No photos, still busy

I have purple and pink fabrics along with many colored strips of batik strewn around the sewing room. I am in the middle of two projects. One started with an appliqued center from the most recent Piece 'o' Cake book. That 25 x 26" piece is now on the design wall, and I plan to add a few borders before I make some wide appliqued borders. I plan to put the words "Live, Love, Laugh, and Be Happy" in them along with a robin on a vine or branch. I wasn't sure what possessed me to put those on until this morning I noticed that Paul has been practicing When the Red, Red Robin Comes Bob-Bob-Bobbing Along on the ukulele. I guess I was receiving a subliminal message!

The other quilt is a scrap-user that started with scraps from "Rainbow Sylvia" and all the 2" strips I cut for the sashing and cornerstones. I'm just making squares using light and dark batiks in 2" pieces, and I have almost enough made for a quilt. I have about a dozen all cut up and ready to sew. This has been a nice project for the hot weather we've had since I haven't been thinking much, just sewing and listening to George Eliot's Middlemarch on my iPod. I have read it several times before but thought it might be a good one to re-read.

When I don't feel like sewing, I've been reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett. It is a really great look at life for white and blacks in Jackson, MS, in 1962. Told from the points of view of two maids and a young white woman, the inequality of their lives and the young white woman's growing awareness is very well drawn. I watched Haley Barbour the other night tell about how he grew up in integrated schools, particularly college, and since he is older than me, I know that wasn't the case. My friend Laura says that Barbour plans to run for president so I will keep my ears open.