It’s a Jungle Out There!

 This week’s post is going to be short and sweet and lean on pictures. I just had so much going on, so much on my mind and (insert any random excuse here) that I don’t have too much to share. But watch out next week…

I did manage to sew backings for 5 quilt tops. All of these are Community Quilts sent to me by others to layer, quilt and bind. But in order to do that, I had to sew strips and chunks together for the backs. That was how I spent my Thursday (instead of pin basting them). 

It’s my goal to have these layered and at least 3-4 of them quilted and finished by next weekend. 

I did finish my Creature From the Pink Circus quilt. 

This was so much fun to put together. It used 8 orphan blocks, and lots of pink scraps made into Chaser blocks, a checkerboard strip, a width-of-quilt crumb strip and lots of strips and chunks. It’s happy and … and… I forgot to take its measurements or sew on a Quilts for Kids label. But I can do those today. My brain seemed to be focusing on other things this week…

I’ve been sticking to my Weight Watchers food plan and the pounds are coming off. I blew past the 40-lb lost mark (down 42). I had to go out shopping and buy some new jeans and a couple other necessities. Last week I used (ate) my daily points allotment, but very few of my weekly points, which allow us to cover more calorie-laden meals or occasional splurges. But I’m feeling I need to use more of those weeklies (in other words, eat a bit more) as I get hungry at times. Eating more to lose weight… what a concept! Anyway, I have another 21 pounds to go to reach goal, which I hope to reach sometime this summer. And then go another 10 pounds or so under that as a cushion. Even that will have me 20 pounds over what my original WW goal was when I was 21. But 40 years and three children (and my doctor) says that’s just fine!

The color of the month for March in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is green. I’ll be mixing all my greens - light, dark and bright - together for my blocks this month. 

First up was framing 10 more of these jungle blocks. Hence, the “jungle” referred to in the blog post title. I have 20 finished now, but I still want to add frames in red, orange and yellow. When all is said and done, I’ll have 50 blocks to make into two quilts.

In March I’ll also be assembling this quilt of Bear Paw blocks, which were one of my blocks from last year’s Rainbow Scrap challenge. This is the layout up on the design wall.

The pink strips are just pinned up there to demarcate the sections for assembly. I’ve barely started with the left column, top 4 blocks.  

It’s still snowy and cold here. I just had my annual mammogram (all is well). In the coming week we have our semi-annual dentist visit and cleaning, and the following week is my annual physical. The fun just never stops around here….