Brenda brought it to me from her trip to the beach last week. I picked up her mail and newspapers, and she surely didn't need to bring me a gift, but this is a sweet present, especially from an Auburn fan. We had a great time at lunch and the movies today!
The best parts of summer (especially for a teacher who is on vacation) are the little unexpected things that happen. I have had one of those exceptional days that began with sleeping way later than usual. I think getting up early starts with having children who get you up at the crack of dawn. Then the early hours are reinforced by years of an alarm set for band camp or gymnastic meets or something. Years and years of NPR waking us up for work set the body clock more or less permanently. However, today it was 8:00 AM before I woke up. When I was a kid at home, I probably would have slept away many summer days if Mom or my brother hadn't woken me. Seems to me, I remember some pretty obnoxious awakenings way back when. I was dressed and ready in plenty of time to have lunch with my friend Marylou whom I haven't seen in a good long while. We went to I Love Sushi and then went to look at the new house she has halfway moved into. When I got home, there were two packages waiting. One, not for me. Boring. The other not so boring at all. Mary and John read my blog and saw that I wanted to fix my pork steaks with Mauls. The sent me two bottles from St. Louis. I already told Allen that we will have to have pork steaks this weekend. Makes my mouth water. I can just hear the jingle, "Don't baste your bar-be-cue, Maul it!"
So why the picture of the funny scissors? After I walked Louie and opened the mail this afternoon, my friend Lynn who teaches FCS (back in the day it was Home EC, but now it is Family and Consumer Science) stopped by to drop off some scissors I had ordered along with her school order of Ginghers. I have never tried using these before, but they are appliqué scissors which supposedly prevent you from inadvertently cutting what you don't want to cut. Aren't they interesting? Lynn met Louie who behaved like a gentleman (more or less) and followed us around the house. I sure wish that Lynn and I taught the same grade level. We would create some awesome interdisciplinary units. She is a wonderful teacher and friend.
One more unusual item that I ran across and had to buy yesterday (like I need another gadget in my life) was this ring of measuring spoons. Sort of. Notice the hole in each? They are little funnels. Now how many times have you tried to fill something like a salt shaker and spilled everywhere? Or tried to pour liquid from one container to another? I thought for the few dollars, they would be worth the investment. Besides, they were too unusual to pass up. They aren't going to help with current the mess in my bedroom. When I got home earlier, I took off two bracelets made of black bead and turquoise. Unfortunately, I had a not so nice surprise - the elastic broke. I closed the door to keep Louie from eating the little pieces. Who's to complain though, when it has been such an unexpectedly nice day.
Rock on, Allen.
I got a kick out of the street art Uncle Sam.
Turkey art?
We ate at an Irish pub in Franklin. The bath shop next door was blowing bubbles, a whole different take on street art, I guess.
Uh oh. More batik for my stash. Allen (happy in the rocker in the lobby) couldn't believe I didn't buy even more and sent me back in more than once. When I was a kid, Mom did a majority of her fabric shopping at Famous Barr, a department store. I don't really remember her going to a real fabric store, much less a quilt shop. Surely she wouldn't have bought fabric with an idea that someday she might use it in something. That would have been way beyond her budget (mine too in years with little kids at home). Actually, quilting has sort of had a revival since the 1970's, and I guess I was out of the house by then. The Stitcher's Garden where we went has been in business in Franklin for seventeen years, the owner told me, and she is planning a move closer to the highway by the end of the year. Anyway, since Mom couldn't or wouldn't learn to drive (probably couldn't knowing how miserable Dad would have made her trying to teach her), she either had to walk a mile or so to the bus and go alone or have Dad take her in the evening while he would "patiently" wait. It is fun having Allen support my addictive hobby (not that he has any addictive or expensive hobbies).
We went to The Factory before heading home. What a neat old building. They made Magic Chef products there at one time. We just walked through and got a feel for the place, drooled over some Amish furniture at one shop, and had fun at an antique store there. Louie is glad we're home though.
Chinese Checkers and a turtle all in one! Shannon found this last weekend in Daphne. I'm glad she didn't miss it on the shelf. He's very cool. He is taking up residence in my sewing room with the other Chinese checker boards. I have this idea that one day I will quilt a Chinese checkerboard as a wall hanging. I even bought some black and red dragon fabric to use. Maybe this guy will serve as inspiration for that little project. All I'm really missing is time. So many quilt ideas, so little time. 
When Shannon and Nathan came by last night, I tried out a new recipe on them. Butter bean salad. It was probably better today than last night, a little pepperier. Maybe Nathan thought that jalapeño peppers were missing yesterday, but he added his Texas Pete's. I love simple, healthy recipes like this one that I saw as an ad in my current issue of Southern Living magazine.
And we had an old standby, "fork sticks" as Meghan called them when she was little. To me, this is what barbecue pork is, but most people here think of pulled pork. St. Louis style pork steaks mean summer. Although the Jack Daniels barbecue sauce was good, I wish I had a bottle of original Mauls from Dierbergs grocery. I miss a few things from St. Louis: family and friends, the St. Louis Post Dispatch, baseball Cardinals, variety from bigger grocery stores, Mauls... but I don't miss the bigger city traffic, winter snow and icy weather, searing summer heat. Yes, it really does get hotter there than here. 
Louie hopes I won't miss the strip of fabric he has stolen. Sure, he looks cute here, but chasing him to get things back is a big pain. If Allen and I have him between us, he will meekly sit and spit. What I mean is, he spits out whatever he has in his slimy dog-breath mouth. He knows what he has done, and he knows he has to forfeit his treasure. 
Then he's embarrassed and wants to make up. See, he's not really missing a conscience, he just wants to play.
Dinner tonight? If you aren't here, you're missing a treat. When Allen is finished with his marathon of telecons, we'll have shrimp from Cajun Cafe that he steamed earlier this afternoon.
What is so satisfying about being in my sewing room? How do I get from fabric store purchases to finished quilt? A key ingredient is having such a wonderful space where I can make my own mess and then leave it there untouched until I come back to it. Allen never complained about me having my things in the dining room, the laundry room, and then all over the extra bedroom spread out on the bed, but having my own space is heaven. I never understood my mom's delight in heading to the basement to sew, but I guess I do now. She surely didn't have such wonderful tools and resources that I do, but she managed to make everything from church curtains to all of my clothes. I'll stick with my quilts, and I'll turn on the new flat screen before I start.
These are long strips sewn together in threes, all ironed and ready to be cut into smaller pieces.
One and a half inch segments and three and a half inch segments...
to make one block. In the king size version I am making, there are forty-nine of this kind of block.
Even though I haven't cut everything, I have lots and lots and lots of similar little pieces. How to plan a block and then move it to the sewing machine? If I figure out the placement of the pieces and then try to move them, I can easily get confused when they are in piles and not laid out. Solution: a mini-design board.I saw a similar idea on www.thequiltshow.com. The guest used foam core board for the base. I found this self-stick board. Perfect!
I ironed some left over low-loft batting, smoothed it out on my cutting board, pulled off the adhesive, and placed the board sticky side down on the batting.
I used my rotary cutter to trim the excess batting.
Now I can lay out my pieces and then pick up the board to move to the sewing table. No more confusion! It's like a felt board back in elementary school. The pieces self-stick to the board without falling off. No pieces on the floor for Louie. Ha! 
From forty-nine pieces, I am down to nine...
then three pieces...
and finally, another completed block. I will need thirty-six complete blocks like this one, and twenty-four half blocks for the king size version. I think my new design board tool will be really helpful. Too bad the new TV wasn't as simple or inexpensive. I know "real quilters" have whole design walls. Don't think that's going to work for my space, but I can always use the guest room bed for that.
What now, Louie? How many times have you been caught doing this in the last few days? Louie discovered the basket with the papers waiting to be shredded. He thinks he can shred them just as well as the electric one, and he can have a lot more fun too. He does look pretty guilty, doesn't he?
What else have we been up to? Allen is enjoying the new grill. This was Saturday night chicken dinner for the two of us.
I re-potted several plants from the green plastic to these metal frames with cocoa mats. The idea is that the new pots will hold water a bit better. It was 90 , breezy and sunny the last few days. I tried not to make too much work for myself on the deck with too much watering. The front porch is full now, and it might be the day to clean out the herb garden. We've called our young landscaper guy to get him to replace a few plants and do some general cleanup for us, but he's seemingly been too busy. You know, I hate to wait for him, but I hope that means business is good for him. It isn't easy being at the front end of your career. Then again, it isn't easy at the other end either. Allen is plenty stressed about his go-live date, and that stress filters down to all of us. 
Well, maybe not all of us. Exactly how stressed does Louie look?
Sunday's projects around the house included putting up some new bamboo blinds in the office. They are different from what we thought we bought, but they are a big improvement over cheapest of cheap plastic ones. These you can close but still get filtered light in the room. The warm up the room decoratively, but I imagine they will keep some of the summer heat out.
Sunday afternoon and evening, I sewed strips and strips and strips and strips for the new quilt. Today, I'll need to iron them and do some cutting to divide the strips into littler chunck. I am not finished sewing strips, but I really want to get far enough to put one block together so I can feel like I am making progress. The pattern is called Kentucky Blues, but my fabrics are reds and yellows. I am thinking Alabama Sunset, but we'll see.
Monday morning for Louie. He looks so sweet and innocent here. Fifteen minutes later, he was running through the house with a remote control in his mouth. Sweet, my eye!
