Yay! It's raining ... and a progress report

Hurray .... it's finally raining! Thinking about it on the drive into work this morning, I realized that I knew how to make it rain. All I had to do was wash my car! I actually didn't find time to wash the car today but the clouds finally got heavy enough to let some out anyway. Even without my help. I'm thrilled. We've needed it.

I made good progress this week on the back of the Pick & Choose - got the blocks ironed, trimmed, & sewed together. I found a fairly large piece of black for the first border in my stash. It was big enough to make borders for all 4 sides as long as I did cornerstones. Now THAT was some careful cutting --- had to determine how much usable fabric I had in that piece after straightening then I divided by 4 to learn how wide the border was going to be! ;) Hurray, it worked. Now to decide on the final borders for the top (and back too actually). Queen size is pretty large and I'm not there yet.


I also did a little shopping this week. Mama Spark is cleaning up a little, and I was excited to make a new home for a few greens.....they came yesterday. Squishy mail, so fun!


Now I just need to figure out what I'm gonna use them for. :>

Have a great day!
Lisa

Progress during the week

So I've managed to make some progress this week on the back for Pick & Choose. Didn't figure out what the borders would be for the top, but got the back center pieced and laid out and rearranged a time or two.

This is where I started with the layout


But that seemed sort of blah, so after continued playing I came to this ...

Which was pretty cool I thought, then I just moved a few blocks to "improve" the layout. I even unsewed 4 blocks to get darker centers there so the design would show better, and I unsew only under duress!! I hate it, but I have to admit I like the layout much better after so I suppose I'll have to be willing to frog stitch once in a while. Sigh.

So that's the progress made this week. I'm hoping to get these all starched & ironed & trimmed to size over the weekend among the other chores, and then the plan (such as it is) is to get these sewn together mornings next week. A plan. We'll see.

Have a great weekend!
Lisa


Oops, and I just walked past the design wall and rearranged again! Maybe this is it! ;>

Well.....sorta sooner than 5 months!

Bernie ... thank you! for nudging me. Sometimes I get SO busy scurrying along handling life I forget to document. Or too tired to maybe. Anyway!

Rundown of the last 4 months ... visit around Easter with our daughter & 2 year old grandson from Virginia for a week. THAT was a blast. We had all the kids & grandkids together and took them camping up north in Williams for a long weekend trip. Visited the Grand Canyon on an absolutely perfect day and came back to the campground for slightly burnt but still wonderful fried turkey with all the picnic trimmings.


Our version of the "family tree" sans the two boys who stayed home for the weekend to work. That's our 3 girls, 2 grandsons and 1 "acquired" son (boyfriend). Wow.

Ice cream break, shared VERY nicely between the 3 year old and the 2 year old grandsons. How cool! Notice the leashes.....that got more comments from passersby than I expected. And everybody was in favor. From previous visits, we knew there are NO guard rails or anything at the canyon. You can walk (or fall) right up to the edge. Grampa and I decided that neither of us felt up to rappelling down the side of the canyon to rescue a kid, so we made that the rule. As soon as we parked, we dressed the boys in their new leashes and that was it. That stays on til we get back to the car. Want some watered down juice and a baggie of dry cereal? ;) They were fine with it.

Hosted both Mother's Day and Father's Day at our house. About 20 or so assorted family members at each. They like our house because the floor plan is fairly open which allows multiple discussions to happen without being complete chaos, plus there's an acre for the kids to "discover" so it keeps them pretty occupied and out from underfoot. And I suppose, given the choice, most folks would rather just bring a couple half gallons of juice and a box of donuts or something similar and not have to plan the menu and make sure there's enough food, napkins, plates, etc and the house is clean! And I have help here to make sure that all happens so it works.

In the quilting world, I've nearly finished the pink & black batik Pick & Choose top and have started on the back. Actually, I'm at a stopping point for the top because I've decided not to follow the pattern necessarily for the borders, but I'm not sure what to do instead. I know that I'm making this for a queen size bed with a deep mattress and it will need to end up somewhere in the neighborhood of 75-90 wide x 100-110 long. And I know that I want to do a couple of borders, and perhaps incorporate some applique (new to me) but I haven't decided exactly.

So.......the back will be pieced as well with Drunkard's Path blocks in blacks & whites and I've gotten those cut out. Theoretically this will be a reversible quilt, a 2 for 1. Worked on cutting a little each morning this week and now they're ready to piece. I won't have a chance this weekend though because we've decided to drive away on the motorcycle to cooler territory. Which means north in this state, probably up above 6-7000 feet elevation where the daily temp will be closer to 80-85 instead of 110-115. Yikes it's hot!!!

This was taken with my cell phone, so it's a little muddy. This is the top so far, it's at 64 x 64 now (or 68 x 68 I can't remember for sure and I took it down off the design wall this week because my daughter was arriving and it's a surprise for her).

Again, thank you Bernie for nudging me......I do need to post more often. And I
suppose I did get it in under the 5 month wire so that must count for something.

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Lisa