Stinkbug and a Washed out Wake

This has been a fantastic autumn, thus far.  We have primarily highs in the 80's and lows in the fifties, for the most part, although some days have us dropping into the forties (and once into the thirties).  I've taken to cracking a window, at night.  I love sleeping with a cool night breeze trickling across my face.  I even turned on the electric blanket, one night.  We could use some rain before sliding into winter but none is in the forecast and I have to think we are down for the year - we'd like to get an inch or two before November settles in.  We may have to water the lawn during warm spells, this winter.  We are already discussing what we need to winterize the house and I picked up insulated outdoor faucet covers at Wal-Mart, today.  A lot of people put away their hoses during the winter because the cold is hard on them.  Husband likes to keep them hanging (and drained).  As he wisely pointed out, it is nice to have a hose handy in case of a fire and he'd rather replace a hose than a house.

It is warmer in the house than it is outdoors, which always gives me a rich feeling of well being.  The days are short enough that I end up sitting out in the dark with the girls for my first cup of coffee.  I pulled out the patio furniture so I could more easily see the stars and husband and I talked about how man, since the beginning of his history, has pretty much had the same night sky to think on.  We don't have as long to sit out in the evening before it gets too dark and chilly.  I've switched from my nightly glass of white wine to red. 

Yesterday, I put away most of my summer clothes, set aside quite a few for charity, and took out a few sweatshirts and sweaters to get me through the next couple of months.  I have a box of jeans and long sleeved shirts in the closet of my sewing room and need to get that out.  Hope I can fit into my jeans!  I didn't get out the winter clothes, yet.   

The leaves are rapidly fading to yellows and lighter green.  I don't expect to see the vivid color we saw back east.  Some trees are just dropping their leaves, brown and dingy - nothing flashy to look at.  Within a month, most of the deciduous trees will be bare and the evergreens (primarily cedars) will look starkly green with little other color to blend against.  It will be their time to shine.  I'm going to move the birdfeeder to just outside my sewing room window and set up the birdcam out there.  I also need to jimmy the north gate so that I can use it from the backyard and save myself a few steps on setting out feed. 

The girls found an enormous stinkbug on the patio, yesterday.  It was two inches long.  I guess it is a stinkbug.  Evelyn took a sniff and began hacking and coughing.  She wanted no part of it.  Pearly then nuzzled it before jumping back.  She started rubbing her snout on the grass and I got up to separate them, thinking it had stung her or something.  But no.  She just wanted to roll on it.  And she proceeded to roll on it, blissfully, for the next ten minutes.  At a certain point, Evelyn came back over and, eventually, Pearl ate it. 

  

Are they precious or what?

Bug breath!!!

 They are such ladies.

 

I have a Plexiglas Bernina extension table that I paid a fortune for but don't use since I am going to sell my little Bernina. Rather than sell the table, too, Husband converted it to work with the new Janome and I am delighted with it. Without the extension table, I had a hard time getting the fabric to lay even while I stitched. It kept wanting to fall over. I took my original Beloved Janome (the 4800) out to the barn but left the 9500 in the house since it uses the computer and that is where the computer is. I feel like a faithless jade.  Once I was back to one machine on the table, I had room to work on my Lady Melinda wall hanging, this afternoon. I added a wake where the boat cuts the water, and then added more water beneath that.

I'd been pretty excited about the color I'd planned to use for the wake but now that it is on there, I wish I had gone with a lighter fabric. You can't see it as well as I'd like. I may add some paint later, dunno. I might be able to fuse or applique some light fabric, too. Scratching my head over that one. The good news is that is lays flat! So far, so good.

We are now getting to the tricky part of it and it might all come together, or I might just throw up my hands and say, "It was a nice idea."

Happy Quilting, Penny, Evelyn and Pearl