Lots to Share This Week!

What a difference a week makes! We did have two hectic days on Monday and Tuesday filled with doctor appointments (mostly annual visits for Bruce), and even as we were working through those, we had some fun. We got to visit with our dear friend Terri (whose late husband was Bruce’s lifelong best friend) and take her to lunch. She’s finished quilts for all 15 of her grandchildren, an impressive feat. Her work, to my eyes is show quality. But I forgot to ask her if she started that Halloween quilt for her son Clark! Terri, you’ll have to keep me apprised! 😘  The rest of my week that followed was filled with lots of glorious sewing time!! 

So, we’ll start small. I didn’t show my 30 string blocks from last week, so here are those. 

At that point, my block total was 303. Then I stitched 30 more blocks this week to bring my total up to 333. I’m trying to finish 600 string blocks between September 1-Dec 31. But I didn’t take a picture of  this week’s 30 because I couldn’t find one batch of 15. But then Bruce found them later in the trash can and rescued them for me! They’d been knocked in accidentally when I was trimming up a quilt. It’s a good thing he knows what’s what in my sewing room! Anyway, here is my pile of string blocks that I’m taking to Quilts for Kids this morning. I’ve circled in yellow the safety pins that hold each batch of 15 blocks together. 

Fourteen sets of 15 blocks = 210. In addition to that I had sewn 60 brown blocks which my friend Sandy (our QFK chapter president) took when she dropped off a roll of batting I’d purchased, and then there are the 63 Christmas string blocks I sewed and put away for myself. So, 210+60+63=333. I’m still on pace to reach 600 by the end of the year. But I’m going to have to step it up because I’ve got knee surgery coming up after Thanksgiving, and I figure that may slow me down.. 

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I’m going to switch gears for a moment and show you some photos from the No Kings protest rally that Ruby and I attended last Saturday. As before, it was a peaceful, high energy and fun gathering. The number of participants in Salt Lake was estimated in the range of 8-12,000. I believe it was toward the higher end because there were waaaaay more people there than the estimated 10,000 back in April. 

I loved all the inflatable costumes. At first we were going to try to get selfies with all of them, but then we realized there were too many. 

As you can see from the pictures, it was a perfect weather day! 

Ruby and I went inside the Capitol while we were there since it had been over a decade - and probably two decades - that either of us had been inside. 

The Beautiful Rotunda

Looking out at the east half of the crowd from a window.

And to remind us all why we do this, ….

Now, will someone please tell that to our Orange Idiot in the White House?  You know, the White House that’s now missing its East Wing. I won’t rant about that because I can’t find the words to describe how horrified and heartbroken I am. I trust that most of you feel the same way. 

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And back to the quilting part of this program! 

I pin basted the Paint Chips RSC (Rainbow Scrap Challenge) quilt, as well as this other little number containing bright squares. I’m planning to quilt them in the coming week.

And then I *did* quilt this cute little strippie quilt, which finished at 40.5”x48”.

The back used my last yard of the fabric I used for the back of the quilt I finished last November. I also used some leftover bright squares from the quilt block orphanage. 

I even had enough time to pull and arrange the Windmill quilt blocks (made for RSC in 2024) as my next project to tackle. 

So this morning, Ruby, Cousin Kim and I are heading out to our Quilts for Kids scrappy workshop. It’s the last meeting for this calendar year, hence the reason I’m taking the string blocks. They can make up quilt kits with them during our holiday break. I’ll take another large batch of string blocks to them when we reconvene in January. And hopefully lots of little quilt finishes too! 

Have a good week, friends! You may have to ignore some of the news from the Administration Regime to have a good week, but whatever it takes…..