Feather the nest

My husband and I spent several minutes this morning watching a couple of Mourning Doves take up residence in one of my hanging flower baskets on our front porch. They haven't done this for a couple of years, and while it's fun to watch them build their nest and hatch the eggs, I wasn't expecting it. This particular basket holds a geranium that I have been nursing back to health and finally achieved some blooms on it. I'm a little sad that I now won't be able to water and fertilize it, but like my husband told me, we can always go purchase another basket of flowers and let the doves have this one. We thought we might help them out a bit, so I cut some yarn scraps up for them. I've done this in the past and once birds leave their nests, it's fun to see how they wove them in, and to know that they were able to use them. I'm sure we will have babies soon...

 

This is the time of year I like to 'feather my nest' as well, in preparation for the next Fall and Winter season. Last night, while listening to a couple of ladies who podcast from the Midwest, one of them said she is feeling the need to cast on for a knitted blanket. The other one exclaimed that nobody knits a blanket in the summertime! Dani said she doesn't know why she is feeling like this, but I get it. For me, it's contentment, or 'nesting' because I'm feeling content. Maybe it's the same for her and she doesn't realize that. I've decided I'm going to begin with completing a couple of quilts; one that my granddaughter made for me many years ago, and the other one is a top that somehow survived a divorce, that I had pieced together from scraps of all the clothes I sewed for my children and my niece when they were younger. How my mother came to end up with it, I'll never know, but she returned it to me a couple of years ago when she was going through her sewing bins. I was so happy to get it and it still makes me tear up to reminisce. I can still remember just about every outfit those scraps came from, and which child wore them. I had no idea what I was doing back when I made this top, all I knew was I wanted a handmade quilt. I eventually took hand quilting lessons, and then was able to laugh at my top. I remember showing it to my mom all those years ago (when she had no quilting knowledge either), and she told me not to laugh at it, that it was beautiful because of what it represented. I loved my mom's positive way of looking at things, no matter what adversity she faced, and like to think she passed it onto her children!

 



The quilt of many colors!

 

This is the quilt top my granddaughter made me when she was just nine. She took a sewing class to make these "rag" quilts, but they weren't taught to put batting in between the backing and the top. At the time, I was living in Kentucky and told her I would need mine to be a little warmer. I asked her if I took it home with me and put some batting in between, would she mind? She didn't mind at all, so now that she is soon to be 20 years old, I think I should take the time to complete it. I only have a couple of more squares to quilt, then I can start cutting the seams to create the rags. It will be finished in no time and I can hardly wait to show her!!