Midweek Madness

I can’t believe it’s only Wednesday. I think I packed about four days of activities into two days. When I got home yesterday, I laid down and slept for an hour. I very rarely sleep during the day, but I was pooped. I went by one of the local quilt shops—the one that is making quilts for the central Texas flood victims—to drop off some poppy blocks I made. I forgot to photograph them, butI’ve posted pictures of the poppy blocks before. 

They are still trying to make and distribute more quilts for the affected people. They have quite a system going. I ended up picking up seven sets of completed blocks to sew into tops. 

Connie asked me to cut them all down to 12” since there is so much variability in the sizes they are receiving. I used to do a lot of block swaps, and I know firsthand you get all kinds of sizes. I have been doing the trimming, and I will take the trimmed sets to Thursday’s quilt guild meeting in case others want to help put together tops. 

I thought this one with the bees in the center was super cute:

We are cooking gumbo and rice at church tonight. I bought all the ingredients Monday, and last night I precooked the chicken and sausage. I bought 15 pounds of chicken and 5 pounds of andouille sausage. I’m praying it’s enough. I picked up two bags of red beans, and I guess I’ll go ahead and cook that this morning. I worry about not having enough food for everyone. We are expecting 50-60, but you never really know. 

Another Goal Acomplished

I don’t always remember my goals—maybe I need to write then down on a paper and hang it on my mirror or something! I sometimes go back to my January blog post and see what I want to work on, and that works, but you can’t beat having an actual piece of paper. 

I finished the first quilting goal—Trinity WELCA raffle quilt in January. Friday I finished the second goal which is a raffle quilt for Christ the Victor church. And, here it is:

The size is 92” x 92”, so nice and big. This top is a disappearing nine patch that was completed some time ago and never quilted. Now it is quilted and ready for a home!

  

I used a quilting design called Lyrical and Glide white thread on the front and back. The backing fabric is white on white. 

I would have liked to match the binding to the border, but that fabric is no longer available and the best match I had was a mottled navy/dark denim. 

I’m so glad to have this one done and checked off my list. The good thing about setting goals is the positive vibes you get when you check one off. We have quilt guild Thursday, and we meet at Christ the Victor church, so I will be taking this with me. 

SAHRR Round #5

Here’s my update on Round 5 of the Stay at Home Round Robin. The prompt was “two colors”. That’s an easy one……except I got confused. Not about the prompt, about my measurements. When I finished Round 3, I thought I was at 55” x65”. That’s what I wrote in the Round 3 blog post. The corners I did for Round 4 are 6”, so I needed to add coping strips to get numbers divisible by 6. I added 1/2” to the top and bottom, and 1” to each side. 

I pieced two-color checkerboards for the borders, and the side borders were 2” too big. My 65” measurement was actually 63”. I had to remove the coping strips from the top and bottom and add 1-1/2” strips. 

I really didn’t want too, but I didn’t have a choice. At least not a good choice. I maybe could have fudged it, but I decided to go ahead and make new strips. 

Anyway, the borders fit perfectly once I had the correct measurements.

I added the fan cornerstones. I was hoping to incorporate some white into this border, and I didn’t want a high contrast in colors, so I think the light yellow worked out with the white. 

I’m ready to see what the next round will bring. My top is now 69” x 78”, but I will definitely remeasure it before I start Round 6. I’m linking this to QuiltingGail.

Friday!

Another busy week—lots of meetings and typing up the minutes. I am the secretary for a couple of groups, and I need to stop letting myself get behind on transcribing my cryptic notes into meeting minutes. Of course, there are other things I would rather do besides sitting at the computer (like sitting at the sewing machine), so I put it off as long as I can. It would be so much better to do it when it’s fresh on my mind! 

I did manage to get the binding on Rhonda’s quilt. 

It’s pretty. Lots of different fabrics, but in the same color family. It’s what I would call controlled scrappy. She uses these colors a lot. I’ve been a little tardy about getting it done. Thank goodness she’s patient with me! 

Yesterday was Bunco day, so nice to have a break from the grind. I didn’t win anything, but I enjoyed it a lot. We have started meeting earlier in the day due to some of the ladies not wanting to drive after dark and are no longer doing a meal. Now it is just some appetizers/finger foods and desserts, and I like that better. 

Today, I am thinking about what I need to do for my round Robin quilt. The clue is “two colors” or something like that. I could go a lot of different directions with that, but I will need to come up with something so I can get it done this weekend. I am trying really hard to not go to the fabric store and just use what I have, but it is soooo tempting. I’m pretty sure I’ll need coping strips to get me measurements to work out, and I really hope I have enough of something that will work. I am also continuing on the RSC green blocks, and I hope to do a few more tonight. I’ll post some pictures once I have more done.

SAHRR Round #4

The Stay at Home Round Robin prompt for Round 4 was announced last week, and it was curves! Y’all, there is nothing about my top so far that makes me think it needs curves. 

I put this one off for a while trying to figure out what would work for my top. I saw some great examples with appliquéd circles and beaded chains, but I didn’t feel like that was the direction I wanted to go. 

I finally decided I would take the obvious choice and make some drunkards path squares, but I couldn’t find my 5” drunkards path ruler. I took everything out of the ruler drawer, and it’s not there. I did, however, find a couple of Dresden rulers. It’s been a while since I made a Dresden plate. I made four quarter squares thinking they can be corner blocks. 

 

I was hoping to incorporate more white, so I put them on a white background. I think they will work, depending what the next round is.

 

The orange and yellow is so pretty on the white background! It looks like sunshine. I’ve got some ideas about the next round, but I’ll wait for the prompt. 

No Sewing

No sewing yesterday! It was my daughter’s birthday and we all got together after church for lunch at the Pump House. 

Here’s a picture of all of us:

Roger Sr. on the left (my daughter’s fil), Roger III (my grandson), Roger Jr. (my sil), Julia, me, Kathryn (my granddaughter), Donna (my daughter’s mil). Kathryn drove down from Fort Worth for the weekend and had to leave right after lunch. My mom is missing from the picture because she was still in Rockport. I saw a video on Facebook of her at a Mardi Gras parade catching beads people were throwing. She is apparently down there for some Mardi Gras celebration. She is living her best life since she recovered from the heart surgery, and I am happy she is.

I got my steps entered for the Walk Across Texas Challenge, and so far I am keeping up. 

I have until April 3rd to log 104 steps, and I am currently at 31.83. I am still trying to figure out why I don’t lose weight. Oh well. 

I hope to get reacquainted with the sewing machine today!

Scrappy Saturday

I managed to get a couple of scrappy RSC blocks made this week in spite of running here and running there every day. 

I don’t have tons of green like I do blue, but there’s enough to have a few choices. The dark green I used on the second star is the same one I used on my February BOM. 

Here’s what is left: 

One piece about 7” x 15”. Should I cut it up for another RSC block or add it to the BOM box? Uugghh. Decisions. I ended up putting it in the BOM box since I have limited fabrics that work with the border print.

If I don’t use it for a future BOM block, I can always cut it up later for something else. Stashbusting is hard work! 

Today I plan to add the borders to the quilt I’m piecing for my daughter and if there’s time, I would like to figure out a border for my SAHRR quilt. There’s always plenty to do. I am going to try and make it to the gym at 9 for water aerobics. The three exercise classes I do each week aren’t really enough, and water aerobics seems to fit pretty well into my schedule. It’s hard to squeeze in another activity, but I need to prioritize my health as much as I can. 

I just saw a picture of my mom on Facebook. 

She is apparently in Rockport this weekend with some friends. She cracks me up!