Cop Car….do NOT ask what KIND of little birds!

I was sitting at the sewing machine yesterday, looking out the window over the garden that surrounds the front sidewalk, and this really big bug flew by.  Wait…..it’s not a bug, it’s a HUMMINGBIRD!!!

I have a buddlea  shrub in the gardens, a butterfly bush.  It’s one of those with the raspberry colored pannicles. There were several hummers checking it out.  The birds were a medium sage green.   I couldn’t really see their wings because they were beating so fast.  I’ve seen pictures of ruby-throated hummingbirds, but I didn’t see any red on these birds.  When they were finished with the butterfly bush, they moved on to the red bud tree, just checking to see if there was anything else that interested them.

The butterfly bush also provided me the chance to see the first monarch butterfly of the summer!

Later, working at the kitchen sink, I discovered that hummingbirds and gold finches were swarming over the herb garden.  They both were checking out the purple cone flowers, and the hummers liked the basil.  The catnip was filled with finches, something drabber than the goldfinches.

I wouldn’t be offended if you called me “a country mouse.”  I do love the view out my windows!

I haven’t posted for some time because I’ve been busy working on projects in my studio.  I had three lap quilts to finish for Scraps on a Mission, and I cut out the pieces for two baby quilts.  I also sewed the blocks together for the last of the five twin-sized quilts that will be given to a women’s shelter from our Scraps on a Mission group.

One of the baby quilts is for a woman who has lost everything.  Her home has burned down, her dad has died, and now she is preparing to bring a little boy into the world in September.  It seemed to me that the least I could do was to make a baby quilt for that little  guy.  The picture of the quilt at the top of this page is what I made for them last week.

At breakfast yesterday with a friend who is in my charity quilting group, I described the quilt, and she suggested that we also send one of the cowboy fabric quilts that we’ve made.  The little blue quilt is just 40″ x 40″, but we can send a larger one he can use as he grows.  Another member of the group, upon hearing the story, said that SHE had a quilt that we could send!  I love the generosity that has just risen up for this woman we don’t even know.