Well, I went out to the field site today and spent a couple hours counting and marking the milkweeds that had come up in the past month. Interestingly enough, the ones that were up early (when it was so dry) are far, far behind the others in terms of flowering - many of them do not even have buds. (Unfortunately, I'll need at least another year's detailed observations before I can be sure that's a pattern).

I should have gone out before now but it was storming so often - or I was in class, when it wasn't.

I also finished this today:



The block at the center is an "antique" (probably actually "vintage;" I always understood that something had to be 100 years old to truly be an antique. I'm guessing from the fabrics it is from the 1930s). It's set in a 1930s reproduction fabric - the same fabric is on the back. I used off-white piping around the edges (it's not perfect; I'm not good at putting on piping).

It's going to be a birthday present for my mother. I've got a 14" pillow form in there but if I don't have room in my bag, I can take the pillow form out and buy one while I'm up visiting.

There's a little reason for it (besides the fact that my mother is a quilter): my mother's mother had a Sunbonnet Girl quilt - it was in what had been my mother's room when she was growing up. Unfortunately, because of some other craziness that went on when my grandmother passed away, no one knows of the fate of the Sunbonnet quilt (My mother would have liked to have had it; it probably was taken by one of the people who rented the house before it was eventually sold). This sunbonnet girl is actually very close to the style of the quilt (at least, as best I can remember it). So I realize that in no way it's like getting the actual quilt back for her, but I hope it will mean something.

Other than that, didn't do much today. Still picking away at Hiawatha. Sat down and started reading the "Little Dee" book (the collection of online comics from 2004 and 2005) and just kept reading...there's something so cozy and comforting about the strip.

I also received a spam today with the subject line, "Loves conquers all things except poverty and toothache." It's sad that it's a spam because that's actually kind of a profound thought. Or maybe not. Or maybe I'd just like to see the folks at "Spamusement" let loose on that one.