home alone, what to do...

cut glass crystals actually refract the morning sunlight! 

After a nice Saturday which began with gay poets at the Out Write conference, I discovered I was in the midst of Dog Days on 14th St. which is a weekend when the stores and shops put up sidewalk tables and do summer sales.  I wondered down the street and enjoyed a stop at Miss Pixies second hand shop where I discovered a great strand of cut chandalier crystals I couldn't resist. My neighbor Dan Vera invited me to come here him read from his prize winning book of poems on a panel of three prize wining poets.

 Keith left for a visit with his family on Friday so I just wandered and enjoyed the great weather. I took my sketch book and got one victim on the metro for a sketch on my way down town.

 Earlier I drew some pretty flowers Keith left for me.  Feeling a little rusty with my drawing skills but they just need some exercising.

all sorts of things from the garden in a cut crystal glass. 

I ended up at Plan B Gallery on 14th and Q.Street. Where director David Kalamar asked about my quilts. He brought up the Rose Star quilt I had posted on Facebook last year. I didn't know which one he was talking about at first, since he didn't know the name. He reminded me by referring to my quest to choose a background fabric on Facebook. Black or white was the question, the answer as it turned out was off white with a printed bright white flower design. The Rose-Star quilt has been laying around for some time now and he made me realize that was a project I wanted to finish up soon. 

trimming the uneven edges of the rose star on the porch table  to prepare it for binding 

sewing on the red and white micro dot binding tape on the straight edges of Rose-Star quilt 

Having the place to myself I intend to spread out another quilt to baste it together for hand quilting in the coming weeks. This top is white and blue Dresden plates laid out in diamond format. I decided to add a white border on three sides to finish it out to a full bed size. 

lay up of off white top piece and white on white side piece for Dresden diamonds. 

Sides added and pressed and ready to lay on the floor for basting 

The garden is doing well and looking great with our new landlord's weekly lawn mower coming round to keep it looking tidy. I was surprised to find a kind of hard seed in the cotton plants flowers and a red freckling on the hydrangeas that normally turn red in fall.

cotton plant flowering 

pods forming at the bottom have a hard nut inside soon to be full of cotton balls

Lace cap Hydrangea is blushing 

Ironweed flowers are so purple this year it's looking great standing at six feet tall

Swamp milkweed flowers were pink now they are pointed pods spewing little fairies 

Lavender summer phlox and a little black and blue salvia