A busy day

 Didn't go into the office but I did a number of other things.

Early this morning when I was practicing piano, the contractor ran by. He didn't come up to the house; if he'd have wanted to talk to me he'd have texted me. He put his advertising sign in the yard, which I'm fine with; that tells me he takes enough pride in his work to tell everyone else that his crew is working on my house. I am wondering if MAYBE he was in town (he's based in Denison) to start doing some of the permitting work (I hope). It's also possible he had a consult with someone else, or was checking in on a job one of his crews was doing. 

It's possible though that my roof might start next week.

The biggest task I did was going out, setting an hour-and-a-half timer on my phone, and just cutting and clearing brush (mostly from the front, or west, side of the house - it was morning and the sun hadn't come around yet so it was cooler there). It's not quite done, and at some point I pooped out on stooping DOWN to cut, and moved over to cutting/pulling the "honeyvine" (which actually smells like BO - it's some kind of a milkweed) that had come up around on the fence on the north side of the house. I also cleared out a lot of the humus that had developed from accumulated leaves and catkins behind the abelia bushes. It needs to be done, and I figure it will make it a lot easier for the contractor's teams to work, especially when it comes to work on the siding and trim.

After that, I showered, and had to sit for a while. Then I sorted books - got three more medium sized boxes that I didn't want to keep (duplicates of books I bought better, permanent copies of, or books I'll never re-read, or a few that I bought and went "nah, I don't think I will spend the time reading this") I used the boxes that either stuff I received recently came in, or in one case, that I had emptied out that had something else. Then I decided to maybe go to the quilt shop after lunch and drop a quilt off.

I originally thought of this old, old top (finished in 2007):

It's a "crossroads to Jericho" pattern, it's hard to see on there but they are all gold and green and purple fabrics in vaguely French Provincial designs. I didn't take this one because I didn't know how I wanted it quilted (I still might, quixotically given how little time I have, consider hand quilting it). It's a very traditional pattern and I'm not sure how it would look with the longarm style quilting, and this shop doesn't do the painstaking (and very expensive!) custom work where they will stitch in the ditch or something. 

But I did have a smaller top that I realized would work with the more modern longarm designs:

From 2013; "Cheese, no Crackers," using the Juggling Summer line from Zen Chic, plus a lot of avocado-colored background fabric.

I had bought a big piece from the line when it was out (I'm sure it's out of print now) for backing; I had six yards:

I found it when sorting fabric to box up and was smart enough to keep it (and a smaller piece with a white background but somewhat similar design, for binding) out. So I washed it up (just to be sure) and made a backing, and took the quilt down and dropped it off - the quilter is going to do the "orange peel" pattern (which is reminiscent of one of the Sashiko styles) and I'm having her do it in a cream color - which is a departure from my typical "match to the predominant color in the quilt" mode. But I think it will look good.

There's a 10 week wait; that's fine. That means she has a lot of tops stacked up, but that means that they're doing a good business, even with inflation, even with economic downturns. 

I also asked about fabric donation and she told me of a local church that has a very active quiltmaking ministry, so when I start sorting, I have a place to take my unloved fabric. (Very small pieces, smaller than 1/2 yard, I will probably pitch unless I want them for scrap quilting, I doubt they want tiny pieces). 

I also dropped the books off. It feels good to get some things out of the house; it already seems more spacious. And it's a relief to have that signed contract for the roof.

Tomorrow will be more brushcutting, and I have three or four more plastic tubs to try to finish the walk in closet with. I figure once the roof starts I will *want* to be in my office working, because of the noise here.