What Day is it?

I missed my weekly blog post last Saturday. That’s because for some reason, I was disoriented all week. I kept thinking Thursday was Wednesday, Friday was Thursday, etc. So I didn’t even realize I’d missed writing a post until Saturday afternoon when I went into my sewing room to work and snap some pictures. Yeah, aging lands hard when you’re not expecting it. 

Nevertheless, it’s been a busy two weeks. Doctor and pre-op appointments for me (Monday the 18th is the day I go in for my LEFT knee total replacement) and routine periodic exams for hubby Bruce. We had our HOA’s Cinco de Mayo party, with good food and the best turnout we’ve had in at least a couple years. 

I’ve gotten my courtyard cleaned up, and the new patio furniture has been delivered and assembled. A late freeze took out half of our Japanese maple tree (and another half dozen maples within our complex). I had to rake up all the fallen, dead leaves (it was November in May). But I’ve given the poor tree some iron treatments and plenty of water, so we don’t expect any lasting damage; just half the shady leaf canopy for this season. Bummer. I hope it doesn’t hurt the shade plants below the tree. 

Since this picture, I’ve planted my vertical planter on the left and added a couple more colorful pots. I won’t be adding a lot of new perennials or even annuals this year, because we are under drought conditions, and new plantings need to be babied with lots of water. Also, my knees won’t be in any shape to do a lot of gardening. Hopefully next year’s situation will improve. 

On the sewing front, I’ve completed most of my blocks for Orange May in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I’ll show some this week and some next week. 

Four Gameboard blocks, measuring 8.5”: I absolutely LOVE making these blocks!!

And two Rolling Stone blocks that will finish at 12”. 

Next week I’ll show the string blocks and crumb blocks, which are boring. But hopefully I can remember to snap pix of the three most recent Blocks of the Month in the class that Ruby, Cousin Kim and I are taking so there will be something interesting sewing-wise. 

And speaking of sewing interest, my friend Sandy who heads up our Salt Lake Chapter of Quilts for Kids, dropped by some scraps for me to play with. She suggested that I could sort and pet them during my convalescence. The only catch is that I am NOT allowed to return them except in quilt form. Hehehe. Challenge accepted! Here they are, stacked in the family room. 

There are two bankers boxes on the right, with a smallish black tub mashing down the contents of the bottom box, a green-lidded clear tote bin, and a garbage bag full of 2.5” strips, ranging from WOF (width of fabric) to potato chip size (2.5x4.5”). 

So, do you think I could wait to dig into these? Well of course not! I allowed myself to sort the contents of the white bag. And I’ve incorporated all the WOF strips into one tote where I can easily rifle through them to add to Strippie or other tops. Most of the rest were trimmed to varying shorter lengths, depending on what I could get out of them. They are sorted and stacked in piles. Eventually I’ll match the measured piles to the pattern(s) I can make with them. 

Then I went through my big ol’ box of self-made kits; the ones that I had numbered 1-36 and were made from previously-donated scraps. At least ten kits had been sewn up, so I combined some remaining kits where fabrics could be matched (by either color or theme), or where a “kit” had been raided and was only a partial. I was able to add in some of the new strips to those kits that could use them, and now have about 22 kits in that box. Additionally, though, I have at least another dozen kits that are in the process of assembly. The difference with this dozen is that I’m actually doing the planning, designing and cutting for Kim or Ruby to sew, along with some rudimentary sketches and instructions. Once I finish bagging those up, it will free up a lot of space in the sewing room (along with passing on the Pfaff in its huge rolling case). After peeking in the newly-donated scrap boxes, I know there are at least three sets of blocks ready to be assembled into flimsies. I’ll do those as soon as I can get back to the machine. 

Ruby, Kim and I will spend my first Sunday post-surgery sorting the remaining scraps by color for my scrap buckets. The multi-colored bits will be cut up for Zipper or string blocks, or used in crumb piecing. Larger chunks and small yardages will be measured and labeled, and paired up with pieces in my stash to make backings. So, there is a plan to FINALLY - now that my obligatory sewing is complete - tackle all those wonderful donated scraps and sew away to my heart’s content. That is, once my knee allows me to sit and sew again. I would love to spend my summer alternately sewing and swimming!

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The sale of my late brother’s home is now complete, and the new Estate account has been funded with the proceeds. There is a waiting period for a number of months to allow any potential creditors to come forward (possibly some medical charges?) Then come September, the funds can be distributed and the Estate tax return filed. It’s been a long, arduous process. The only thing I’m really pleased about in the short term is that all the money we’ve personally paid for making the house and utility payments for six months - to say nothing of the cremation and attorney fees - have been reimbursed. **sigh of relief **

Today (Saturday) is a Quilts for Kids workshop. I’ve got several sets of string blocks and some fabric yardage to donate. Our chapter has also agreed to accept the Pfaff Grand Quilter machine that my friend Pat donated. See this post about that machine.

That’s about it for now. I’m not entirely sure if I’ll post next week because of the surgery. But we can all just go with the flow, right? Have a great week!!