Closing in on finishing Throw Quilt #2—I’ve got it sandwiched and basted, and now I just have to get it quilted which should only take two days or so. With any lucky I’ll have that done and the edges bound by Wednesday night, then I can get both quilts in the mail to their new owner.
In the meantime I’m also trying to get various writing projects done, I keep looking at our desolate back yard and want to get bags of dirt spread on the hard clay in order to promote some grass growth, and I continue to get various long-standing tasks tackled around here—namely, I finally hit the window seat cushion from my office with My Pet Peed (I can only assume Jasmine got trapped on it by Jeremy and she fear pees, so it’s been sitting in the garage for the last couple of months until I could get some MPP). Once that did its job I took the cushion out to the back yard and gave it a good wash. It’s currently drying in the sun, and when that’s finished I’ll sew on some buttons that have fallen off and reinstall it in my office window. I may even take another crack at installing the blinds for that window, now that I can stand for long periods of time without wanting to cut off my right knee.
I may only be inching ahead when it comes to cleaning this place and getting it organized, but I am inching. Any forward progress is a win.
After a day of work and at least five old episodes of 
One of the questionable benefits of my mild OCD is that once I lock onto a task I will often stick with it well past the time when I should take a break, or get something to eat, or walk around and let the blood flow back into my feet.
Causing my sinuses to kick up a merry stink about big masses of air moving past each other, but hey, what else is new? That being said, I’m looking forward to the cooler temps for the rest of the week because it’s probably the last relatively cool weather we’ll have for spring. Temps next week are supposed to be in the 70s/80s, which means I’ll have to start running the upstairs A/C for the 80s days. I’m trying to give our downstairs unit as much of a break as I can before we need to start running it since it is Olde™ and the A/C was horrified at the sound it made when he was out here checking the systems. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that it always made that kind of noise, being an old two-blade fan type.
I am happy to announce that the S’mores ice cream is a hit. Lyndon took a spoonful, his eyebrows went up and he said, “Oh, that’s very nice,” which in British means, “Damn, this is delicious!”
Got the results of my blood and pee tests on Monday and all my numbers look good, so it seems like I’ll be around for a little while longer to make stuff, take care of the J Crew, and annoy the bigoted. So I have that going for me.
I wound up getting an unexpected commission to make two throw quilts based on my Arkansas Rainbow quilt. Even better, the client didn’t blink when I quoted a price for them. Handmade quilts are expensive, pure and simple, not only for all the fabric that goes into them but the sheer amount of work it takes to design the quilt top, cut out and sew the patchwork pieces together, sandwich and baste the backing, batting, and top, and then actually quilt the whole thing together. And too often artisans run into people who are basing their budget on cheap mass-produced stuff made overseas instead of a custom piece made to their design and balk when you give them a reasonable quote that covers material and time. 
Melanie Fletcher 