Gone To The Beach: Cabin Fever, Winter Garden, Boardwalk Quilt.

Friday, February 27, 2026

Cabin Fever, Winter Garden, Boardwalk Quilt.

Hi everyone. February round up.

I hardly know where to start---and not in a good "I'm so busy " way! The sun is shining, the snow is slowly melting. I made a plan w a friend to run to Trader Joe's for flowers and food goodies

until we realized there's still nowhere to park. Not that there ever is: our TJs was voted the worst parking lot of all the TJ stores anywhere, our other one came in second worst. Peonies are from December visit.

Quilts: My four late 2025-early '26 quilts are packed and ready to mail to my quilter, as soon as mail pick up resumes. I still have no plan going forward, are my quilting days done? I hate waking up and having no project; there's ben times when the thought of my afternoon sewing hour w Mo has been all that gets me out of bed. Yesterday I fooled around with string quilt: "Boardwalk",

My tryouts. Good to make samples. I see I need the strips to be much paler. Need to avoid blue and white and instead do greys. Otherwise the weathered wood effect is lost. And...the strips need to be about the same width, not random. The inspiration quilt is more complex than at first glance.

Improv is not my thing. I enjoy a a pattern, a design, a goal. I don't think a grey and white improv sounds like fun, do you? It seems the kind of quilt I be thrilled to buy and use but not one I want to make.

Then there's this idea,

from.

I had planned to make it this winter, then decided not. Because who needs yet another big Fall quilt. This week I reconsidered: if making autumn quilts makes me happy, why not? Who cares. They're just for my amusement, no on will save them when I'm gone. Dumpster fodder!

Tax prep is weekend but I also may make a couple try out blocks to see what I think. (as always it is too big; I already know the second from the bottom row will be eliminated.) The Puss in the Corner is a simple block, looks suitably unchallenging.

And these two ideas are grouped on my desk, though I 'm unsure what or where they will become a project.

I'm also sad not to make a US Birthday quilt.

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Indoor bulbs:

More good news from amaryllis land! The bulbs are sprouting. I fed them, in case they were too neglected to rebloom. Maybe next year will be better.

And!: Big Red is showing a hint of green growth. on the right.

I've had her for maybe 8 years now, so happy she survived the bricklayers' damage last summer. So brave.

On the other hand: paperwhites.

Of twenty plus bulbs, only three grew and bloomed.

Sweet but disappointing.

Most of the plain narcissus, Nazareth? grew leaves but no blooms. The Chinese narcissus I was so excited about--yellow centers!--have just laid there doing nothing.

As has my sweet potato, a tutorial from Martha Stewart blog. I should have eaten it instead. I love the chartreuse leaves and vines, so a school kid experiment revisited. My dad told me years ago [I was probably about 8] that produce is treated w no-sprout hormone and the sweet potatoes won't grow*, so I bought an organic potato. So far, week two, nothing. *you'd think Martha would know this?

Back to the paperwhites: first time ever I had such a fail! I can no longer recc Blooming Bulbs as a resource. Next year 'Ill go back to the Ziva species from Amazon.

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Mo had a vet checkup today. Vet had nothing good to say. Yes he lost more than 5 pounds, but we don't know why. Yes his eyes and ears are in bad shape, he is in pain, nothing to be done. "He is old". Mo will be 12 in a few weeks.

She also was critical that his face wasn't clean enough, his pug wrinkles. I felt so bad--with five eye drop applications per day, plus at least one eye wash/ clean; foot cleaning after walks, ear cleaning---every single day!!!--- he isn't so tolerant of facial washes. I felt really inadequate after the visit. I did get the deck door open finally and my friend shoveled a tiny pathway. Drifts are too high for Mo to go out safely yet, maybe tomorrow. He loves snow and could fall over the edge or into the drifts and be injured. Cabin fever--patience is in short supply here this week.