I put the final touches to the paint on the garden sofa yesterday (or was it the day before?). It feels like new, especially after Eric added a diagonal crosspiece to strengthen its construction. I used to be cautious whenever I handled it. Now I carried it up from the basement on my own (the family is still away) and it didn’t flex or wobble at all.

The sofa is back in its spot on the deck – right on one edge, where it gets shade from the cherry tree in the morning, and from the house the rest of the day. I like reading the morning newspaper there. It’s also a nice spot for sewing.

I’ve cut up the second tablecloth and now I’m hemming all those new napkins. By hand. I’m not entirely sure why I’m doing this by hand. It’s inefficient as heck and it’s going to be taking forever, but somehow it just feels right. Machine hemming vintage linen would simply be wrong.

The first tablecloth yielded 8 napkins with a total of 16 edges to hem, since I got so many edges for free. This one yields 16 napkins with a total of 48 edges. (4 napkins with 2 edges each, 8 with 3 edges and 4 with all 4 edges raw.) That’s a lot of hemming. Good thing I’m on vacation.