Progress

 

As soon as Sydney loaded up her clean laundry to head back to UF, I started moving sewing things back into the studio.  It should be permanent this time!  Rather than cutting the design walls down 6 inches in height, I hung them horizontally for now.   I would like to build some bookshelves into that back wall eventually.   There is a staircase on the other side with lots of dead space which could be put to good use.   One thing at time though.  

Kurt is making good progress on the bathroom.  Every so often I help him hold something, but other than that, he has been chipping away at it slowly.  I will need to work on some major wall prep which is my fault as I didn't want more tile than was necessary.   We sent with a seamless penny tile floor instead of the big step up triangle shower pan that was there before.   I tried to find the most minimal round shower enclosure that I could. I guess there just aren't that many choices in round glass showers.     

In honor of blue for January, I sewed a blue binding on Streak of Lightning and started the hand sewing process.   There is a nice comfy chair downstairs where I can sit and sew while I keep the dog company.  She is in her last days now, and can't do the stairs anymore.   When she is downstairs we can keep the door open and she loves to wander in and out.   Do you have any slow stitching going on today?  You should head over to Kathy's Quilts where she celebrates the patient art of hand sewing.   

After the Long Weekend

I thought that I might get this top finished up over the long weekend.  It is SO close though!   I will be able to polish it off as soon as there is an evening at home.  I think that Sydney has 3 lacrosse games this week though, so that might not be soon.   

We went on a family hike yesterday, and the weather was glorious!   Lots of flowers and bees and gators splashing in the distance. I keep thinking that it will be too hot soon, but we keep having these lovely cold snaps of 60 degree days.  Perfect hiking weather!  We also had ham for lunch in honor of Easter Sunday, so there will be ham sandwiches to enjoy all week.   

Everyone is eligible for be vaccinated in Florida now and lots of people are getting appointments.  I see a vaccinated return to normalcy happening soon!   I'd love to see a vaccine approved for the kids below 16.  Maybe before school starts next year?  It would be fabulous to ditch the mask and work on labs in groups again.  At this point, I would just be over the moon to see all of my students in person again and give up on the Zoom synchronous sessions.   

Design Wall Monday - Lightning

The moon was full and beautiful last night.  I tried to catch a photo of its reflection on the water, but photos never do the night sky justice.   

I got the first three rows of the lightning quilt sewn together.   It is a slow and steady process to get the angles right on either side, but I am very much enjoying watching this one come together.   Those nine patches have been hanging out fermenting in a baggie for SO long.   So glad to find a use for them.  I have several more baggies to deal with, but all in good time.  

I did actually empty one more baggie yesterday, converting ginormous hexies, to tiny ones for the diamond quilt.  Kurt and I watched Batman Begins together after pizza night and I trimmed so many blocks that I wore a blister on my scissor finger.  Ouch!  It was amazing how many different fabrics I had stashed in there.  Some were of questionable quality and got tossed, but the rest will make great additions to my little diamond collection.   

I think this will be a calm week.  Sydney is allowed to return to sports again after her mono episode.   We went to watch the game as a family last Friday, but by Wednesday she will be back on the field again.   Midterm exams were last week at school which means that we start a new marking period today.   That means just nine more weeks of this wild and weird school year.   We are down six teachers so far who just won't be back.   I can't say that I blame them after the year we have all had, but it is going to be sad to see them all go.   Two of them had previously planned to retire, the rest have made other plans based on the trials of pandemic education.   

 

Sunday - Time to Pause?

I am looking forward to a little quiet time today.   We had a beach walk this morning, then took the girls out to breakfast.  We have a restaurant within walking distance that does patio seating with a beach view.   Anna is only coming home every other weekend, which is a sign of progress.   It does mean that I spent yesterday fighting for laundry time though.  Somehow after moving her loads forward for her all day, she still managed to leave with the last load sitting in the dryer.  And Sydney, bless her heart, put a load into the washer but never started it.    I am still hopeful that I will manage to produce a set of clean sheets before the end of the day.   

I am also making slow and steady progress on sewing the rows together for the red quilt.   The nine patches are made from 2 inch squares which makes each block 5 inches unfinished.   I cut 5 inch strips of red and then used the easy angle ruler to cut triangles without the bias being on the outside edge of the strips.   I suppose to cut them from squares you would need to cut each square into quarters.   I did the math on it and figured out that I would need to start with 7.5 inch squares to do it that way.   

I've been digging though old projects, orphan blocks and random stacks.   These hexies are giant and random and are older than my youngest daughter!   I am not feeling that I want a to finish this quilt and so I will repurpose these into tiny hexies to add to my rainbow diamond blocks.   I think that I will find a nice movie and some scissors and settle in for some hand work prep time.   I had wanted to sort through all of the randomness before we moved two years ago, but somehow it all just got dumped into boxes and carried over to the new house.   It feels good to sort through it all.   

I will link up with Kathy's Quilts and Oh Scrap! today.   Looking at what others are accomplishing will be a nice inspiration for continuing to make progress on my own projects.