Pictorial quilt

 The back wall where the stove will go has been painted, and porcelain tiles have been fixed to the sides and back of the space for the stove.

I do love working on these pictorial appliqué quilts.  I know the quilt maker had a specific person in mind and built the story around that person's life.  This looks like a memory quilt as well, since I noticed shirt fabric being used.

The border has heavy machinery printed on it, and to keep the prints from disappearing behind the quilting, I kept it to a minimum.

Furthermore, the quilt had several different background fabrics that were plainer, and I could use denser quilting on them.

After grinding through the cement that formed the tabletop, I could clean most of the house except the scatter cushion covers, the cushions on the dining room chairs, and the ceiling fans.  Hubby will still plaster the wall before painting, and that will also create dust.  I will wait until this is done before cleaning thoroughly.  The gap for the anthracite stove has been created, and progress has been made.

This quilt maker is fortunate; she has a friend with a beach house who allows her to use it.  She then decided to make him a table runner and wanted a motif resembling fish hooks, waves or shells.  I think the closed curl is the perfect match for all of these.

Indian print quilt

We survived hubby’s first week after surgery, and for the first couple of days, he mostly slept.  I am not sure whether he was all that tired or if it simply hurt too much to move.  I figured out how to be the perfect nurse.  With my gin in tow, I’d sit on the deck under the thatch roof where I had a good look at the main bedroom window, exactly on his position on the bed.  He complained about the hospital noises and the nurses, doing their jobs, shame, bothering him.  I vowed not to go into the room, and from this lovely spot, I could see any movement he made or whether he was awake and trying to get up.

Our dogs loved every moment he stayed in bed and did what they do best.

The moment he started moving, all hell broke loose.  The man went back to gardening as if nothing happened.  I warned, fought and pleaded.  Eventually I decided to agree with my friend, Karin, "I am not his mother", and stopped lecturing him.

Our son suggested a couple of series for us to watch to keep him still. For days, while he tried to fix everything he thought got neglected during his illness, we watched For All Mankind and enjoyed it thoroughly. It was several seasons with long episodes, which took a while to finish.

Next on our list was See. Although I am not a fan of fantasy, the storyline kept me intrigued.

We went freezer shopping as my one upright freezer quit just before we moved to the new place.  I struggled, as I am used to having four freezers.  I dislike shopping daily but also hate not having the ingredients when I want to make a recipe.  So I keep my freezers and grocery cupboard stocked.

Once again, my almost-always-tidy house is one big mess.  I dare not give hubby too much leisure time, or he will find something to change, fix, or demolish.  This time, he removed 2 cupboards in the living area.  One at the top and the other at the bottom to make room for an anthracite stove.  We can make a wood fire in the fireplace, but it means hubby has to walk in and out fetching wood regularly, which is no fun, especially in winter.  It will take me days to get rid of all the cement dust after the grinding to remove the tiled surface between the two cupboards.

Luckily. I received this Indian print quilt, so I had a good excuse to avoid the dust and noise and could retreat to my frame room.

The quilter only asked for straight-line horizontal stitching four inches apart.  She is now on vacation, but when she returns, she'll take a look and decide whether she needs vertical stitching as well.