what's gone on this past week

Boy, this should teach me not to take so long to post. 3rd post in one day. Then I promise I will hush up, LOL.

As always when you return from a trip there are things to take care of on the home front--unpacking, laundry, grocery shopping, errands and so forth. It was no exception at our house. I had books to list and fabric to put away on top of that. More on the fabric later.

I had done most of the binding of this donation quilt in the car when I wasn't taking my turn driving. I have shown it some time back as a top but now it is quilted. I call it Pippi Memorial Garden to honor my kitty girl but the real name was Rose Garden or some such thing. I am just being too lazy to go link to the past post or the pattern site if it even said it on the pdf file. I took the last stitch on it Sunday evening.





Here is Skyler giving the quilt one last love. Somehow I feel like Pippi would be proud of him since she was a champion quilt tester. This was the last one to go in the box as it was heading out with the others for M2M. I mailed out 14 quilts yesterday morning.. Pat is kindly quilting 3 others and 3 of them have already been sent on so that makes 20 children that will receive a quilt from my mom and me with binding help from my quilt group.

Back to the fabric---it was in two boxes and then a smaller one with scraps, orphaned blocks and quilt "toys" and notions from the man who donated the fabric. It couldn't really stay in those? Or could it? There really is not a lot of surplus space around here to store it but I could make some room in the bedroom closet if I cleaned some stuff out. I did that first--tossed some clothes, donated some clothes to the thrift store. The few things I did keep went in the blanket chest. Then I separated the fabric stuff from the boxes into types--Christmas fabric, homespuns and plaids, tops that need remodeling. Boxed those up separately. The stuff that remained? I separated it by colors but that led to going through the existing stash stored under the pressing//cutting table plus a few bins on the shelving units. It all broke down basically into reds, blacks and grays, blues, greens, purples, pinks and yellows and yardage for quilt backs. Back into the bins when I was done. I don't have enough room to devote a whole bin to some of those---they is still some of the same colors in other spots---but it is better than it was.

By Friday night I should have cut out the fabric for the FABS challenge the next day. Problem was--I had lost my glasses that I need for distant driving when I was on my trip. I had made an appointment for an long overdue eye exam that day and had my eyes dilated. Who knew? I have some cataracts developing and some changes that needs some further testing in about an week. This might have been a blessing in disguise if there is indeed something that bears watching or further treatment. BUT my eyes remained fuzzy from the dilation and I didn't think I better be operating a rotary cutter. Instead I rewrote the EQ drawings and amended the document I had made for the cutting and such for our use the next day. If anyone wants the pdf file for this, email me and let me know and I'll be happy to share it with you.

I was kind of lagging behind Pam, Pat, Norma and Cher all day but here is my finished CGF ( Cher's Gym Floor for our acronym loving bunch)top. If you have seen how theirs turned out you see how different they look. Cher and Pat did the original version with 12 inch squares of focus fabric while I scaled mine to 8 inch. Pam did as well but she didn't flip the blocks as I had originally drawn it. Norma did something completely different and made the blocks half the size and used her scraps.

The focus fabric I used was another challenge piece from my mom called Jungle River Party. She sent the raspberry red back with me as it matches the elephant in the fabric so well. The lime green was unearthed in the fabric organization shift though I believe that I had used some as a quilt back in the past--I found the cutaways stuck in with the yardage. The gold is that favorite told tone on tone that WTIL participants will remember as "Kit fabric" Ellen sent me a roll of the yardage when more was donated. All from stash--if not my own, then someone else's originally but I work on the idea at that point that possession in 9/10ths of the law if it has resided at my house for more than a few months.

Here is what my Mom did with the same fabric. Pat generously shared her directions and a tutorial on how to make one of these HERE . You can see where she had raspberry red fabric to share. I may use the leftovers for binding---or more of that lime green??? Mom also used a bit of that ubiquitous gold TOT.

So what else? My printer died yesterday and had to be replaced as I had packing slip to print. That's is how I found out it would no longer feed. 4th one of my 11 year computer life. The heating grate on the grill disintegrated and by the time the food I was grilling yesterday was done it was sitting on the flame. I was trying to find the parts online last night but we have an ancient model number I guess and no parts. DJ talked to a humanoid today and he suggested some universal parts---I checked when I went to pick up my glasses and told DJ about it so we are back in business there.

We decided to switch to Vonage and are waiting for some sort of phone router to be delivered. The CSR assured DJ that a 10 yr old could install it. DJ asked, in effect, if the 10 yr old came with it. Turns out we know of one that will be headed this way in about two wks---we might need you, Ted, LOL.

Oh, the glasses? Mom just called and found them in her car. I had borrowed the car when I met Allison for lunch but didn't remember putting them in the car for night driving. Doesn't that figure? Well, the new ones are for distance and driving and not close up reading. Save me from buying a cheap pair of reading glasses anyway.

I didn't do a lick of sewing today again and I might not tonight either. Got some library books due tomorrow so I may just curl up with one of those after supper. And so it goes...............