Experimental Quilting.

I had some 6 inch squares that I got from Amy during the giveaway for her 100th blog post. I pulled them out last week while I sat at the kitchen table watching the kids do homework and started messing around. Somewhere in the back of my head was an episode of simply quilts where they made a stack of equal sized blocks and cut through them all at the same time. One of the patterns was a puss-in-the-corner block which should have been pretty straight forward. I decided to try a diagonal version, but didn't bother to look up specific directions, although I know they must be out there somewhere. They sat "seasoning" until I was looking for something to putter around with this weekend.
I lost some size in the seam allowance, but squared everything up to 4 inches. I'm not sure what the pattern is called, but I thought it was a nice cross kind of block. Encouraged by the ease, I whipped up a few more. The measurements shifted a little as I went along, but they all squared up to the same size in the end. Even though it might cause a little wasted fabric, it certainly made the cutting fast.
I alternated them with some teal blocks from my 4 inch block box and found some border fabric to go with them.
Kurt and Ryan were gone on a cub scout camping trip, so I spent the wee hours of the evening of Saturday putting them together to make another nursing home quilt. I just finished up the quilting in a simple straight line pattern and stitched on some purple binding. Usually I just throw my "experimental" blocks into the orphan drawer, it was fun to turn these into a finished project.
Ryan and Kurt came home on Sunday morning covered from head to toe in filth and mud. It stopped raining eventually on Saturday, but left the ground so saturated with water that they couldn't step down without sinking in. They had lots of fun though, and after baths and laundry all was well again. Then the afternoon was our next OM (Odyssey of the Mind) meeting. I kept Sydney entertained while the kids practiced building structures out of straws. Ryan worked for a long time on his, and came up with this cube that worked very well.
As soon as the meeting ended, I headed out for my long run. 15 miles was on the schedule for last weekend, but I missed it while we were out of town. I made that up last night with Tom who is doing the full marathon Thanksgiving weekend and had 20 on his schedule. The first 12 miles or so went pretty well, but then I started to get tired. I walked a lot during the last three miles, but made it home before the kids were ready for bed. I managed to get a shower before collapsing into bed and woke up this morning with tired legs and really scary hair.