Checking in

Oscar is being a good boy and cuddling up with his frog and napping.  We have already been on three walks today and he also logged some outside time so I could work on my quilt top.

Skyler, of course, wants my undivided attention since the dog is not around on the other side of the gate.   It was fine when he was in the window, like this.  Not fine is sitting on the pressing table while Kitty Mama has the iron in her hand.  He was also trying to burrow under it while I was trying to pin the rows together.  He was removed so the last joining seam could be completed in peace!

And, drumroll please, the No Bake Jolly Bar Quilt top is done!   Today's task was to join the rows on the bottom 5 and then join to the top half that was already completed.

For being touted as a quick and easy quilt I sure made it harder than it needed to be, LOL.  My sewing is a little less than stellar in a few spots, not nesting as well as I would like.  I re-tried it on two spots and since it didn't improve the situation much, I gave up.  I'm going with something my dear quilting friend Theramae used to say "it will quilt out".  

I did see a slight variation of the technique for this quilt yesterday.  There is a tutorial from Denise Russell of Pieced Brain for this.   It starts off the same and then she goes the "disappearing route".  I think she said this was a way to use some of the leftovers in HER version of No Bake Jolly Bar since you don't use the entire pack.  

What's next in the sewing department?  Back to the Ribbon Candy blocks and the two blocks I was stitching on when we packed up on sew day.  I hope to get a top done next week.  But first the machine needs de-linted, needle changed etc.   Bama Belles will be meeting this next week so I'll plan on sewing then.

What else?
Jane invited me to go to the Kiwanis Annual Pancake Breakfast this morning.  Her husband was out of town at a ham radio operators event so I was her "date".  I could have gone to Ashville today as she and Aline were off to their block of month deal at the quilt shop.  It would have been fun but I wanted to sew.

We had guild on Thursday but several of us met at a local Jacksonville restaurant as it was a friend of ours birthday.  Betsy the birthday girl got to pick the place.  It was a horrid rainy and cold day.  Gary said it was even snowing and sleeting as they left.  I just know that the thermometer in the car was reading 35-36 and there was little icy balls hitting the windshield.  Thankfully, better weather is back.  Those Bradford Pears will be open soon.  The forsythia is coming out on a couple neighborhood bushes.

Nothing much else going on here.  I've been trying to straighten up this house but just end up making more of a mess (sewing will do that!).  I'll wait till Oscar goes out to drag out the vacuum cleaner to avoid the barking and attack.   I made a batch of Sunday Eggs and Bacon (but used sausage) in my "new to me" casserole dish and took some over to my neighbor.  She sent me home with some vegetable soup as she had made too much.  Swapping food works!  I've got supper already made, right?

Till next time-------

this and that

It has been sort of an odd couple of days, sort of like waiting for the other shoe to drop---what next?  Life's little annoyances and detours, I guess.

• A well used, ancient casserole dish somehow fell off the microwave stand and shattered.  A friend saw the picture on Facebook and offered to give me an extra she had in the exact "Spice of Life" pattern.  I just got back from meeting Shirley to pick it up near Pell City.  Lovely day for a drive!  
• Last night I managed to leave the house to go sew and shut Oscar on the WRONG side of the gate.  I could have sworn he was in the living room.  That probably was okay though since the storms we were expecting came while I was away.  Rain and thunder are not his thing so he probably found a spot under the bed to hide out.  I haven't found any piddle spots----yet!
• Couldn't sleep last night so at 1230 I put the 2nd half of my quilt up on the design wall.   Some spots need re-working.   I was robbing a charm pack and doing some cutting and fiddling till about 0145.  Next thing I knew it was 9 a.m. and I needed to get cracking if I was to meet Shirley about 11.

I was able to sew on Sunday afternoon a bit.  There was one spot that needed a piece replaced and since the blocks, not the rows, were the only thing joined it was a good time to fix it.  I started to put it back up on the wall and thought "just sew the rows together".  The top half is done so this mess is the bottom half.

At sewing last evening I joined the blocks for rows 5, 6 and 7.  I don't know if I got them out of sequence on row 7 or what but there was too much aqua and the same prints far too close to each other to suit me.  I needed to see the long view and what I wanted to replace.  One whole block I am re-doing on the bottom row and there are 6 or 7 other spots with the replacement pinned to it.  I swear that once the re-sewing is done, I am NOT messing with fabric or block placement anymore on this project!!   Move one and you move half the quilt.  Still, I am liking this quilt.

The group on Tuesday evening has 3 less experienced but eager to learn quilters.  Donna was helping Janice make a Self Binding Baby Quilt using a tutorial from Missouri Star Quilt Company.  I had helped Janice cut out the flannel pieces that last time I was there but need to watch that video.  Margarita needed some help with her cutting as she was preparing to sash and corner stone her block of the month quilt (trees, houses and stars from last year's quilt shop offering).  We discussed how to "pre-sash" the blocks rather than do long skinny rows of sashing as her pattern showed.  I would have sewn the cornerstones to the sashing fabric WOF and THEN sub-cut it but it was too late.  Aline was sewing the setting triangles on the Ribbon Candy quilt from our Bama Belles Sew-Day.   The top looked really cute but one block had gotten rotated. She was wanting to add a small outer border yet so I didn't get a picture of it.

It was raining and lightning when I got home and I just left the machine in the car rather than linger.  I'll get it set up and get to rippin'.  Maybe one of these days I can share a completed top!

I've got quilt guild tomorrow and one of our friends is having a birthday.  Some of us are going out for lunch to celebrate it before the meeting.  Then I think I'm done running around for a few days anyway.

 I have got to get back to my walking routine which illness and bad weather have circumvented.  My neighbor's son/brother had asked me and Oscar to walk on the trail with him and his dog Monday afternoon which I did do but I have not followed through on my laps.   Paul on t  Bad girl!!  That needs to change, after Thursday.  I prefer to go 1st thing in the morning especially in the hot months.  Paul, on the other hand, is recently retired from a long stint in 2nd shift and fits his into the afternoon.  Oscar was stopping to smell and water way more than Baby did, LOL.

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Here is who was waiting for me shortly after I got home. 

 Oscar came in from the backyard and Skyler met me at the front door.  Both were fed--again.  Skyler unfortunately got sick this morning within minutes of getting his wet food so he had torn into his crunchies.  Of course, I was running behind this morning so carpet cleaning was the last thing I needed/wanted to do.  Always the case, isn't it?  Oscar, for his part, was just sure we were going to go walk and kept running back and forth from the kitchen doing his happy trot.  I think some time in the back yard changed his mind as he is now conked out in his little bed on the couch and Skyler is velcro'd to my leg, LOL.

Saturday check-in

Mostly the guys and I have just been hanging out around the house.  We have been blessed with warmer weather this week, the kind of weather that makes you think that spring may be coming one of these days.   The camellia bush has gone to its umpteenth flowering.  Silly thing blooms, gets frosted, and then rebounds.  The daffodil stems are up but I see no hint of those golden blooms.   I didn't see crocuses either so maybe those old bulbs are spent?

I've logged some sewing time out in the kitchen but also away from home on two occasions.

Tuesday I was off to the group that sews at a local church near here.   I was mostly un-sewing since I wanted to re-arrange the color combinations in the No Bake Jolly Bar blocks.  I was also advising one of the girls who was putting binding on a tree skirt she had made.  Margarita had the bias binding all made up and just needed help with the join.   Donna needed some advise on sashing and corner stoning a quilt she is making as a group fundraiser.  Aline pitched in and helped her sew and they almost had it finished up by the time I left--or were well on their way!  I was trying to explain how to pre-sash the blocks rather than sew on long skinny rows of sashing and had them a bit confused as Aline does it THAT way.  LOL  Looks the same in the end regardless but lines up better, if you ask me if you do it "my" way.

Yesterday I went to the guild sewing session.  I got the stack's 2nd stitching on the trimmed down layer cake done and the cutting done before I left.  Aline and Jane asked me to join them but then they got in a planning meeting for the guild's sew-in but I still had company while I got the sewing done.

So off and on the past two days I've been playing with this p.roject box and the master bedroom design "wall" AKA vinyl tablecloth

I've got 5 rows up.  There are a total of 9 or 63 blocks.  If I go down much further, Skyler will think it is okay to go after any loose strings.  I've got the stuff pinned on to prevent his removing them but I don't trust him.  

I'm liking it so far.  I love the red and aqua combo anyway and I really like the yellow spark of color along with it.   I don't like fiddling with the blocks too much once I put them up there.  Move one and then you are moving 6 more.  And then it gets tedious.  If anything, since this technique makes two blocks at once, I just swapped out its pair more than moving them all around.  The pair has the blocks reversed since the block only rotates once.  You can probably see the block orientation if you look closely near the painters tape.

I find it a little difficult to mix up the fabrics using pre-cuts as they are the same 3 or 4 prints or what reads like solids in 3 or 4 colorways.   That was part of the reason why I tossed in little bits of other lines.  You might spot a bit of Good Karma, Lily's Garden,  a Riley Blake print, a Jenny Callo bright print from Connecting Threads.   One piece, I think is a Studio E.    I've re-sewn a few today to deal with directional prints.  I'll probably do the same thing with the 2nd half.   But first, sew this stuff together.  

And sew it goes-----

Aline, Jane and I had girlfriend lunch on Thursday, got my hair cut, went to a celebration of life service this afternoon.  Otherwise it has been the usual stuff round here.  I still need to clean the house but I'm not done messing it up,  dragging threads all over the house.  I'm still not nuts about sewing in the kitchen but I am getting something done.  

Hope you are having a good weekend-------- thx for stopping by.