A few months ago my nephew and his wife bought flights to come up for a visit from Colorado. They were to stay at my parents’ house. We were all so excited because we don’t often see them. In the last 10 years, I may have seen him twice and met his wife only once. Anyway, I was pretty excited. Mom and Dad planned a brunch. My sisters and I planned to take them on the ferry over to Seattle to visit some of the touristy area around Pike’s Market.
Well, none of that was to happen for me. I got sick about 10 days ago and by the time the weekend rolled around, I felt awful. I missed every bit of the weekend. How disappointing! I am sure they had a lovely visit and the brunch seemed to go well. My kids were there and my husband too. I spent the afternoon dog-sitting my grand dog and binge-watching the Apple TV show, Trying. (By the way, if you haven’t seen this show and are an Apple TV subscriber, I think it is really cute).
Just before getting sick, I did manage to finish this little strip quilt for Project Linus. Above you can see the backing which is a green batik my sister gave me. I machine stitched the binding with a zig-zag and it looks great.
This quilt was such a good use of these random strips. Most from a scrap bag donated to Project Linus and some from my bin of strips. I tried to alternate the widths to keep things balanced. Other than straightening up some of the strips, this was a breeze. Unfortunately, the monthly Project Linus meeting was yesterday and I was not feeling up to going. So this quilt will sit and wait until the May meeting for donation.
When I was feeling lousy, I went poking around in the sewing room. I wanted to make something and decided to use some fabric given to me by a friend of mine in California. It is an older line designed by Kim Diehl – so very traditional reproduction fabrics. The main reason I was drawn to these this particular week was included in the fabric Stephanie gave me were stacks of pieces already cut into squares and rectangles. I looked through a book, Homestyle Quilts, and chose a pattern that could be easily modified to use the squares that I had.
Even though I sewed just between naps; a little here and some more there, this sure did come together quickly. This was mainly because I had very little I had to cut. Cutting pieces can be very time consuming!!
At this point, all sashing strips are done and I am on the hunt for some darker green yardage for the setting and corner triangles.
Just in case I get lucky here, the above picture is the fabric I would like to use for the setting triangles. It is the same as what I used for the block centers. I don’t suppose any of you have a piece of this sitting on a shelf, collecting dust? It is an older line so I am unable to find any on-line (though I have tried mightily)! If you do happen to have about a yard or maybe 1 1/2 yards, I would love to buy it from you. Leave a comment!! I’ll cross my fingers. 🙂
Recently finishing up the hand quilted mini I posted about earlier, I wanted another hand work project for the evenings. Changing things up, I have been working on a crochet project. This afghan is so soft – I can’t remember where I picked up the first few skeins of yarn. Having only three skeins, I somehow decided to start an afghan. What was I thinking??? Never having made one before I wasn’t clear as to how much yarn I really needed. Let’s just say it is a whole lot more than three skeins! Luckily I found some on Etsy and a bit more on Ebay. So, I will be able to make this a good size to snuggle under on the couch. But jeez – yarn adds up and a project that takes 10 or so skeins is expensive! Crocheting in the evening feels meditative. Especially now that I have the rhythm of this pattern solidly memorized and don’t have to pay too much attention to it. As with quilting, I am not precise when it comes to crochet. Sure, every now and then there might be four double crochets where there should be three but in this sort of pattern, I don’t think it matters a whole lot. Plus, it’s how I do things…..
Hopefully this virus will end sooner than later. I am bored and want my energy back. Plus, my husband is probably tiring of listening to me cough! Hope you are all healthy and enjoying the spring time. Our skies are blue today after a very rainy night. Hurray!
