Naked Ladies

I've had Naked Ladies on my mind since the weekend. No, silly, not that kind of naked lady. This kind:



These are interesting flowers and there's a good reason why they are called Naked Ladies. They come up in early spring, along with the daffodils and crocus. In fact, the foliage is very similar to that of a daffodil. But you'd be sorely disappointed if you were wanting flowers in the spring. After all the spring flowers are finished blooming, the Naked Lady foliage turns yellow and withers away. No more plant. Then, in late July, a flower stalk pushes its way up et voila! You have flowers!

I happened to catch the flowers last Sunday as the sun was shining through their petals. Alas, I couldn't capture their beauty because the camera batteries (both sets) decided to run out of juice. I took this picture this morning, but it doesn't do the flowers justice. I'll try again tomorrow morning.

Weekend Happenings
This past weekend wasn't too productive on the quilting front. My parents finally decided to visit. It's been almost three years since their last visit (they live about four hours away) and that was way too long. They came up Friday evening and left Monday morning. What exciting and thrilling things did we do? Ummm...we ate. And went to the farmers market on Saturday. We sat around and talked. Ummm...we ate some more. Tom made his famous martinis for my mom. I got some knitting in while we talked.

By the time they left, my parents were looking quite relaxed and happy. A weekend of doing nothing was good for them. The last three years have been difficult. They spent almost six months getting my grandmother's house ready for sale a couple of years ago, then Mom's hip went bad and she had hip surgery in last November and then she dealt with breast cancer this spring. That's not exactly a stress-free existence.

Hey Sheep! Mom said she likes reading your comments on my blog. You've got another fan!

Quilt and Knitting Progress
There's a reason I don't like to piece quilts by machine. See?



I can't get the points to match up. I feel that I've got much better control of point-matching with piecing by hand. I'm going to have to work on perfecting my cutting technique as well as my sewing technique.

Tom's heading out early Saturday for a rock climbing trip to the Sierras and won't be back until the following Sunday. This will give me ample time to finish the scarf for my One Skein secret pal (it looks like it did in a previous post, but longer) and work on the quilt. There will be stash enhancement time, too, but probably not too much.

It's always weird when Tom goes away on one of his climbing trips. There's the freedom of doing anything I want (well, within reason). But believe it or not, that gets old after a couple of days. The house feels too empty, even with the cat. And then there's always the worry that he'll have a climbing accident. It's not likely, but it is possible. Anyway, I'm going to try to focus on my knitting and quilting. And if the quilting frustrates me too much? I'll work on my spinning.

As of Saturday, I'll be sans camera because Tom is taking it on his climbing trip. I'll see what kind of photo quality I can get off my cell phone. But the blog will probably be pictureless for a while.

Have a great weekend!