Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt Encouragement Smells Good The Rose Garden was gorgeous. The only reason a person driving along the country road past farm after farm knew to stop to see the large garden was a sign reading.”Stop and Smell the Roses.” We are glad we stopped.  Row after row of large, perfect roses

Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt Encouragement Writing Spider Large with bright yellow markings, the writing spider makes you notice her. She makes an impressive web which contains zig-zag lines that have a slight resemblance to writing, hence the name. I doubt anyone could really make out individual letters in a web, but a legend persists

Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt Encouragement Baby Babblings             The giggle of the 7 weeks old baby girl brought a smile to everyone in ear shot of the sound. She continued to command our attention with a burst of baby babbling. Not a sound translated into an English word, but we hung onto her babble

Quilting Encouragement with Mary Tatem God’s Smile Lifting her feet high in order to run through the loose sand, the five-year-old girl’s face broadcast her delight in seeing me. She threw her arms around my legs. I bent to plant a welcoming kiss on her blonde curls, my heart awash with love for this precious

Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt Encouragement Panda Bears             The Panda bears who live in the National Zoo looked exactly like the ones pictured in the National Geographic Magazine, but I didn’t expect them to climb so high into the trees in search of tender shoots of greenery to nibble. Two bears swayed on tree

Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt Encouragement Gold Finches   What a treat we’ve enjoyed these past few weeks at our bird feeder! Bright yellow gold finches have decorated our back yard. Their glorious color and penchant to spend plenty of time  leisurely feeding gives us ample opportunity to enjoy their beauty. We’ve loved the flashy

  Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt Encouragement Heat One hot weekend this summer, twelve of our family tromped around Washington D.C. to see a few of the sights. The fellowship was wonderful and the sights delightful. The only drawback was the ninety-seven degree heat bouncing back from city streets. We moved slower, but no one

Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt Encouragement Soft One of the delights of holding a newborn infant is the baby’s amazingly soft skin. Our years on this planet conspire to toughen, scar, wrinkle, and otherwise mar the skin we arrive with on earth. Doll makers have tried to replicate that pleasurable newborn feeling with only a

  Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt Encouragement Refresh             Computers. What wonderful machines when they work! How amazingly frustrating when they don’t!  How my computer works is often a mystery to me. I have some patient computer rescuers in my life who answer the phone or allow me to button hole them in person when I

Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt Encouragement Lost Opportunities   The couple took a seat in a cozy booth in a nice restaurant right across from us. The husband settled down with a big smile and launched into an animated conversation, punctuated by enthusiastic gestures, and broad smiles. The wife didn’t smile. She put her cell