Monday check-in

I am in a bit of a holding pattern with Sarah's Memorial Heart quilt. For those of you who don't know what the heck I am talking about, Sarah was a member of my local quilt group and passed away in February. Her daughter Jane is also a member of our group and a few others in the area--you rarely saw one without the other. We make a heart memorial quilt in red and white using a heart block pattern from WWQP when someone passes away, a family member of the group or unfortunately, a member of the group. Actually there is a prepared top in the closet already but we decided to change things up a bit.

Sarah liked pink fabric so we went with that. I told the group to make any sized heart block that they wanted and suggested a white backgroud so it would float the designs. I was just flying by the seat of my pants on this one as it is hard to draw something like this up on the computer software when you don't know what size the finished top will be at the start. Once I knew that center medallion area measured 24 inches I knew what I wanted to do with all the 6 inch blocks---go all away around it with the available blocks. With the maker's permission ahead of time, I took apart a 12 inch block of the same colored and sized heart to act as cornerstones. That got me up to 48 inches square. Now what?

The next similiarly sized blocks were 8 inches or near 8 inches where I could trim them down slightly or add frames to get them up to 8 inches. I also realized that there needed to be some separation between the rows and to be honest, I am not fond of square quilts. I had to make three more 8 inch blocks. Delaware Quilts' scrappy heart to the rescue for a pair. Then I decided on a heart in spool block that I had drawn up in EQ some time back. That seemed appropriate since we are all quilters and sewers--even used one of my 30's repro pieces with a sewing theme for the "thread" fabric.

The top now measures 51 x 77 and it is plenty big for our needs. The problem? I have three blocks leftover, 12 inch or near 12, and no room for them. If I add them to one side of the quilt, it will add another 15 inches to the width-- might look a bit unbalanced plus I am back to a squarish quilt.

Other option--add them to the back? I have calls out to the girls that made them to ask if it is okay. They donated them expecting them to be used for this project but surely on the front where they would be displayed more easily. I would like to pin it tomorrow if I can get this ironed out.


The rose above is a monster that DJ cut from a bush outside. The head of it is easily 6 inches in diameter but outside you could hardly see it as there is different bush variety right next to it. I think when they planted the rose bush they didn't allow for how the other bush would spread as it grew. So he cut it and brought it in saying "Happy Mother's Day, Kitty Mama" I married late enough in life that I have no humanoid children so it fits. I DID spend a bit of time down on my belly on the kitchen floor fishing out his toy mice from under the book case, stove and then later, the washing machine. Maybe I earned the name?

The only other "celebration" we had was that I had a free platter or dinner coming from the Captain D's Club for Mother's Day. Turns out it was also Senior Sunday so we only had to pay a nominal amount for our noon meal yesterday since he got a deep discount on his meal as well.


I snapped the above picture of Skyler as he rested on the sewing room perch on Saturday. All together now, AWWWWWWW isn't he cute? Almost looks like he was posing for the shot but I am pretty sure he was sound asleep at the time. Here is the view from this morning as he enjoys the morning sun. About 15 minutes later, that big old rose had petals fall off all over the table---DJ seems to think that Skyler had something to do with it but I'm not so sure he deserves the blame. He has a decided red or brown cast to his coat making me wonder what type of cat his parent's might be. A little Siamese in there?? He meows like one and has that squared off profile.

Saturday night about 2 a.m. that storm system that has swept through the plains and Southeast came through. A lot of cloud to ground lightning, wind and rain. We had about 2.75 inches in our rain gauge, DJ reported. The paper reported a lot of downed trees but no injuries in the county next to us so it sounds like they got the brunt of it in our area. Skyler joined me for some snuggling time during the storm. I don't know if he was scared or just in the mood from some companionship--lately he prefers under the quilt rack or the loveseat for night time sleeping.

So what does the day hold for me? Not sure yet. I would finish the backing for the heart quilt if I can but could do that at the meeting tomorrow. I finally get to hand off the treasurer's job for Home Extension this week. After holding the non-elected position for 4 or 5 years I am ready but there are a few odds and ends that need tending. Actually I am a little torqued at the president for forcing me to go to the board meeting and the meeting right after to present a final report that will take me less than one minute. It will screw up my whole morning on Thursday and for what? The whole command appearance is was I am not happy about and makes my decision to finally tell them to find someone else, the right one.

I should also work on the row robin this week--some of the girls worked ahead so I am not entirely sure which one I am supposed to working on at this point. Basically I means that I got the time that the person I pass to had along with my own. I am holding three of them so it probably doesn't matter which one is passed just as long as it IS passed. What to do, what to do..............