A pretty perfect day

I woke up earlier than I'd wanted to. So when You Know Who came in from his run saying there are two hedge hogs out by the door, I was ready. By the time I got out there though, one was bumpity bumping off through the grass. I should have taken a movie. It was funny. The other one froze. At first it looked at me and then...... It attempted to roll into a ball. Either it wasn't very practiced or I wasn't very threatening. Hiding it's eyes under it's spiky brow was the best it could do. Yes, Jessica, I touched it. That photo was blurry. It's very hard to take a picture at dawn, laughing, outside in your pjs, knowing your German neighbors have seen, and feeling so sorry for this little creature that you can't resist touching.

After that I pretty much started the day with a vengance. The next item up is a wristlet key thingy that I've wanted to make for awhile. I don't have the "real" hardware that everyone else uses, so this is my version. I love it, I don't know why but it makes walking the dog more fun. This one is for a certain friend.... is it pink enough?

Six more installments towards my spider web quilt.

A quilt top finished and hopefully quilting will commence soon. This is for a seven year old who likes race cars. I'm glad he also said these colors are favorites, they all happen to be flag colors in racing. I hope he likes it.

And then I was thiiiiiis close to finishing another top. Oh the saddness of miscalculation. Oh the harsh trials of directional fabric. So Jess, here's a preview, if you don't like it, too late.

And for goodness sake, if you don't like animal fur or random strings of thread do not magnify this photo. Thank you.

I even managed house cleaning and an hours walk around town, in the heat, getting bad directions, searching for a totto lotto that had a package for me.

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More later

Relax and Recycle

Yes, I too am on the string quilt band wagon. What's not to love? I'm using any paper I would normally throw away for my foundation and small peices of fabric I can't bear to throw away. The only peices you must be precise with, for the spider web pattern, are the middle "kite" shapes. I love the randomness of the rest of the quilt. I only have about 94 more triangles to go for a decent sized quilt. Hmmmm, maybe it will be a baby sized quilt.
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If you'd like to try one there is a great tutorial here.

Have you been to the Bodensee?

Whatever you choose to do there, where ever you choose to go, the Bodensee is one of the most gorgeous places on earth. Bordering Germany, Switzerland and Austria it is Central Europe's third largest lake. It's my way of not missing the ocean so much. A two hour drive from Stuttgart gets you to a micro climate wonderland. Fresh fish, fruit, vegies and most of all SUN. So in the era of "stay vacation" I'd recommend it to anyone living in Southern Germany.

Mainau has a butterfly house that I could live in.





Meersburg, touristy yes, beautiful yes.
Ferrying around the lake is fun. Forced relaxation. The sights are sometimes very interesting.

This lovely seagull, tormented us most of our way around the lake. My big boy faked him out several times pretending to throw food in the water. Mean.... Nah. Funny, yes.

More later.