I can't believe August is almost gone

and I haven't blogged since the first of the month. 
     I've enjoyed my time at home but  my 6 week break from traveling and teaching is coming to an end soon.  With that in mind, I thought I'd catch you up on what going on in my studio and my  Florida life. 
 I gave up on the machine pieced half square triangle quilt I showed you in my last blog. It had been so long since I'd machine pieced something so traditional that I had forgotten how much I disliked doing so,  If I am going to machine piece something it has to  be  complex to hold my interest and challenge me.
     On the other hand,  I really like hand piecing so much  that the  60 x 60 inch hexagon quilt I started 3 weeks ago using the same fabrics is finished and  last weekend I began hand quilting it in the evenings as I watch uninteresting stuff on the television or while listening to a book on CD.
    Speaking of progress, I finally finished machine quilting the  painted quilt I started way back last Spring, a month before all the house renovations began.
     I can not think of any quilt I've every made since one or two of my very first efforts that has taken me this long from start to finish.  Of course it still needs  facing,  sleeves  and a-label. The painted piece is on the design wall now so I can decide how much to cut off each edge  before applying the facing.
     Sorry I can't show you the quilt along with some other images I wanted to post because for some reason Blogger does not like my new computer and Windows 10 or my new computer does not  like Picasa. 
     When I work out the bugs in uploading images I'll be back. 
and

Hello on this unsunny Sunday

     Having a little problem with stick- to- it -ness when it comes to this quilt.  I love the colors and  the fabrics I selected, it just the sameness, the repetitiveness of making one half square block after another.  Sameness and repetitiveness are   the reasons why I can recall only four quilts with repeat blocks that I've  completed out of several hundred I've made since 1983.     
     I took a few minutes to go weed my little patch of ground I call a garden this morning between the rain spells.  Everything is doing great except the Lilies of the Nile.  Not sure if they like drier roots than they have had this year.
     For several days I have been hearing a different bird call coming from the wooded area at  the back of the condo,  Today when I saw a flash of red, I grabbed my camera.  

Maybe I was hearing this bird's call.


      

  Still looking out the window a few minutes after the Cardinal flew away I say the Hawk that visits often. 

Got a good laugh when it was chased away by to smaller birds. 

Maybe they are protecting a nest nearby..
Putting on my movie critic hat, I went to see the overly long last offering in the Tom Cruise Mission Impossible series.  All I'll say is , it wasn't good.  The best part happened in the first few minutes of the movie. The part they run on TV as a preview with him hanging onto an airplane as it leaves the ground.   The  rest was ho-hum.
Blogging today is my  way of procrastinating, so I will go now and get back to making 1/2 square triangle block as I listen to the rain..