Waiting on the World to Change

Just think about how wonderful it would be if Covid were behind us. With everyone vaccinated and healthy, we wouldn’t need to be afraid for our lives when going out to just get groceries! How lovely to have family coming over to celebrate Thanksgiving, spending time together, hugging, and giving thanks for all our blessings. To be able to anticipate shopping and selecting gifts for our loved ones for Christmas. To have a new President-Elect (and the American people) being treated graciously by the outgoing officeholder instead of the shameful display of petulance and histrionics we’re being subjected to. To have a peaceful Holiday Season with appropriate weather patterns and behavior patterns. 

Well, maybe we can have most of that next year, but it ain’t happening in 2020! So while we’re all waiting on the world to change, let’s talk about quilting. It’s what most of us are here for...

This week I did manage to baste two quilts - the ones I had completed backings for. The basting was made easier by the fact that I finally went and got another cortisone shot in my right shoulder. After a few days (and a lot of walking during Bruce’s doctor appointment times), I feel about five years younger! 

Creature From the Foggy Lagoon (name courtesy of Louise) has been quilted, bound and labeled as a donation quilt for Quilts for Kids. 

This quilt finished at 47x54” before laundering. Speaking of laundering, there was an apparent clog in our drain pipe, and we had a minor flood from the overflow drain to the floor of the laundry room. Luckily, the floor is tiled and we have a working drain in the floor, which was something we installed about 15 years ago when a similar problem happened with our old washing machine. Our home is about 60 years old and building codes have evolved! Anyway, everything worked as it should have, so all we had to do was unclog the drain pipes. That was accomplished with our heavy-duty go-to chemical plumber (hate to have to use it, but needs must...). I was back in the laundry business in a couple hours.

The other quilt I basted and am in the process of quilting is the Four-Patch Posy quilt, also for QFK.

I’ll show more of it next week when it’s finished. The sashings were quilted with a little loops to mimic the flight paths of the fireflies depicted in the orange fabric. In the main squares I’m quilting a big, blowsy scallop-petaled flower. I’ve finished 12 of the 20 I need to do, so it should be completed today.

There was no progress on the big blue and brown rail fence quilt because I still need to finish the backing. I’ll do that this afternoon, then Cousin Kim and I can baste it tomorrow. For most of the rest of the week, I got sidetracked - and I mean SIDETRACKED - by a stringy squirrel.

Fifty-six multi-colored string blocks demanded to be sewn! I used foundation paper this time instead of the sheer stuff I often use as a base, and spent a couple pleasant Happy Hours pulling papers and sipping Kahlua and (light) Eggnog. Ahhh..... the Holidays!

My large beach tote bag of multi-colored strings showed barely a dent after these were sewn, so I see many more of these quilts in my future. I also wonder if these might be a little busy (or nausea-inducing?) (or epileptic seizure-inducing?) I guess we’ll just have to trust the people who distribute these quilts to give the quilts to the appropriate kid. 

Then I remembered all the single-colored string blocks I’ve worked on all year for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and decided to play a little to see how they would look mixed in. Keep in mind that these are just slapped up on the design board, not sewn.

Bruce and I really like it with the red. I first tried using 10 of the blocks to form a smaller rectangle, which would be the ring just inside of where it is pictured. But it looked really dumb and wimpy. So the 18-block rectangle it what I would do.

What about yellow? Meh.... maybe not.

The greens, however, would look nice. But I don’t have enough at the current time because I used many of them in the Creature From the Mossy Mountain. So, I’ll be doing more solid color string blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge in 2021.

And finally, another option to calm the craziness a bit would be to intersperse some solid blocks here and there to create some places for the eyes to rest.

Laundry and chores are all caught up, and we’re well-stocked with food for our solitary Thanksgiving. So  I’m off to sew all day today. And tomorrow, too, with Cousin Kim. We’ve decided that this year we’ll allow Christmas music before Thanksgiving while we sew. Because why not?

PS - yes, I do love to sew with strings!!