I continue to work down to the top of my work table.  Although I do add some new things, on the whole there is steady progress toward clearing it.  Today my Little Boy Blue and the fabrics to make the pillow are off the table. 

The pillow is for our nephew's son.  I have obliterated his name on the pillow in an attempt to honor the family's privacy.  I still have to rework the cow's eyes and redefine Little Boy Blue's eyes.  On the back of the pillow is a little pocket for the tooth fairy.  

I had intended to restitch the name and date in a darker blue but after today, I think I will leave well enough alone.  Making the shirred cable, stitching it to the pillow top, and stitching everything together was a much larger job than I envisioned it to be. 

If I were to repeat this pillow finish, I think it would work much better if I made the seam allowance on the shirred cable at least a quarter inch wider.  Right now, it just feels good to have finished the pillow and to know that I am working my way down to the table top. 

Yes, it is a nasturtium.  Because Christine was correct and because she likes nasturtiums so much, I will post a couple more nasturtium pictures.  Like Christine's nasturtiums, mine also are growing very well. 

Yesterday I forgot to tell you what I intended to do with the new shepherd's hook pot hanger.  I put it out in the garden near the sunflower and hung my hummingbird feeder from it. 

During the past few days, I noticed that the humming bird checked out the two empty feeders we had out during the winter.  Since he knows they were not for him, I decided he needed a new place for his feeder.  And, what better place than near the sunflower he likes to visit. 

Shortly after I put the feeder out, the humming bird homed right in on it.  The humming bird returned this morning.  We believe it is one humming bird and it has discovered a private feeder and that st least for now, he is keeping it a secret. 

I have not had the hummingbird feeder out this summer.  During the past week, a hummingbird or several at separate times, has been visiting the tomato blossoms and my sunflower.  The one who visited today encouraged me to pick up a new shepherd's hook pot hanger.   

This is the sunflower the humming birds like to see.  Yes, it is a deep red/maroon.  Yesterday when I saw the hummingbird hovering over the sunflower, I wanted to try to take a picture of it.  It left before I could change the lens in the camera.  I was left with just the sunflower.  It was far better to take a picture of it yesterday than today.  Today is very rainy with no blue sky. 

I took more flower pictures yesterday. 

Can you guess what this is? 

One of the pansies

Hydrangia:  Endless Summer

Friends?

This morning Mooch and a young squirrel entertained us.  I think the squirrel entertained Mooch too.  The squirrel is one of the spring babies and looks almost grown up.  Momma has taught it all she can and it is on its own.  It was sitting on the fence post chattering away.  Mooch was inside but where he was, I am not certain the squirrel could even see him.  It looked like Mooch was discretely watching the squirrel but I am not certain he could see the squirrel.  After chattering, the squirrel exuberantly ran the length of the fence stopping to perch on the fence posts and chatter.  Eventually the squirrel returned to the end post near the bedroom where Mooch was.  Mooch finally went to the window to watch the squirrel.  I am certain that the squirrel could see him in the window and chattered more.  Mooch made quiet squeeking noises but I doubt that the squirrel could hear Mooch. 

The picture has low quality but you can see the little squirrel and Mooch who is in silhouette. 

It has been difficult for me to settle down and write.  Our little black cat, Mooch, was a naughty boy yesterday.  He took a ball of white pearl cotton and unrolled it all over the living room while we were at the health club in the morning.  He and I were very fortunate he only rolled the ball on the floor.  He did not carry it in his mouth and did not chew the pearl cotton.  I was fortunate that some of the pearl cotton fell off the ball in large hanks that were not unraveled.  It took me only 20 minutes to wind it all and there were only two small, easily untangled knots.  Little Mooch did not like being scolded and spent the remainder of the day begging for attention and maybe asking for forgiveness. 

A couple pictures just to give a little color and to show you what has attracted my attention. 

I liked these napkins the instant I saw them.  I honestly do not know if I will use them as napkins or use the fabric in some project. 

I seem to find one little three-footed depression glass dish a year.  This is the one for 2010.  It is by far the most simple of all of them and yet I still like it as much as the others.  It is the only one with eight sides. 

Who would have thought . . .

. . .that 15 zippers could turn into such a mess. 

This is the beginning of a little project for last week.  One of the reasons it became the project of the week is because I need to find the top of my work table. 

I have removed quite a bit but still have quite a bit more left. 

One Small Finish

I did make up the pillow.  Unfortunately I discovered that I still should have worked with the way I applied the stitchery to the pillow top.  Hopefully the wrinkles will not be too noticeable. 

The picture is a little dark because I ran outside with the pillow and camera this morning before the rain began.  Needless to say, there was no sunshine.  I probably ought to wait to send it to its new owner until I have had a chance to take a picture of it in the sunshine. 

Nela's comment about iguanas eating in the gardens where she lives reminded me about a certain pet iguana named Sweetheart.  One of my sons' second grade teachers had an iguana that she kept at school.  It was a little more than a meter long including its tail.  Just before summer break, the teacher told the students that if they brought a note from home saying it was okay to bring the iguana home for the summer, she would draw a name to see who would take the iguana for the summer. 

When our son told us about the drawing, I thought we could handle this because we never win drawings.  Just look at this:  Have I ever won a Blackbird Designs drawing?  That's right, no.  How many have I entered?  I cannot even begin to count.  And the same goes for the Needleprint drawings. 

A couple days before the beginning of summer break, our son came home from school to tell us that we were going to keep the iguana for the summer.  It seems that if your child is the only one who brings a note with parental permission to keep the iguana, you get to keep the iguana for the summer.  I could not bring myself to call it Sweetie which is what the children called it.  I decided to call it Peetie with the hope that if it could recognize its name, it would think that I spoke in some strange dialect or had a speech impediment. 

The teacher told us that she cleaned out the tank - Did I say tank?  It was a large box made out of wood, screen, and  plexiglass; it measured about 4 feet high, 5 feet wide, and 3 or so feet deep. - once a week.  She said that Peetie was quite lethargic; she could pull the large branch out with Peetie on it and he would stay quiet. 

I cleaned the container out once a week and let Peetie out while I did that.  I probably began by pulling the branch out with Peetie on it but Peetie gradually became comfortable enough to walk out of the box on his own.  Eventually he decided that he liked to run around the house.  His favorite thing to do was to climb up the drapes and drape himself along on the top of the drapery rods.  We began to take Peetie outside to run in the backyard.  He liked to climb our six-foot privacy fence and arrange himself on the top of the fence to sun himself. 

This was probably the last time the teacher let a student take Peetie home for the summer.  She was quite surprised that Peetie did not stay on his branch when she wanted to clean the box and that Peetie wanted to run around the classroom.  She was also quite surprised that Peetie wanted to run around the classroom longer than she wanted to let him and he was a little vocal about being coaxed back into his box before he was ready.