Porch Swings & Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt

I have two more Lucie Whitehouse thrillers to read.  And the swing reminds me of my teenage years. I spent the summer days (when not in the basement ironing) on the porch "glider" reading Gone With The Wind.  It was a summer tradition from 14 to 17.  Cleveland sprayed the city each year to kill mosquitos.  Sometimes they even sprayed the citizens if we were outside when the giant truck went past.

But this larger swing could even be used for nice summertime naps.  With mosquito netting.  I would have to have it higher off the porch floor--Riley likes to nap UNDER beds and hammocks, so it follows he would also like to nap under a porch swing.

This hasn't been the usual mosquito bite summer here in Maine.  Lots of heat and humidity but we have enough "sea breeze" to keep the little blood suckers moving.  Or maybe my blood has been changed by the asthma meds into something less delicious.  I AM getting a rash from the leaves of the tomato and squash plants.  Mostly on my arms as I "hunt" for cucumbers, ripe tomatoes and squash.  Witch hazel splashed on helps. So, even minus mosquitos, I am itchy.

I sliced up the yellow zucchini for pickles yesterday.  The red (bell peppers), white (onion) and green (jalapeño) and golden yellow makes for a very colorful and pretty combination.  I quite like it.

My weight has held stable at the same number for three days now.  So, nothing reactive in the foods I am eating.  Also, this stable weight is the lowest I have reached in the entire diet adventure.  Meaning I have been here before but not for three days straight.  I must, finally, have started doing something right.  I am looking forward to seeing a new number on the scale.  A four or a three.  A two would be cause for a parade downtown.

We are supposed to have some rain today.  It would be nice.

I am nearly finished tacking the pieced center of this big dusty poofy quilt.  I will need to drag it back across the street for the owner to look at so we can discuss the borders.  Three wide borders.  In order to make them flat I will need to unsew the edges.  Flatten it all out.  Then decide how to tack.  My daughter looked at the work I have been doing and said "you're a better person than I am".  It's that thankless. I have had to appliqué stitch torn border seams in one area and in places in the center section as needed.  Hours are spent on this project each day.  Hours that will not be compensated as I passed the suggested renumeration long ago.  Right now I am working at one to two dollars an hour.  For hand work.

The quilt's pieced construction is poor.  Seams do not match up.  Blocks aren't square.  In another time and place, I would have taken the entire thing apart and remade it.  But that time is past and I have no interest in going back to it.  My days of piecing are over.  My days of shoving a a puffy quilt under the machine needle is over as well.

I do own an antique hand pieced quilt that was once tacked.  I took all the knots out and threw away the lumpy batting.  This might make a good Winter project in 2017.  New batting.  Fresh knots.  Grandmother's Flower Garden and all those small hexagons.  Perhaps I had to do this project in order to see my way to re-newing that one?