Yard work and quilting

I've been getting ready for my girlfriend retreat in Cambria, CA. I've gotten a pedicure, had my hair cut (decided to leave the gray alone), and I've even shaved my legs! GASP! I'm leaving Sunday, returning the following Sunday, and we'll be sewing and laughing the entire time.

I've gotten started on my Words project at least 3 times (and more in my head), and so far I haven't liked a single experiment I've tried. And the pressure is mounting to land on something that I like so I can work on it in Cambria, and have it ready to be submitted by the middle of April. Well, I hadn't found anything that I like that is, until this morning.

I know we get inspiration from the strangest places, but I have to tell you that this is my strangest one of all. Here's my story of how I got from A to Z.

Chapter 1
My first inspiration for the wavy words was from my bathroom rug. I like the rug:

I don't like the wavy words:


Chapter 2:
I have a "Hubby-do" list (as I'm sure many of you do) for while I'm gone. This is our first spring at our new house, and what we've discovered is that we have the worst of the worst CLAY dirt here. So much clay, I think we could sell it off for the stuff they use to line ponds with! At any rate, it wasn't draining off the house correctly, and I couldn't plant my old fashioned flower garden out my stewdio window, nor could our new vegetable garden get dry in order to till. So, Hubby rented a "cutter", and started in making french drains away from the house. All in all there is about 400' of drainage between all the lines. Here's Hubby with the new toy - Watch out, though, he is cutting through everything that isn't moving!


Illustrations:





Chapter 3
Arches
As I was documenting the work for posterity, it came to me how lovely that arch is in cut through the dirt. The water that immediately started running in the grade just emphasized the curve of it, and my brain ran away with me back to the stewdio to try out something. Ah, success, I think!

And the eye candy working in my garden (a local college boy) isn't too bad either!