New Orleans, LA

Oliver and I have been in New Orleans for the last few days so I could attend a library conference. I know this is bad, but.......I really wanted to visit New Orleans due to my former Anne Rice passion, and not so much for the conference. So here is my review of NOLA.  Interesting. Would be better if you have a big budget and can afford to go on lots of tours and eat at the restaurants in the French Quarter. I would avoid Bourbon Street at all costs (a hive of scum and villainy (well, maybe vulgarity, stench, crudeness) if I ever saw one).  The streetcars were fun to ride, and not expensive.  There are lots of beautiful town homes.  Our favorite part of the whole trip was leaving New Orleans on the Great River Road and visiting a couple of plantations.  Sooo interesting! We didn't take many pictures until plantation day.

In the St. Charles streetcar

Oak Alley Plantation

Oak Alley Front

Nottoway Plantation

Nottoway- White Ballroom

Blessed are the Peacemakers

I took the opportunity today to make a little peace with summer, and indeed found myself blessed.  When I stepped out on my porch this midday I noticed that the day seemed promising and happy with its warm breeze to break up the otherwise oppressive 100* heat.  I got it into my head to walk to Subway with the Finches, Cold Mountain, and my sunhat.

The first step to this adventure was to prettify my sunhat.  Vain?  Possibly.  But any inducement to make someone agreeable to walking around in the Texas sun is a solution worth trying.  So I took some of my fabric yo-yos from last summer and let them perch on the side of my hat.

I donned my shortest jean skirt (knee length) and packed away my Simplicity 2206 jersey knit cardigan in preparation for the air conditioning to come, and set out before I could come to my senses.

You can't help but have a cheerful walk while listening to the Finches Human Like a House album, especially while migrating from shade patch to shade patch along the sidewalk and admiring magnificent residential shrubberies.  A number of times I wished I'd brought my camera, but also remembered that my eyes are kinder to the sights than the lens of my cheap-o camera.  I saw a vine with pink flowers full of honeybees, a tree with half-ripe pomegranates, tidy front porches fit to make a renting girl slightly jealous, fields which still housed some fighting sunflowers and some vines with cottony tufts, mourning doves sitting in the branches of a bleached white dead tree.  I passed an area beneath a mesquite tree that was strewn with dried beans and thought of the mesquite bean preserves I sampled at the Texas Folklife Festival last Saturday.

It's only too easy to get caught up feeling hopeless and distraught when things aren't quite going your way.  I suppose the remedy is to step back and survey the things and experiences that you can truly be thankful for.  I wouldn't have been able to enjoy such a wonderful day if I would have been working at the job I have been coveting.  Plus, Ollie and I are still able to pay our bills, hug-n-squeeze our pets, eat at restaurants, enjoy sweet air conditioning, practice all kinds of hobbies.  Things could definitely get worse.  And that thought is quite consoling!

Half square triangles progress

I have 149 squares stitched together, and still need about 100 more.  While I don't like cutting fabric, I adore the sewing parts and the ironing.  The best part for me has been admiring the fabric colors.  All my faves are accounted for.  No purple in sight, just how I like it!

This afternoon after sewing and ironing a huge stack I had fun arranging them in different ways to see how I may want to arrange things in the final quilt.  I think my original idea still wins.  Here were the options:

Original Idea

Zig-zaggy

Diamonds

I think the finished quilt will have a higher percentage of pure white halves, but I got some cuttin' to do.  I think the zig-zag would work better with more white pieces, but I'm not sure it looks that great with the few reds I want to incorporate.  I will do this again when I have all the squares.  I am limiting my colors to just blues and greens, with a little splash of red thrown in here and there.  I am soooo tempted to tear through my stash and incorporate some of my other pinks, greens and browns....but I must use self control.  I think it will look better with my color scheme.

I have to admit, sewing has been damn good to me this year!

I've even been reading fiction books with sewing themes.  A couple of months ago I finished the Persian Pickle Club by Sandra Dallas.  Now I'm listening to Oh My Stars by Lorna Landvik.  Both books take place in the 1930s.  Persian Pickle is from the point of view of Queenie, a young member of a small town depression era sewing club.  Talk of the club and its members frames a quaint murder mystery which plays out.  Oh My Stars is a little more complicated, and I'm not yet halfway through, so I will have to report back later on it.  So far, so good, though!