Sunday evening things

* I spent about an hour and a half cutting brush (mostly the holly and abelia bushes; the hollies were starting to block light from getting into the dining room, which is where I have my houseplants.

Unfortunately, my skin doesn't like hollies:

Yup. Tiny hives all over my arm from brushing against it. Hopefully the hydrocortisone cream will do its thing overnight; it's too warm here now to wear long sleeves and I get self-conscious about these things.

I mowed the lawn yesterday. (which was REALLY hard to do - I think I let it go too long, and I was having all kinds of problems with getting out of breath and what felt like an overly-fast heart rate while doing it. (I wonder if the beta blocker affects the heart rate thing, though I think it was probably asthma that was bothering me)  I think between that and the brushcutting today, I can take a break day from working out tomorrow - my first exam is at 11, I don't need to be on campus until 9 (I have a student who needed to reschedule a final), so I can not set my alarm clock. (I naturally wake up at or before 6:30, plenty of time to get ready and over there.)

* Here are the first blocks finished from the "Donut Holes" quilt:



It alternates the "hole" blocks with the big 4-patches (each block is about 19" square in finished size, which is really large for a quilt block.



Here's a close-up of one of the four-patches.

One thing I want to do is see if I can get the wide backing - either at Lulu and Hazel's or on my trip on Wednesday - because it would be nice to just get 2 1/2 yards or so of one of the 90" wide ones and not have to piece it. I may just go with a solid color, unless there is a print that seems like it would coordinate.

* I do need to piece the back for the "birb" quilt so I can get it to Lulu and Hazel's.

* One thing I want to do over my upcoming break is make a couple simple summer shift-type dresses. I realized two of the dresses I wear all the time now (the M. Mac one and the navy blue one from Vermont Country Store) are more-or-less elongated t-shirts (well, the navy blue one is more A-line, it gets wider towards the hem) and I thought it would be nice to make a couple more to have in the closet - since I will mostly NOT be doing messy fieldwork this summer, I will probably want to wear dresses more (they are more comfortable when it's hot)

I looked at a few patterns online, and then realized - maybe my mom still has her Stretch and Sew patterns from the 80s, and if she has a simple t-shirt dress in them, I could use that. (they were, as I remember, multi-sized patterns you traced off, so even though my mom is tiny and I am big, we could use the same pattern). Or I could just buy one.

I will try Sewing Studio for jersey knit, though it's also entirely possible my mom has some nice stuff stored away that would work, and of late, she's been happy for me to retrieve and use stuff out of her "stash." (I think most people who have a little money and do some craft wind up with what is known as SABLE - stash acquired beyond life expectancy. I know I am likely there with yarn, quilt fabric, and books, and I come from long-lived stock.)