Progress Report

Well, I finished my Hydrangea quilt top yesterday and now am ready to start on the blanket stitching around the flowers, etc. I decided to try a different stitch and used a really pretty variegated thread and--no surprise--have been ripping out those stitches. It was worth a try though. I did about 6 flowers and realized that it looked like a very poorly done satin stitch--definitely not the effect I was going for. I always seem to go back to the blanket stitch for this kind of work. Now I'm getting kind of anxious to see how the whole thing turns out! I'm calling it Shady Ladies.
I also have made the baby quilt for our guild project from the "failed" background of the hydrangea. It turned out very soft-looking and will be nice for a little baby. This quilt didn't take long to make and quilt because, after all, I already had the center finished.
Smokey and I took a little time off this morning and rode up to Pinopolis, SC to see what lake living looked like there (pretty nice but also pretty far from everything) and then stopped at the remains of the Biggen Church in Monck's Corner. It was a very pastoral-feeling place and we walked around looking at the very old tombstones for quite a while. This church was rebuilt twice but a forest fire finally took it for good. At the end of our walking, I saw what I thought was a very unusual tombstone. You'll probably have to click to enlarge it to get the full effect. You can certainly tell from the design that this young man liked to fish and hunt. I guess it could be considered morbid, but so many tombstones have stories to tell and I enjoy listening to what they have to say.