Limited Sewing

This past week has been crazy; Olympics, Super Bowl and the continuing horror of the Trump Administration aside. I’ve been prepping for my trip to Colorado next week to begin the task of sorting and dismantling my late brother’s effects. Besides the packing lists and other details, I’m not sure how prepared I am for the emotional impact as I get to his house and he is not there. Going through his clothes, selling his vehicles, saving family mementos and being surrounded by all things Steve, except Steve himself. Thank goodness my cousin Dan will be there with me, both for emotional comfort and for physical assistance with the “outside stuff” (cars, tools, equipment). 

All that to say that my sewing time was limited this week and my heart was not in it. I did manage to sew one block, a single Rolling Stone block, in green. Green, dark and bright, is the color of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. We’ll save the lights and pastels for another month because green, like blue, is such a huge color for many of us. Anyway, here is my single block, 12.5” unfinished size. 

I did fiddle with my Stay at Home Round Robin (SAHRR) blocks, but I’ve been frustrated lately trying to reconcile the prompts with the style of  my starter blocks and my vision for turning them into kid quilts. I want to keep the whimsical Mary Engelbreit feel, and it is not going the way I want it to. So, I’ve definitely narrowed it down to doing only the Queen block. I’ll save the Princess block to do on my own later. 

And I’m not particularly happy with my ideas for the current round on the Queen block, either. Part of my frustration is the color of the blues. I do want to pick up the lighter blues of the central motif, but both of the blues pictured are too dark. Or are they? Most of the panel colors are so rich and saturated. But I do think the monkey wrench block will work as cornerstones for the pre-printed border print that came with the block as long as I add to it in width. I figured I should use that border print before the top gets too big for the limited length of it that I have. 

I may have to break down and buy a half yard of lighter blue, but not until I search everywhere in my stash, including all 30+ kits I’ve assembled that are in a box under my sewing tables. But I don’t have the sewjo mojo to do that now. So, I’ll be dropping out of the SAHRR. I just need to do these my way and at my pace when life calms down. I should be focusing on the wedding quilt for my grandson anyway, and the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is my second priority. That’s about all I can handle now. 

Have a wonderful week, wherever you are. Enjoy the Super Bowl (if you watch) and the Olympics. I won’t be posting next week as I’ll be in Colorado with limited internet and no sewing machine. But I’ll see you back here the following week. Stay safe and warm!

PS - I just noticed as I posted this that I sewed the Rolling Stone block backwards! See? MY mind is on walkabout. I’ll fix it and repost it in a couple weeks. Sheesh!