More fingers and toes

Yesterday was Monday sewing which is always a highlight of the week. We accomplish so much and solve all the world's problems.

It's also where we share good times and not-so-good times. Well, we had a great celebration yesterday as Helen Anne delivered the news that our province is starting Step 1 on Friday - three days ahead of schedule. That means a beer on the patio!!! Was I excited? Oh, that's not the word for it! I'm ecstatic!!! 

The only question now will be how busy it is going to be? There are still people that are hesitant to go out, but there are others that are ready. The weather should be hot, so it's perfect patio weather. Will we have to wait in line? I've got that figured out - go just after lunch and stay the entire afternoon, sipping a few cool drinks, then have dinner and walk home!

If you read the blog yesterday, you know that seam ripping is not a foreign thing at my house. I don't think there's one day that goes by that I don't use it! However, I had an issue yesterday that no seam ripper was going to fix. And I have no idea how I goofed up. 

I have a magazine quilt that needs to be done. When? Well, let's say that technically, it should be going out in the courier today. As I was making the blocks yesterday, I put them on the wall, and I thought the quilt looked a wee bit on the smallish side for me. I aim to make my magazine quilts in the 60" by 72" range. 

The size I listed on my submission form was 60" by 80". Hmmm - we seem to have a problem here. First off, the block size is 8". Since when did 60" become divisible by 8"? I used the diagram that was included with the submission to figure out how many blocks. That would be 48 blocks. When you do the math, that will give me a quilt that is 48" by 60"—a far cry from the size that I normally do. 

Hmm - could I sneak in a smaller quilt? An e-mail to the editor was a NO - they need so many quilts of various sizes, and I was supposed to submit a larger quilt. Actually, I'm glad she said that because the quilt is gorgeous, and I'm glad I'm making it larger. 

So what does that mean? During Monday sewing, I got the original 48 blocks done. Right after the call, I went into panic mode and started cutting for another THIRTY-TWO blocks. Good grief - I can't believe I screwed up like that. First time!! I need more fingers and toes so I can keep count!

I'm happy to report that all the cutting and trimming is DONE! About 3/4 of the components are assembled, and four blocks are made. I have 3 one-hour Zoom sessions today, and any spare moment will be devoted to getting that quilt top together. My goal is to get the quilt top done TODAY. Quilt and bind tomorrow and hopefully get into the courier by tomorrow night. Oh boy -- that is a scramble, but thankfully, I go for easy quilts that are easy to assemble. 

Murphy and I took a slightly different path yesterday. Simply because we were nosy and wanted to see what was going on. 

Throughout the city are these giant ponds - they are called stormwater management ponds. This one was built several years ago. It's probably something like 10 years, and in that time, it's become overgrown. Amazing how quickly nature moves in when left unattended. 

A storm management pond

 They are huge, and as we watched yesterday, we saw a couple of pairs of ducks skimming the surface. I doubt there are fish in there, so the heron has zero interest in that pond. 

But last week, Murphy and I saw a truck carrying a large dirt digger turning the corner to get to the pond. We had been alerted by the city that they were going to be working in that area. 

This is a HUGE digger, and I love that you can only see its arm amongst the trees. 

The dirt digger

We kept walking and got a better view. They're working in two different spots. Not sure what they are doing, but they were hard at work. They only have a bobcat in the other area, which is totally dwarfed by the trees. 

The dirt digger

So the weather is pretty hot these days. Where did this come from? But I think it's typical weather for us at this time of year. The house is hot but not unbearable, and when I'm downstairs, I've got socks and a big fleece shirt on as it's like an icebox down there. 

I also have company. Murphy loves to come down and lie against that wall. No other wall - just that one. It's an outside wall, and I wonder if it's cooler? Such a silly girl. I have a BLACK quilt on that table, and well, the edge of it is no longer black. It's flipped up right now, but when it's down, it creates a nice cool, dark spot for her to chill out in. I'll have to wash the quilt to get all the dog dander and hair out of it, but if I sacrifice one quilt for Murphy? I think we can handle that. 

Murphy chilling out in Studio B

I'm going to share the "All in a Row" pictures today. There's not much new stuff this month, so I'll sneak them in here. This is my little wall hanging made with the Beach House block. I'm not adding this block to my quilt, but I made one block as an example for the group. I made five extra Snail's Trail blocks, and it just needs to be quilted. 

My beach themed wall hanging

Here are all the rows that I've made to date. I still have to complete the applique around the owls. They are so darn cute!!!! The other blocks for the top row are also done - I took the picture BEFORE I fixed the problem. If you check the join between the 4th and 5th blocks from the left, you'll see that two yellows touch. They are not supposed to touch. No worries - it's all done now. 

My "All in a Row" rows so far

I have to add five more rows to my quilt. I am a bit behind on this one. Not by much, and I hope over the summer, although we will have homework in the summer, I can play catchup! 

Not everyone is making every row, and the class is not huge. Here are Cathy's rows for this past month. Cathy is making ALL the rows!!!! And then she'll figure out what to do with them. 

Cathy's rows

On that note, I'm out of here. I have a little bit of prep work on two presentations today, and I need to get that done. Then back to the sewing machine this afternoon to finish that darn quilt top! 

I haven't had a chance to figure out something for you to declutter. You're on your own. Other than deleting e-mails, I haven't had a chance. But I hope to move onto more computer-related purging in the next while. Photos in particular, but so many documents, and they are spread all over the place. These are PAST documents. We hang onto things that we think are important and they are NOT. So off with their heads!!!

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!