Rain!

The rain arrived!  After I wrote yesterday's post, the rain began and continued off and on for hours, with lots of thunder and lightning adding spice to the afternoon.  And when I woke this morning it was raining again.  More storms are expected today.  This reminds me of visits here when our children were young, and they saw thunderstorms for the first time.  Once we let them play in the rain, and they ran barefoot through puddles, dripping wet.  Another time a storm in the middle of the night woke them.  So different from rain back home.

Yesterday I helped Claudia cook, knit several rows on a sock, talked with both of them, listened to music with Dad.  It's always fun to hear of Claudia's grandchildren in England, how some things are different than here.  For instance, there it's the father's responsibility to give the children baths.  The grandson is about 5, the little girl nearly 2.

Today more of the same, probably.  Watching birds in the yard, talking, maybe practicing some music I brought.

On the road again

So here I am in Illinois visiting my dad.  Quilting did not happen this past week, which I spent working on the biographical sketch of each of my parents, sorting through papers and pictures, thinking about questions I might want to ask Dad.  He has a different view of family history than I do and often does not want to talk about his family.  But I've already heard a good story today, about his first girl friend, Thelma Kay, in third grade.  When I first booked a trip in January for this week of spring break, I planned to visit...yes, you guessed it, Phoenix.  My trip would overlap Liz's visit, so I'd see her as well as e and her parents  Then Dad had some health concerns, and I knew I had to come out here.  Sometimes I feel bad about not making a bigger effort to see my mother during her last weeks, not that Dad is dying, but he is getting older.

Thunder!  Rumbling in the distance, grey skies, no rain...yet.

I flew to Indianapolis yesterday and spent the night with my sister, who lives about 20 minutes from the airport.  This morning I drove over to Dad's, then will return to Cynthia's Friday afternoon and fly home Saturday.

Strawberry Ice

Since I'm not sure I like the darker patches on the stack and slash quilt-top, I made another top using mostly leftover fabrics from the quilt I made for my sister last fall.  It's a simple rail fence pattern, with small squares popping occasionally.  I think I'll call this one "Strawberry Ice" or maybe "Pink Ice."  I'll let Carole choose the one she prefers for her great-granddaughter.  The other one will stay in reserve for the next time I need a baby quilt.  Today I'll begin pin-basting top, batting, and backing together for one of them.

Quilt top done

Thursday night I finished sewing together the 16 large squares for the baby quilt.  It is about 56 inches square.  I do not plan to add a border; I'm not sure how I will quilt it, perhaps in an overall meander or loopy pattern.  Perhaps next week I'll have time to quilt it, before I go to Illinois a couple of days after Easter.  Carole said the baby is due in June, so there's plenty of time, though she is going to Iowa for a birthday celebration next month, and it would be nice if I could finish it by then.

Little e and her mom have started swim lessons.  She is now an Aquatot, minnow level 2.  You can never start too young when you have a pool in your backyard.

Stack 'n' Slash baby quilt

A new project!  My friend Carole is expecting her ninth great-grandchild this summer (the 8th girl) and is no longer able to sew, so she asked me if I would make the baby a quilt.  Of course!  She came over to meet e a couple of weeks ago, and we discussed fabric, patterns, and colors.  She liked some of the prints I already had, but I needed more variety.  A couple of days ago I bought 11 new 1/4 yard pieces to add to the 9 I had.  I paired a light or medium with a darker fabric, then put two pairs together, ending with five groups of four fabrics each.  (Clicking on a picture should enlarge it.)










The cutting was simple.  From each fabric, cut a 7" square, two pieces 4 1/2" by 7", and two pieces 4 1/2" by 15".  From one pair, sew a short rectangle to opposing sides of the square, then a longer rectangle across the top and the bottom.  One quilter calls this making "a positive and a negative," with each fabric as center square then as frame.



Then take the large block, 15" square, and cut it horizontally 6 1/2" from the left side; without picking it up or separating the pieces, cut it vertically 6 1/2" from the top edge, as shown here.  Standing at the corner of my cutting table made this cutting easier, since I could move myself instead of the fabric.





Now mix up the pieces from the four fabrics in the group and sew them together like the original block, making sure you have one patch from each of the four pairings in each block.  As you can see, each block has four different size patches.

I have sewn 12 of these blocks so far and hope to finish the other 8 today.  They go very quickly!  Unfortunately, I did make a couple of mistakes in cutting and have had to unsew a couple of things, but that was easily done.  The next step is to mix up the blocks into a pleasing arrangement of colors and sew them together.

To trim or not to trim?

Because I was not precise while sewing together the little postage stamp patches, I now have a decision to make.  The quilter who described her own process on this quilt just trimmed down all the blocks, which is certainly an option.  And as I began sewing I figured I would just follow her actions. The seams could be less than precise because the finished blocks would be trimmed to the same size.  But now that I have all sixteen blocks made, I see that some of them will need maybe 1/2 inch cut off so they can match the imprecise ones, and that offends me because that leaves the end patches of each row smaller than the others.  Does that really matter?  Would it be noticeable?  Unsewing patches then resewing them takes time but saves a uniform appearance.  On the other hand, from a distance the smaller patches might look OK.  So instead of making a choice I began cutting 6 1/2 inch squares from the old shirts I "de-boned" a while back.  But I will decide soon because I'm looking forward to seeing my jelly candy quilt complete.

In other news, e has been sick again, this time with an intestinal bug that has apparently passed on to her mom.  Bummer!

Resolutions check-in

How are you doing with any new year's resolutions you made?  I decided to check my own progress on the nine I recorded here on January first.

1.  Use fabric:  I made the raggedy bull's eye quilt and donated it to the youth program fund raiser.  I am still working on the postage stamp quilt, though not much.
2.  Blog at least once a week:  yes.
3.  Visit e once every 3 months:  yes, I went in February.
4.  Visit Liz:  not yet, waiting till school is out
5.  Visit Sarah:  not yet
6.  Visit my dad and sister:  trip booked for end of March
7.  Clean out my closet:  E and I worked on the games closet, but Imhaven't tackled my clothes closet yet
8.  Walk 4 times a week:  almost.  My average so far is 3.8 times a week.
9.  Do something with a friend once a month:  yes.  Scrabble with Dena, lunch with Carole, a walk with Sue.  And several meals with other couples.

So, not too bad, over all!