A Busy Week

If the first week of March is any indication, then it’s going to be a busy month! This was Bruce’s first full week of retirement (or re-retirement as we call it. He retired once about 9 years ago, was home for 3-4 months, began volunteering at The Leonardo Museum, then they hired him part-time, then full-time, etc etc. He worked there for 8 years!)



We ran all sorts of errands this week between continual rain showers. Not complaining about the rain; it’s better than drought. And at least it’s rain and not snow, although I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of the snow this season. I’m hoping it warms up for next week, which is my birthday week. Last year I got a bicycle and was out riding it in shirtsleeves.... We did treat ourselves to some cut flowers to brighten things up a bit. I had another pic that was a better view of these tulips and daffodils (bought from Trader Joe’s), but it wouldn’t upload. Oh well. I’m also preparing for a joint birthday party for my older son Ryan and me this weekend, reading two very good books, and just generally enjoying having Bruce home these days!

And another cool thing - I already have my Lattice Birds quilt back from the quilter! I sent it to Diane Knott of Butterfly Threads Quilting and apparently caught her at a good time (between Quiltcon and a family vacation) when she had nothing in the pipeline. I sent it off on a Thursday (a week ago today), from Utah to Georgia. She got it Saturday and sent it back to me on Monday. I had it yesterday, Wednesday. How cool is that? But the best part, of course, was the amazing quilting she did.  I will get the binding on in the next couple days, but I’m going to have to wait for some decent weather to take some glamour shots.

In the meantime, though, I do have the two elephant quilts basted. The one on the left is spray basted, the right one is pin basted. I’m not at all happy at how wrinkled the back gets when you spray baste the quilt layer by layer. But we’ll see how the quilting goes. Yesterday I quilted the pin-based one and will start on the spray basted one today. I’ll show completed pictures when they’re done.

And I bought another sewing machine!!  This one has actually been planned for at least 2-3 months. Meet Sofie, the Singer Featherweight!

Sofie was born sometime in 1968-1969 in Kilbowie, Scotland, UK (She is a 221K, with the K referring to Kilbowie).  She has all her parts, a case and foot pedal, a light, and is in excellent condition. I got a screaming deal on her ($350) from a friend at Weight Watchers (yes, I still go - I’ve maintained my current weight for a year after losing 30-35 pounds, and am now gearing up to  lose the next 30). Anyway, this machine is not for me - I bought it for Cousin Kim. Her old Kenmore is dying a slow death, just like my Kenmore is. Both of our Kens still work, but their motors are weary and have lost most of their power. So Kim’s been using my Brother Innova (“Bob”) when she sews here. But I wanted her to have a nice machine for her home, and she prefers solid vintage machines, so Sofie will be hers.

Now, our next sewing machine project is to get my Singer treadle up and running. That is a project for later in the year. Then I can sew if there’s no power! I also have an old 1951 electric (don’t remember the brand offhand) that is a tank that I need to pass on to someone. I don’t think that Bruce or the repair shop are up to the task of fixing it. Have I ever shown that one? I don’t think so.....   but I digress....

And then I got a wild hair this week to piece a quilt from some of the blocks in the Parts Department. This is what I came up with.

I had hoped to get something out of just all the blue blocks, but there weren’t enough. So I added four green ones (quarter log cabins); one in each corner. That still wasn’t quite enough, so the bottom center block is actually 4 multi-colored quarter logs in warmer hues. And the block above that is just made up of random pieces and squares. I love how the upper right part of that, pieced from a couple different things, looks like a men’s tie. Anyway, this one is also basted and will be quilted soon. It’ll finish at about 44x54”. I’ve got a white with gray swiss dot fabric as sashing, also a scrap, but there wasn’t enough to add a final border to the top or bottom.

So that’s what I’ve been up to this week. I’ve also been sewing on my green scraps for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and will be showing some of my green blocks in Saturday’s post and linky party. But between the blue flimsy above, plus the elephants and birds quilts, I will have four finishes in the next week. But I’m not going to think farther ahead than that until I get them done, photographed and blogged.