Cruisin’

I returned yesterday from my quilting cruise, and I had a great time. I do one or two each year, and this one may have been the best one yet. We left Saturday from Galveston. 

Goodbye Galveston!

Our first stop was Costa Maya, Mexico, and I didn’t even leave the ship! I did get up early every morning and walk on the top deck and work out in the gym

It’s not difficult to get plenty of exercise, between the jogging track and the gym, and the views are very motivating. 

We had a conference room for sewing, like usual, and I spent plenty of time in there.

There was an ironing station and two design walls.

Not everyone in our group sewed. Some worked on puzzles,

some crocheted,

and BJ worked on her sashiko

The food was really good. I mostly had the same breakfast every morning

eggs, bacon, avocado toast with smoked salmon. Salad for lunch, and then dinner in the main dining room. 

Prime rib with tomato basil soup:

Seafood linguini:

Sirloin strip with French onion soup:

My favorite, filet of sole:

Our waiter offered to take a selfie with our group. Elton and the rest of us:

That’s enough for now, I’m super tired. I’ll try to get some pictures posted tomorrow of some of the projects we worked on.

Blocks of the Month

I had a little bit of time for sewing and got three of the BOM’s done. 

Month 2:

Month 3: 

And, Month 5:

The edges are not as wonky as they look it the pictures—I didn’t have them laying quite flat. The month 5 block on the pattern was a nosegay block with templates and y-seams, and I decided to figure out something easier. 

I haven’t done much else except cut up and kit some fabrics for my cruise. I leave tomorrow, and I kind of let it sneak up on me! I spent yesterday cutting up two kits, going to the bank, drugstore, nail shop; all the pre-travel things. It is another quilting cruise where we work on our own projects, and I want to make sure I have plenty to keep me busy. 

I spent some time on my plants yesterday evening. I watered them and will need to water them again Saturday morning before I leave so they don’t dry out too badly. They are looking so good, and everything is blooming, and I would hate to lose them. This is interesting:

I’ve had sweet potato vines for a long time, and I didn’t know they bloomed! I even moved the foliage aside to make sure it wasn’t one of the petunias. I looked it up on my plant app, and it said it is member of the morning glory family. I didn’t know that either! I am interested to see if the green ones bloom and what color the blooms would be. I fertilized a couple of weeks ago, and we had a lot of rain last week, so that helps everything. The Pentas have nice blooms. 

And, of course, the shrimp plants do well no matter what. They are very hardy. 

The white and the yellow shrimp plants apparently didn’t survive the freeze which is unfortunate, but I’m trying not to replant anything that can’t handle the freezes and the heat. Which pretty much limits me to a few things. 

Midweek Progress

Good morning and happy hump day! I’m so excited that I got one of my May UFO goals done, and the month isn’t even halfway over. The pinwheel quilt is quilted and bound! 

This had been a long-term UFO, and now it’s completely done. I like it well enough that I’m thinking about entering it in the 2025 quilt show. Of course, that means I will have to add a hanging sleeve to the back which I detest doing, so we will see.

More good news—Julie picked up her tee shirt quilt, and she liked it a lot. That one took me a lot longer than it should have, but she was very nice about it. And now, the floor where I photograph the quilts is empty again. 

I cut out a few more of the APQ BOM’s, and I’ll take pictures when I get them sewn. I also added two more borders on the church raffle quilt, so that’s progress. 

I am open to suggestions on what other borders I can add that would look good without being too overwhelming. 

We raffled this one off Sunday for our Mothers Day raffle. 

We made $895 on ticket sales, which will be used for our WELCA projects, most likely shipping of quilts and school supplies. The money we made is worth the time we put into it. 

I hope all the moms had a good Mother’s Day on Sunday. All the moms were given a pink rose at church.

Other than that, it was not a good day. It’s okay; I survived. Whoever thought up this holiday was probably crazy. Just my opinion. 

What I've Been Working On

I took a break from customer quilts this week so I could work on some of my own projects. I have several that I had planned to do, but I never really made any traction on getting them done or at least a little bit of progress made. 

I was able to get the two table runners pieced from the charm pack I blogged about earlier in the week.  I was able to add some random charm squares and get two runners from one charm pack like I hoped.

These will be cute for Christmas once they are quilted and bound.

I was hoping to find some time to work on the church raffle quilt. It's not needed until 2026, but I know myself, and if I get too busy on other stuff, some things will fall through the cracks. I got the windmill border done.

I took a little time, but I feel like it was worth it. It really improves the look of the quilt. 

Another thing I have been wanting to start is a block of the month. 

This one is from American Patchwork and Quilting, and it was a quilt along in 2021. I was still working full time and couldn’t do it, but hey, it is never too late. I have all the instructions printed out, and I got the first one done.

I am using scraps, but I’m limiting the colors to orange, yellow, turquoise, and pink with light gray background and medium gray accent. This one was basically a pain because the pieces are so small, but I am going to try to power through and finish it. I hope to get another block cut out this weekend. 

Weekend Update

I hope everyone had a good weekend. Mine was pretty uneventful but busy. I finished quilting the two tablerunners I pieced last week and got the binding done on one of them. 

I have the binding made for the gray and yellow one, but I ran out of time and didn’t get it put on. I did find an old charm pack that I want to use to make two more from this pattern.

Judging from the price, I’ve had it for a few years. Each table runner takes 24 charm squares, but I have three boxes of five-inch squares, so I’m sure I can come up with six more coordinating squares and get two runners from this charm pack. I dug through my stash and found some fabrics that will work for the backgrounds.

I’ll see what I can come up with and hopefully get two runners pieced this week. 

The best news is that I finished the quilting on the tee shirt quilt I’ve been working on forever. At least, it seems like forever. The lady brought me 60 tee shirts to put into one quilt. I ended up using three of the backs so I could do nine rows of seven shirts. 

It’s really big, and I was so happy to get to the last row of quilting. This week, I will trim it and get it bound and back to its owner. 

The other good news is that I’m still hitting my walking goals. 

I’m taking the dogs when I walk, and I’m tiring them out too, which is another bonus. 

The more tired they are, the less they get into. 

I had a fun night out with friends Friday evening at Aerocrafters. They had a derby dash with inflatable hobby horses, and there was live music, which I always enjoy.

Sherry

Cricket and Kim

And, me.

Hopefully, all the walking makes up for the two beers I drank and the fried pickles I ate!

May Goals

The number for May is 

I have four lists: Tops to Finish Piecing, New Projects to Try, Quilts to be Quilted, and New Quilts to Start. 

I haven’t been 100% successful with these UFO’s and goals. I did finish piecing the Logging On quilt last month

and, I got the twister tote done (I think that was a February goal). I haven’t been able to get anything of mine on the quilting frame as there has been a steady stream of customer quilts to work on. I need to find a way to get caught up on customer work and try to get some of my own stuff done. I am currently working on a huge tee-shirt quilt, but I am nearing the finish line……I hope. 

Another goal was to get more steps in each day. My goal is 5K, which for me is about 6500 steps. I started Wednesday.

Thursday:

And, Friday:

I’m not hitting 6500 every time I walk, but it’s pretty close. On Friday, I walked with Ruthie, and she likes to stop and sniff a lot. She also tires out quicker than the other two. The weather is getting warmer, and I am ready for a shower each time I get back to the house.