Not Much

This past week has been one of emergency rooms and hospitals with my mother and my mother-in-law. I won't go into the various aspects of these events--I'm sure many of you have been through similar experiences--except to say that the energy that it takes to get through each one of these days doesn't leave much for anything else. So . . .there hasn't been much quilting in my neck of the woods this week. I had ordered thread to finish out the quilting of my Guild Challenge Quilt (see post just before this one) and it came on Thursday, I was excited, opened the box and . . .you guessed it--the most important thread was backordered. So, since I didn't want to start with a partial spool and maybe not see the rest of the thread until who knows when, I'm using another thread. What did come was more Bottom Line thread and I am REALLY enjoying using it in my Juki machine. For some reason, it has solved a lot of my tension problems.

I thought I would just post a few pictures of flowers in my yard that are blooming right now. They can do so much to lift your spirits and they are so thankful right now for all the rain they've gotten in the past couple of days.

The shrub on the left is a hydrangea--which I'm sure you already know. The unique thing about this particular one is its history. My mother-in-law had a border of hydrangeas when she lived in the Village in Mt. Pleasant and when she built this house about 25 years ago, she rooted some of those and brought them here with her. This is one of them. It's kind of small because it's been through some hard times! But what I didn't know about this plant is that it originally came from the family plantation on James Island, Stiles Point. She rooted from those plants in the 50's and planted them in that original border in the Village. So, you might say that it's a family heirloom.

The plant on the right is is a daylilly. I included this one because of the double center. I had gotten some like that from a neighbor when we built our first house in Mt. Pleasant and when I saw this one, it just brought back those memories of that first growing experience.

And the last plant is the Swamp Hibiscus, which inspired one of my most recent quilts. The plant that I had last year died over the winter but, lo and behold, the one that my mother-in-law had planted in the shade--and didn't do well--survived the winter. (I guess that'll teach me!). Anyway, I moved it into the sun and it's beginning to bloom.

So, this week will be better than last. I get to go to Karen Kendo's TTT and teach my Palmetto Class and I'm really looking forward to that. And, in the meantime, I remind myself of the many blessings I receive each day just by looking around me.