Updates

Hit more yard sales Saturday and caught some good deals--and a not-so-good one. I usually don't go to second or third day sales, because they're always so picked over, but I happened up on one unexpectedly, and they were ready to bargain.

Several spools of ribbons

an old aluminum pitcher (that now holds my Crystal Light Raspberry Lemonade)

                                                                                   

an aluminum folding chair and 2 blue ceramic flower pots with attached saucers (no picture)

a little milk glass vase and a dish exactly like the set I have boxed away in the garage:

I may stick this one in the china cabinet, or use it somewhere else, but I am not unpacking that set to stick this one in it.  I love the pattern, but it's rimmed in gold, making it unsuitable for the microwave.  Also, the edge is very wide, which makes the actual eating surface small--and that's what Jack doesn't like about my milkglass dishes and why we don't use them anymore either.

The laser beam thingy came from a community sale, as did this folding recliner:

And that's the lousy deal.

Ace Hardware had these (or similar) folding recliners on sale this weekend for $30.00, and I had toyed with the idea of getting one for the deck.  Then I found this one at a yard sale for $20.00.  I lay back in it to test it out, and found it pretty comfortable, and offered the lady $15.00 for it, which she took.  Today I decided to lie in it for 20 minutes to get a little sun on my snail-belly white legs. 

And I toppled backwards.

I don't know if this is one from Ace or a cheapie from the dollar store, as I don't see a brand name, but it sure didn't hold up to lying down.  I wish it had tilted over at the yard sale.  I certainly wouldn't have bought it had I known it was unbalanced.  So now I make sure to back it up to the deck bench if I want to lie back in it. (And yes, those are the upside down tomatoes that haven't made it into their hangers yet.  I'm working on it, I swear.)

Oh, and I forgot to take a picture of the iron teapot I found at another sale.  It's really old and heavy, and will look so cute in the garden with flowers planted in it.

There's also been a bit of sewing going on here.  First, I pulled out one of those tiny little patterns from Pieced Tree and used up a few (very few) scraps for a little table topper for the living room:

I machine quilted in the ditch between all the rows and the outline of the X, but free-hand quilted flowers in the four triangles. If you click on the picture, I think you might can see them.

The patterns are cute, but skimpy on the directions, so you need to have more assembly experience than I did, as I've never used setting triangles before.  There must be an easier way than what I did; I'll need to pull out some books and read the sections on setting triangles.

And I finished a UFO that's been lying around for several years.

Jack had asked for a fabric chessboard and I had put this one together.  I had plans for a fancier border, with maybe some appliqued dragons I bought from somewhere way back, but he didn't want borders on it.  After a machine quilting class, I decided to use a wavy line pattern that forms figure 8s, but I didn't like how it looked, so picked every stitch out.  And there it sat, waiting for me to quilt it again.  I finally decided to heck with it and just did a diagonal grid pattern and quickly bound it, just to get it over with. It might not be fancy, but it's done. And done is good.

Now I'm working on what was to be a set of placemats for DD made from  fabric I bought back in November, I think. 

 I thought it would look nice with her dishes, but it might have been a little busy.

Anyway, I showed them to her while she was here for Memorial Day, and she liked the fabric, but said she's going with the red in the plates and plans to ask her landlord if she is allowed to paint her dining room red, so she really can't use them.

Oh.  Okay.

Well, they are all 4 quilted now and just waiting for the binding, which will be the same fabric as the final border, if I have enough, and I think I do. What happens to them then, I don't know.  They don't go with my dishes at all.  Maybe I'll try to finish the binding at work and someone will see them and want them. The operative word here is finish. The UFO list is quite long enough, thank you. 

 For several days now, we haven't heard anything from the houseguest.  I figured he'd been traumatized by his unplanned visit into the house and had taken off for parts unknown. Tonight, as I was transferring some clothes to the dryer, I thought about him and looked around for evidence.  Above the dryer, on the top shelf, is a box with an artificial Christmas wreath in it.  I didn't tape the box shut after the holidays, just stood it up on its end.  A closer look revealed something brown sticking up out of it. I lifted it off the shelf, and out flew our little bird.  Only he's a she, and she has built a next in the box on top of the wreath.  I didn't see how she could have sat on top of it and us not see her, but as she flew around the garage, I took another look and what I was seeing sticking out of it is the roof of her nest, and inside looks to be 3 little eggs.  As soon as I realized what I was seeing, I stuck the box back on the shelf and turned out the lights.  One dim light stays on for about 5 minutes after the garage door is lowered, so hopefully she found her way back to the nest and will sit on those eggs again. 

I still think she is a Carolina wren, especially after viewing some of the photographs of their nests here:

  https://facultystaff.richmond.edu/~jhayden/powhatan_photos/carolina_wren_nest_DSCN0453_s.JPG

 and this picture and article:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIjLa5WeQtxcsPBwiiDso3xq0XS5ZlV7-pQZ5z-P9QCwvQx_bN9kG2Uxe4v4X6x5tvMNAof8LqZaBfw7OHcvk0KcjF9ADCXZhSv7EC3yd53bzhnSPwlg7Wr7j-6TtmHBxHNrNwgw/s400/CarWrenNestBasket.jpg&imgrefurl=http://folkwaysnotebook.blogspot.com/2009/07/carolina-wren-nest-and-landing-pad.html&usg=__tVX2HxN0qpqLayDQ3vNmqWuwMlM=&h=354&w=400&sz=50&hl=en&start=42&sig2=31PgdOmH8bCa2LOzZIsFKA&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=B0VdsEqQPf8smM:&tbnh=110&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcarolina%2Bwren%2Bnest%26start%3D40%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26ndsp%3D20%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=06cVTMT8CsOAlAflrPD1Cw

As I see it, we're soon going to need to leave the garage door at least partway up all the time, and when the fledglings (if they hatch) get ready to make the leap, we'll have to open the door all the way. 

Looks like we're going to be godparents.  8^)