Gosh, I have missed all of you. A trip to Grand Rapids sure sucked the hours out of my days and I've had one son and then husband and the other son here at the lake with me for some vacation time so you can imagine how busy it's been around here. Even Clutch slept for a whole day after everyone went home.

The weather has finally turned to summer so I've been trying to finish up the raking, trimming and weeding. Somehow during the weeding process I got myself into rock digging.

I've dug and pulled and dug and dug some more. I worked to the point where my son said "Stop Mom, I'll buy you some rocks"! What a sweetie, but there's something about unearthing a 50 year old rock garden that pushes me on. I have rested the last couple of days due to age related aches and pains but I've got some beautiful stones and only a small section left to check for buried treasure.

Take a look at those steps. Aren't they the most pitiful mess you've ever seen? We thought maybe the chipmunks had been digging tunnels under them and that caused the tip. There's been much discussion about whether to use a 3 ton jack (whatever that is) to lift them up and put sand underneath. We've all thought about taking out our frustrations by smashing them with a sledge hammer and considered just building a section of wood steps right over the top of them but..........

we discovered one of these little buggers is actually the critter who has taken up residence under the steps. He swims under the last section of dock and right down the melon size hole he dug at the shoreline to get to his mansion under the steps.

I got me a lawn chair and got me a gun and just like Granny Clampett I'm going to be hunting muskrat! Wish there was a way to trap and release but he'd be back in no time. Gotta save those steps.



For now Clutch is on muskrat patrol!

Back to stitching - I've posted the July blocks for the Sally Post Floral Sampler quilt and the Beyond the Cherry Trees quilt.
The Beyond the Cherry Trees block for July is in honor of the National Cherry Festival that was held this past week in Traverse City.

The U.S. Navy Blue Angels were here this year so most of us locals kept our distance from town so that gave me plenty of time for all that pulling and digging.

Click on the picture to go to it's Flickr page. You can see the stitching details on the original size photo.

There's as much going on in this block as there was at the festival. We have hidden stitches galore.

A flower......

another flower.........

and a third flower!

two leaves...........

a star............

and four cute little hearts in the center!

The border section right above this block has some interesting quilting hidden in the stitches too.

I've studied and studied the embroidered stems on the cherries. The thread has faded to nearly white. The dark thread you see in some of the pictures is where I stitched over the lines so I could see them for tracing.

The thread is heavier than quilting thread but not glossy like perle cotton. I've looked at tatting thread and haven't been able to find a color to match the green. Anyone have any ideas?
Each stitch is about a 1/8" long chain stitch with a single strand of the thread.