Friday Report! Still Quarantined!

Yesterday was busy in the sewing room!

8 face masks
3 Road to Oklahoma blocks
1 Plus/X block
8 Edyta's flying geese blocks, sadly had to be ripped out!!  Back to the drawing board on that one!
1 GIANT mess made!  Ok, that's pretty much everyday in there - but I'm going to have to do something.  I've run out of room to stack things!!!

Here are the photo reveals from yesterday!

 

The rock layers makes up the 'famous' Rainbow Rock, in which there is a cave when the sand is low.  The little white daisies are flowers the size of my fingernail!  They grow along the path to the beach.

 

Since we are actively replacing the roofs on the complex, they block off one entrance to the building and ask people to use the other one.  They mark that "enter" implying you can go in, but you can't come back out!!!  The Oregon Duck whistle was Miss P's favorite beach toy!  She was 2 and she would march up and down the beach blowing it!!  It's loud and kind of obnoxious - so of course it was a favorite!!

I very carefully laid out the correctly assembled Rd to OK.  And then laid 3 blocks of the units in the correct position and orientation.  Then chain stitched!  Hooray! Success!.

My original pattern suggested the same background for the entire block.  And the same blue.  The blocks I made today and are completely scrappy.  I like them better - it makes the blue stars 'sparkle'?!?!  There are 2 blocks following the pattern, I spent the whole day cutting the correct number of each ... but I think I'll just mix them up!!  After all, Scrap Happens!!  I want to continue this one!

8 face masks - using 'Rat Tail' ribbon for ties.  It's easy to sew in - I did back over it in a slightly different place several times.  Just tie a knot on the other end.

Remember, I'm having an ongoing feud with bias tape!  Exploring possibilities!

Today's Plus/X block  This one wanted to be WILD!

Stay Safe and QUILT ON!

Bright Foggy Morning!!

Yep, you heard that right!  Living on the coast often shows 2 opposites at once!  But a bright fog usually means that the sun will break through in the near future!  Fingers crossed!

Someone posted this graphic yesterday, I don't know who to credit - I'll look into it!  But doesn't it make you want to go and make more masks??

Mindy the Mask Maker found at
 thebrandinghouse.com

Here are yesterday's reveal photos:

 

"Mussel Rock"                                        And wave on beach

When cleaning out junk drawer - note don't need any more chip clips!!

Today's Photos:

 

Trying one for the Miss E - 3 yrs old.  I'm hoping what is it?  What color are they?  Mom will probably make her count them!  She's a Math teacher!

Today's plus/x block:

The Road to Oklahoma blocks went into time out last night.  Bad blocks!  I've decided to just make the 4patches and the star points.  Lay a stack of them out correctly in a pile.  Then chain stitch them together.  With any luck ... I won't have multiples done wrong!  Reminds me of an old country song - 'they dun me wrong!!'  Pictures tomorrow!

The main problem is:   usually star points point out of the block.  These point in.  Seems simple when written down.  But I have 45 years of doing it the other way??  AND I have a 67 yr old brain ... old dog, new tricks syndrome!

I even made a mistake on the one Plus/X block I made yesterday, I love it, but I cut the 6 1/2 x 2 1/2 plus strip 6 x 2 1/2.  ARRRGH!  I only had one strip, with a  itty-bitty left!  But I managed to find it again in the pile of greens.  The problem was I read my ruler from the wrong end!

My DGS,  Mr M is a puzzle maven!  When he was 4 he would play Connect 4 with us.  He would play each game until he didn't have a move that wouldn't win and then apologetically win the game and ask to play another.  He knew if he beat adults in the first 3 moves, they suddenly had something else that needed done!

Then he started Chess tournaments with Beach Papa.  Then he beat Papa.  Papa came in muttering, "I just can't watch sports on TV while playing chess any more."  I won't go into what happened when Mr M beat Papa without any TV on!

I feel like that!  I have to pay attention - not plan the next 5 quilts or wonder where 'that' fabric is.  Granted I get it right 95% of the time ... but oh boy does that 5% drive me crazy!!  And we don't need that action when quarantined!

Stay Safe and QUILT ON!

Tax Day! or Non-tax day this year!

If you have to be quarantined, it's not bad with an ocean view.  UNLESS they are reroofing your building during this time.  There is a lot of construction noises.  They start fairly early (for retired peeps) and my dreams started having a lot of knocking doors in it.  God bless them, they have paying jobs during this period; they are polite when you walk by; but it doesn't help cabin fever!!  Just saying!

Here is the reveal picture of the one new photo yesterday:

Here are today's photos:

 

I went crazy with the blocks yesterday!!  It was fun and I was on a roll.  2 Plus/X blocks and 1 more Rd to OK.

I thought I'd make some 'calmer' blocks, but then the pink with Japanese(?) characters showed up!  Had to make it!

This one is calm, the upper left corner is Japanese rabbit fabric found at Britex in San Francisco many years ago!

Well, CrAp!  See the mistake??  I ripped that out once!!  Guess I will again!

I'll leave you with a moon over the ocean photo DH took this week.  

Stay safe and QUILT ON!

Tuesday? Yep - it's Tuesday!

Today is our 3rd grandchild's birthday.  9!  We called to sing Happy Birthday to and when we were done singing we heard movement and "I can't turn this off!"  So birthday GK is way too busy to talk to us!!  Yep, that's 9!!  Warning that teen years are a-coming!!  Tee-hee!

Yesterday's photo answers were:  bird footprints; dog footprints and a pile of starfish on a rock.  There were no "result photos".

Here are today's photos:

 New!  

 

And two repeats!  But the kids live apart - got to double up sometimes!!

I was wondering what to use for a leader/ender projects with the Plus/X blocks: I cut fabric for a Road to Oklahoma quilt.  I wrote up a block raffle for this at one of our retreats by Lincoln and Omaha guilds.  We met at a 4H camp between our two towns.  Of course, we all went shopping at the other town's favorite quilt shops on our way to and from retreat.  Good grief!  That was a long time ago, but I still remember the fun and laughter we enjoyed.  And racing Miss D to get some finishes!

 

I had some square paper plates in the cupboard - perfect for keeping the pieces in one place.  My fear is that I will get confused and mix up my scrappy project with my other scrappy project - you see what I mean.  Thanks to the internet I found a drawing of the Rd to OK blocks together.

And here is a scrappy Road to Oklahoma.

The block is 1/4 of the star block.  It has 2 4-patches and 2 blue star points corners.  Pretty easy to chain stitch.  We had a good group of blocks turned in at that retreat, but sadly, I didn't win.  I always vowed I'd make my own!  I still had the handout!! And 15(?) years later ... I've started it!!


Here's my Plus / X block from yesterday and today.  They are getting a wee bit wild, I think I need to calm them down a little.  Someone told me years (and years) ago  that every quilt needs men's boxer shorts!!  Calm blocks to set off the stars!  This project may need long underwear!!

 

I used some of the face mask fabrics! Corners  from my charm bin!

I love the blues in this block, and who doesn't love bicycles, ruby red slippers and flocks of birdies??

When I shortened up the name "Road to Oklahoma" above to "Rd to OK".  Boy, that twanged my heart.  That's what we are all dealing with  - finding the road to OK.  Life feels so suspended during quarantine.  The news is all over the place:  it's getting better, it's getting worse, we're going to reopen, the virus may stay with us forever, we found a cure, the cure caused heart problems ... and that's just on NBC!!  I don't watch the wild 'say anything' news!!

We don't know what the new normal will be.  It could be no large quilt shows or conventions, no stadium filled sports fans, no cruising, no international vacations, no hugging Veterans presented with a Quilt of Valor?  It's ok to grieve the old normal.  But we can also carve out a new everyday normal for ourselves.

Quilting always challenges my mind, comforts me when I'm wrapped in them,  I have something to talk easily about with my friends.  I can incorporate that into my everyday life.  More actual time in the sewing room.  If we have to share our progress online, if we have to meet on Zoom - well, I expect we can get used to that! 

I can change my exercise program from going to the pool and Tai Chi class, to walking, exercising at home.  It's not as fun - yet!  But, it gets me moving.  Eventually it will be a habit and easier to continue.  Meanwhile,  

Stay Safe and QUILT ON!

Monday?

It's so easy to lose track of time and days now.  I had to look back, I started curtailing my schedule the first week in March.  I came back from Finishing School and I was totally exhausted.  You know how you catch everything when you are run down ... TaiChi was cancelled that week because our teacher was unavailable.  So I took the week off!  And have only been out of the house about 1 time each week since.  I don't count walks around our complex or down the Coastal Trail with DH.  Cabin Fever is a real thing, though!

I didn't get any photos back from the kids yesterday, Here are the reveals from yesterday:

 

And here is today's photos:

I haven't made my block of the day quite yet!  Big outing this morning - when to the grocery store!!!

I worked on my ModSquad Quarantine project yesterday, normally these are secret because we try to guess who made what at our meetings. But I have to show someone!!!

Quarantine theme - I could come up with dozens of ideas that were dark and negative.  Remember how awful it was to watch the news every night.  I still tear up alot, but I was devastated some nights before we got used to the new normal??  So I really had to put my mind to finding a more positive outlook, which is odd for me, I've been nicknamed "Pollyanna" by family!

So universal experience.  Majority in same situation globally!  That is odd. So all sorts of people staying home, some with kids, some with pets, but all staying in.

Our building is 'redwood'; my first thought was to use a fabric by Jo Morton - old fashioned women busts.  Pardon me for saying the obvious - but that was a bust!  Then I had a fabric of "Many faces of Dr Who"  colorful but weird!  Hmm, went to my computer and found avatars - had to reduce them and transfer them to fusible ... it was a learning curve but I liked the look.  Incorporated the Teddy Bear Parade that went on in towns for kids to spy while walking.  This isn't done yet - I found some dogs on fabric that might be the right size to add to the windows.  And some spring green leaves and maybe a bird on the tree.  Started quilting it to hold the fusible on.  The back is a cartoon fabric of NYC, God bless them.  So - what do you think???

Stay safe & QUILT ON!

Happy Quiet Easter!

We had a beautiful day here yesterday.  Sun was out during the morning low tide ... so we headed down to walk the beach.  We had to wade thru some creeks crossing the beach but it felt wonderful!

The star fish are making a comeback from the die-off and it cheers my heart to see them again.  I took many pictures of things and will probably have a week of "what Nana and Papa saw on the beach" photos in our game.

Yesterday's pictures:

 

Today's pictures:

 

Pictures sent back from the kids, both were hard!  I had to ask for hints!

 

My 'block program' is going well.  All the scraps, okay, most of the scraps are out in the open.  - You saw my 'system' yesterday.  So it only takes about 15 minutes to put a block together!!  A word to the wise:  sew the corners on the 4 1/2" squares first.  Change to 1/4 inch foot, sew the plus pieces together.  Stop chain sewing and lay out the block!  Especially when you have directional fabrics in the block. Then proceed!!  You'll save yourself a lot of ripping, trust me!!

Dang!  And don't think it was an easy fix!  Two directional fabrics ... ripped it down to 7 pieces!

But put it back together, not happy with Elvis blending in with the Dr Whos ... but move on!!

Today's block, I used the long piece of the plus as the horizontal so the words would read across it.  I have to remember to look at it sideways, so I don't get both 'dark' squares on top!!   I'm sure it won't be the last time!  And of course, with this busy of a quilt - no one but me is going to notice.

Stay Safe and QUILT ON!