Stories from the Sewing Room

Here are my orange blocks for the RSC project. With the completion of these, I have enough blocks to make a quilt in my desired layout.

Linking with So Scrappy blog

Here are all the blocks laid out on the design wall. I'll add a narrow, probably 1", strip of sashing between them and maybe a tad wider around the outside edge. I need to decide if I want to add sashing cornerstones or not. If I add them, what fabric would I use?

I also spent some time at the guild sewing day over the weekend. I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped because I spent a lot of time talking, plus we had a lengthy (for us) business meeting. I now have all the chunks of two strips sewn together for each block. I am working on pinning them to the existing chunks to start forming blocks.

I left sew day early because my daughter came home Saturday to see us. Someone hit her car in the parking deck at work on Friday and left a big paint smear. Of course they didn't leave a note or anything. 😒 On the plus side, my husband was able to buff it and remove the vast majority of the paint smears. It was a white car in case you're wondering, and my daughter's car is silver. There are still a few scratches, but it could have been worse. 

Sunday morning we drove to Goose Pond Fish & Wildlife Area (a 9000+ acre state-owned marsh and wetland) because I heard they have a small flock of pelicans and four ibis there. This is the first time we've been there in the summer; we typically go in February or March to see migratory pelicans, snow geese, and cranes. It hadn't occurred to me that what is open in late winter/early spring would be fully grown in in the summer months. There was a lot less open water. Much of the water is filled in with lily pads and other grassy plants. So it was very difficult to see the birds. You could watch them come in for a landing and once they landed, they basically disappeared in the growth. 

We saw two bald eagles, various songbirds, I think a whooping crane, some herons and/or egrets (we aren't skilled enough to determine whether something is a heron or egret without clear comparisons, particularly from the distance we were viewing from). And we found the pelican flock after hiking quite a distance into the fields.

These are the pelicans.

We didn't find the ibis.

After my daughter left, I got back to quilting. Yes, I quilted on Sunday. Last week had a few unexpected things pop up, so I needed to catch up in order to meet my commitments.

Here's what I've completed over the past week.

I quilted Trish's quilt with Echo Blossoms. Isn't it pretty?

Next was Linda's, quilted with Crocus. Fun aside: I made a quilt with this fabric last year and I have enough scraps left to make another.

Then I quilted Deb's with In the Swirls. I went rogue on this one. Hope she likes it!

I quilted Linda's mom's hand-stitched quilt with Stipple. She doesn't appear to have used any papers to make this, just marked the hexagon shape on the back and stitched. No ironing. I made an error and didn't notice, so I spent several hours ripping stitches and redoing. As a result, this one took me two days.

On the home front, everything is pretty quiet. I'm adjusting to being home alone three days a week--I used to be home alone five days a week pre-Covid. We've gone through so many changes in the past 4.5 years. My son is a junior this year. His current favorite class is Etymology. The other night he and his friends were discussing where they want to go to college. They are all go-getters. Surprisingly, he was the only one who wanted to stay local out of those who commented. Although, maybe not. I guess I can understand the desire to move away and try things on your own, outside of the weight of expectation or preconceived notions from those who know you. We are looking at it from a more practical consideration--cost. 

I'll be working on a custom quilting project for the next few days.  Hopefully by next week, I'll be back on my normal schedule. Wish me luck. 

Linking with Quiltery, My Quilt Infatuation, and Alycia Quilts.