A hot time in the old town tonight!

I didn't say fun - I said hot! And hot it has been. We're breaking temperature records nearly every day. Unfortunately, my husband and I have chosen this summer to do a lot of work outdoors. We've moved on from demolition to construction. We've spent the last two days trying to figure out how to build an outdoor patio. Okay, we're not particularly "handy" people. We wanted to hire someone to build the patio for us, but we couldn't get anyone to even come out to give us an estimate. I guess our little 10' x 20' area just isn't large enough for the workers in this NWA. So much for a bad economy and people in need of work. : (

We finally got one guy to come out, and he gave us an estimate of $2800. Do you know how much fabric that would buy?!? We decided to figure out how to lay a patio ourselves. Then this afternoon, without warning, one of the contractors who didn't come out earlier suddenly showed up out of the blue. We had already done some of the work ourselves and have much of the materials, so he's going to send out a couple of guys who need some work to finish the job at a price we can afford. Now we can get back to cutting out the huge juniper bush at the corner of the house. Yippee...

On the quilting front, I finished the side strip on the Farmer's Market quilt, but I'm not happy with my color selection. I'm too lime green heavy on one side. I think I'm going to switch out some of the blocks, but not right now. I've shelved the Farmer's Market for the moment. I need some time off. Instead I've decided to finally sew the final border onto the my second Sister Quilt. All it needs is the final black border. Here's a picture of the quilt folded in half lengthwise so I could measure it.

I got the first two borders sewn on with no problems. And no help from the kitties. Then they got bored and found me. Sinnie decided to inspect my fabric, so that put an end to cutting borders.

Then Callie decided to inspect the quilt itself, so I decided to try out my quilting thread options. I'm really leaning toward a rather colorful copper variegated thread. : )

And here came Maxie to oversee thread choice. She had to run each thread through her teeth and claws as I worked with them. I'm trying to decide whether to applique some of the flowers from the focal fabric on the two large blank corners (I'll show them to you when I actually finish getting the borders on) or to use those corners for some fancy quilting designs. The copper thread I like is in the middle of the photo The thread at the bottom is a softer variegated blue, red, and green combo. Hmmm... Choices, choices.

We have to spend tomorrow digging up Mom's old patio that she wants rid off - we're recycling her stones - and buying the additional stones that we'll need to finish off our area. We have to have all of the materials for the workers by Thursday. Busy, busy.

'Til later,

Debbi