Christmas is over and plans for new quilts are swirling

The quilts were all completed and the kids got their quilts on Christmas Eve. I didn't get a picture of the baby because she was tucked in a corner and I didn't get an angle to take one.

Katie asked me if they could share their quilts which I thought was nice.

I found out to late that he got a new bedroom and a bigger bed. So his is a little small, but it is on his bed.

He is Autistic and he loves his quilt. It is quite heavy and might feel more like a weighted quilt. He said it was really warm. Which made me feel good.

I made the mistake of showing the girls how to use Pinterest and they are into Deinim and Lace. so they picked out pictures and showed me things that they liked. So I got the denim jackets and added lace to them for Christmas. They got pink long sleeved tees to go with them and some heavy leggings that were navy and pink floral prints.

New year is just around the corner and I have been studying quilt ideas I have saved from different sources I have saved. I found two patterns to start with to make quilts for the parents for next year. 

I even ordered some background fabric for these two quilts and will have to order backing fabric also. 

Hope you had a Nice Christmas and you have a Great New Year. Chris

4 washed and wrapped

This has to get done no later than Saturday. All that has to happen is to attach the last border on the two ends and quilt it.

This is a WIP for over 5 years. I made string blocks from scraps of 1/2 inch to 1.5 inch strips. I had gotten it as far as I have it here 4 years ago and just quit. I wasn't happy with the borders.

I had run the white and gray out to the length of the border and machine quilted it that far. Wasn't sure how I was going to add the end borders to make it work with the diagonal crosshatching I did.

I have that problem figured out,but needed more backing fabric and some of the white border. I am terrible about using up needed pieces in another quilt then not have enough when I need to finish something.

I got something close for the pieces I needed and started to sew it all together yesterday and I am a quarter yard short of the backing fabric. Went back to buy some more and they were out. It is a solid.

I could have gone two other places, but decided the time was the element I didn't want to sacrifice so I will add a dark border strip to the backing and just be done with it. So today is the day.

4 of the quilts are washed and wrapped. That was a major chore doing that. I am running out of time for this year. We have our Christmas on Christmas Eve. I still have to shop for food and make it.

I hope all of you are in better shape than what I am.

Merry Christmas to all of you. Hope you enjoy your time with family and friends. Chris

Another one done. Yippppppeeeee!

Well the fourth one is done. I have to work on one more. It will be easy to finish.

This one is for the 4 year old. She picked them out a long time ago and never told her it was for her. I think she will be please with the quilt.

It is a queen sized and I had to make another row to make it come out even. Started making the blocks last night and finished them today.

I started at 9 am and only took an hour lunch break. My shoulders are screaming now. But this one is done all but the washing and wrapping.

Getting closer to my deadline which is 1 pm on the 24th. So tomorrow I will jump out of bed and get cracking on the next one unless I get the borders cut tonight.

I hope you are all close to your deadlines. Chris

Getting closer

This one is bound and complete as of last night. I had the 23 month old so I wasn't able to sew until she went home.

This the next one to be done. I have 6 more blocks to make and then all the quilting. Only 19 more days to complete it.

This one is done and waiting to be washed. The fabric has been around for a long time so need to freshen them up.

This is complete. It needs washing also. I bought some huge gift bags. The days are slipping away fast.

Then this one got done last night. So today is a day to get the last major job started. I have another one that needs two borders assembled and quilted and that will make five quilts in about 3 months. 

I would have been sooner. But with my son's health we had granddaughters more and my days were not in the sewing room then. 

Hope you are getting your shopping done and sewing all complete. Back to the sewing room. Chris

I pushed and pushed, but I got it this far.

This is my efforts today. I got the quilting all done yesterday for the QAYG method. I assembled the rows today. It has been a long day quilting.

It is Queen sized and it still needs binding, but I think it came out pretty well. Perfect by no means, but serviceable for a 6 year old. She has a room to herself now so it will be a nice bright addition.

This is the quilting design I used for the 9-patches. It has been around for a long time, but it contained all the seams and makes it more durable for kids. It is a continuous stitching design. I like those without all the stop and go methods. 

I had to stop and walk away for  bit. I plan on getting the binding on tonight. Hope you have a great evening. Chris

Been busy and trying to focus

My son went for another CT scan and they couldn't find any tumor. They are not sure why his tongue is still having numbness. So the next trip will be in about 5 weeks and they will do a PET scan. Maybe something will show up there.This quilt finally got finished a couple weeks ago. It is for a 12 year old.

These are the next blocks that got assembled into rows. The quilt will be for the almost 6 year old. She says it that way. LOL

I am doing them in QAYG method by doing the rows and connect them into a queen size quilt.

This is the quilting I am doing on all the blocks within the rows. I have 6 of the 8 rows quilted. So hopefully over the weekend I will have the quilt all connected and bound. 

I have another quilt to finish up that just needs borders on the top and bottom and machine quilted in grid design. 

Then the last one will be a real scrap quilt. I have to get the blocks assembled in rows and pick out a connecting sashing for it. I have a mottled purple fabric for the back, This should be easy to do with outline quilting within the block.

This is several of the blocks laying together. They are made with logs. It is a very bright block and the 4 year old will get this one. I have a lot of these sewn into rows already.

This is the key to all this. Most of this is done as leaders and enders over the course of a year or a little longer. I try and have some of this going on with what ever I am doing. I have squares cut and strips cut and just keep pushing them under the needle. I have maybe 250 or 400 9-patches made up for future use. I try and numerous ideas in the works when I find time to stitch.

Hope you have a great day. Chris

Sorry lots going on

To start with these string blocks have been done for almost 2 years. They were sewn into 16 small blocks into a bigger block. I chose to do QAYG method. I sandwiched the bigger block and then did a stretch utility zig zag on the blocks along the strings to make the quilting and also to make it lots stronger. 

It is going to my grandson who is twelve years old and there is a Boxer dog that shares his room.

I used a fabric that is dark shades of Gray called Bark. I pieced the blocks together with strips so solid black on the top like the sashing and I use the Bark fabric on the back. When you look at the back you think it is a solid piece, but it isn't.

The blocks were made with 1.5 inch strips stitched to a telephone book page. I then pulled off the paper after I squared them up. There are 144 blocks in this top and a ton of thread.  He has a bunk bed so this should work fine.

These are the blocks for the next one. I have two to assemble and quilt and one for borders all before Christmas eve.

I have good news and so-so news. My son went back to a check up and they told him he was 9 weeks ahead in his recovery. Then three weeks later there are not sure he is out of the woods yet. 

He goes back on the 28th of November to have more tests. He is able to eat and not using the feeding tube now so that is a plus, but we still have that doubt the doctors have hanging over our heads. 

The little ones have been here a lot and that has set me back on getting done with their quilts for Christmas. I have bought somethings for the little ones to open and will have money cards for the older ones. 

We are having Thanksgiving here and I have most of it bought. Hope everyone has a very Nice Thanksgiving. Chris

Been busy, but not finishing a whole lot

Last week my son finished his treatments and got a certificate of being done.

This is the QAYG I am working on for a Christmas present.

This will be the next QAYG project. This will be Christmas also.

Here will be the next project. I have backing and batting for all of them. I just need a ball and chain to get in there and get them done. I have been spending more hours in the sewing room since my son is home. Less stress I guess.

The string b;locks will look like this after they are all quilted and assembled. I twill be for a 12 year old boy. I decided the extra stitching will help with the rough tough treatment it will have. 

Christmas is getting closer each day. Reality has hit I need to press on and get this done. Chris

Working slowly but working

This one is finished. It is a 4 patch in a log cabin. Easy and colorful. This is a Christmas present for the baby who is going to a twin bed soon.

Working on QAYG on this one. They are large blocks in 16 patches. It is going slow because I want this one to hold up. It is for the 12 year old grandson and there is a big dog in the house. So taking time to quilt it up right. It is a twin size.

this one I finished for my son to take to Cancer treatments with him. He is almost done. 3 more treatments and the healing will begin. The tumor is gone. 

This has been a long late summer for me. He has been going through so much and the care of the kids has fallen on both Grandma's. Grandma Lynne has done most of it during the week because she moved into their house for 6 weeks. I get the girls on weekends and Mom and Dad have been home almost every weekend. 

I am trying to stay focused and get quilting done. I have another quilt almost done and two more tops to finish before Christmas so my goals are slowly getting done. I need to make some little things also for the daughter in laws. I have some place mats in the works and maybe some coasters for their tables. I do have some little shopping to do for the kids so they have a toy r something to open besides a quilt. 

Christmas is getting closer all the time and my hours at the machine are not getting much done. So for the next month I need to focus. Starting today I plan on at least 2-4 hours a day to get this stuff done. 

Hope you are meeting your goals. Chris 

Been a busy couple weeks.

I have had the granddaughters more because Mommy and Daddy are still in Chicago doing treatments.

Their other Grandma needs to show up at work n Fridays so I get the girls while she goes home for the weekends. Mom and Dad have been able to come home all but one weekend.

He has another 7 radiation treatments and one chemo to go through. Then he rests for 3 months before more testing is done. Hopefully that will be the extent of the treatments and check ups will happen after that.

Today I started by cutting up backing and batting for another QAYG quilt for a Christmas present. The blocks are done it just needs quilted and assembled.

I have to clean my machine and get it ready to go tomorrow.

The yard and flowers are starting to wind down. My husband has been going out and cutting flower beds back for the last time. Next year we have to thin out a lot of it again.

Some of the plants are spreading and they need to be thinned out. 

I see many of you have been to quilt show or Fall festivals. I have been to busy to get out to do anything.

Hope this finds you well and you are sewing like crazy. Christmas is around the corner. Chris

I am here

Life has been happening. My son had an awful week with surgery radiation and chemo.
He has lost more weight and and struggling with pain.

The Benefit for him was Saturday night and was a great success. They served almost 600 people and several didn't eat anything. So we figure 600 plus people came.

He stopped by before he took off yesterday and he is very thin. I think he has lost almost 35lbs.

I haven't hardly sewn a stitch. I ran a lot last week for the girls. Their other Grandma had obligations so I was the back up to watch them.

I will have to go after them on Friday again until Mom and Dad cam pick them up on their way home Friday afternoon.

He is on the back side of this and counting the days. After today he will be half way through the radiation and only one Chemo to go through. Then the testing to see how their efforts have paid off.

Hope you can get all your sewing done. Chris

Finally got some thing finished

This is a real long term project. I started this about 7 years ago. I was told by my Mother that she had just cleaned out some of her scraps and threw them away.
I got in the car and drove to her house and was in her garage going through her trash. I pulled most of the smallest scraps out of her garbage pail which I then started sewing them together and came up with this quilt.

They were about 2 1/2 inch pieces and I played with a couple ideas and started sewing. I am sure it has a block name, but I just winged it. I didn't have a plan and no pattern, but came up with these blocks. 

The sashing fabric was a piece I bought on sale and my Mother thought it was the uglist thing she had ever seen. She asked me what I was going to use it on and I said I wasn't sure. After I pieced the blocks I looked around for something to stitch them together into a top and found this on the shelf.

So this has been a long term quilt. I was pieced and machine quilted and then put down and not seen the light of day for years. 

It is going to go with my son to Chicago when he returns to the hospital for more treatments today. 

He was in pretty rough sheape earlier in the week and they changes his meds and he snapped out of the awful stuff he was going through. He got to come home on Friday to see his kids and friends. He will stop by on his trip back to see us. I went to see him Saturday morning. 

I need to unearth some more 3/4's finished quilts and finish them up. 

Hope you are able to finish some started projects soon. Chris

Getting closer to Fall

Suppose to be a low over night of 52 Degrees F. But over the weekend back up into the 90's again and high humidity. The heat goes up when the kids get back in school. Most of the schools here don't have A/C.

We are seeing some colored leaves on the tops of the trees. I think it will be an early Fall. I am so over the heat and the humidity.

My son is going into another phase of his treatments. He has to get a feeding tube. Now his swallowing is compromised now with the radiation. So it takes a new twist every time we think it is ok it changes. His blood work is excellent. So he is pushing forward.

I haven't stitched anything yet. I have been looking at Pinterest to get inspired. I have a couple new ideas to use some of the elements I have stitched already.

I hope you are all inspired and doing well. Chris

Been a long few days

My son has begun his treatments and felt to rough to come home over the weekend. My babysitting duties happen over weekends.

I have had the girls since Friday afternoon. They come to my house to stay. When their other grandma stays it is at their house. Monday is the first day of school so they will be home tonight for bedtime.

They are confused being passed back and forth, but not really being bad. I try and get them to bed at a certain time and meals about the time they are use to. That helps.

I have don't a lick of sewing other than to mend a tote bag the girls had.

Hoe you are all getting your quilts done. Chris

Treatments have started

Dean got his first chemo and radiation treatments yesterday. Last night was pretty rough. He slept in today .

I dug around and found this quilt from back 6 years ago. I was going to add another round of borders and I even had one side on it. Decided I would just make it a couch throw. So All I have t do is bind it. 

These were small pieces I dug out of my Mother's garbage. Literally she would throw them away because she thought they weren't big enough to deal with. Well this is my usage of the pieces.

The border was a stencil I used to make it. It is all quilted it just needs binding. I have it laid out but not cut. I am going to finish this up and give it to my son to take with him while he stays in Chicago for his treatments. 

The girls are coming this afternoon because I don't think Mommy and Daddy will be coming home. Daddy is feeling to rough to travel 3 1/2 hours. 

We are trying to make things as light as we can for the kids, they know Daddy is sick. 

Hope you have a great sewing day. Chris

Plan of attack in place

This is my son Dean he is 41 years old and dealing with cancer. 

He has been traveling to Chicago to Rush University Hospital to start the process of being diagnosed and starting treatments. This next Thursday he will start 33 radiation treatments 5 a week and three Chemo treatments for the type of cancer he is dealing with. 

He is a fireman and he does smoke. The chemicals and fumes from going into burning buildings plus his bad habit have contributed to this problem. He was a firefighter in the Air Force around jet fuels and also Haz Mat training he has had.  They don't have total protection from the chemicals as they burn to keep people safe. Plus he was a welder for many years. There are many fumes with this also. 

In trying to support his family this has all backfired on him. 

There are benefits scheduled to help out with the expenses for the family and travel expenses. He is the soul income earner in the family. They also have 75 head of cattle they own and have to be fed. So there is a lot of coordination going on with small toddlers and animals that need attending to. 

He has to stay in Chicago during the week and be away from home. He lives about 3 1/2 hours away from his home and hospital.

The plan of attack will be monitored as he works his way through all this. His wife will be there with him for the most part of the treatment. 

The sad part about this was they were finally getting ahead in life as many families struggle with financing as they  start families and now they are back to zero again. 

Please learn from this for your family and friends to be aware that certain jobs can cause health issues that can be long term and deadly. This is survivable  and he will have some issues to deal with. His cancer is in his throat.

He will have a feeding tube and also need to learn to talk and swallow again. Long road and hopefully he can continue to work within the Fire service as an EMT which he does now also. Fire fighting will be a thing he will have to dispatch for. 

This is going to take it's toll on the little ones but with Facetime and being home on the weekends they will get along. 

The middle daughter was here yesterday and she begged me to come live with me while this was going on. Their other Grandma is moving in to help out. They have an older brother and he is a huge help.  

We as a family will get through this and positive thoughts are flowing, but you just never know. 

That is what is going on in my World. Sewing has hit a back burner, but I need to continue to be my therapy. 

Hope your World is all good and your fears if you have any are being dealt with. Chris

More updates on my son

Not a lot of sewing has happened. I am more than stressed and trying to focus.

I had two of the girls yesterday and overnight because Daddy went back to the Hospital for more tests. He got a call back from radiology  and the Cancer has not spread from the neck. So treatments should start soon.

They will get a plan started and get him in there to get prep work done before treatments are started. He will go through the treatments and then surgery will take place as it stands now. They want it to be destroyed before they do surgery.

I have sewing I should be doing, but my heart isn't in it right now.   Chris

This is going to be a long post

This is a picture of my son. His name is Dean. He is 41 years old and a father of 5 children and one step son. He is married is an EMT, Fireman, Fire Service instructor. He is a small farmer and raises Aberdeen Angus from birth to butcher. 

He got some upsetting news Tuesday evening. He has throat cancer. He has had a biopsy and a PET Scan so far. We are waiting on the Dr. to return from a vacation. He has another appointment next Tuesday. We are all very bitter and angry over the diagnosis. Lots of questions.

He has a lot of things working against him. Being a firefighter he breaths all those fumes and yes he smokes to. 

We are trying to figure out why him. Which we may never know the exact reason and it is what it is. We are living each day as it comes. I am trying to let them make decisions without interfering, but that is hard because he is my only child. 

Lesson learned We have today but tomorrow isn't a given. so love your family and hold them tight for as long as you can. Life can change in a heartbeat.

 

 This is my therapy right now. These are the QAYG blocks I have been working on. I have started to assemble the pre-quilted blocks to make it into a completed top.

 The blocks are sewn together with the pink strips on the top and the same fabric that is on the back. This is a very secure way of stitching the finished blocks together. I have done them before with stitching the top pieces together and hand stitching the backs together. This works great because it done all by machine.

Here the back of the quilt with the seams all sewn together. It is all secure and it looks neat and finished. I am not good at doing the whole top on a domestic sewing machine, but this method really works well for my quilts.

Well this has been a long post. I am trying to stay focused and deal with small things first. My nerves are shot and I feel sorry for any other family that has any kind of illness for their loved ones. I maybe will be on here off and on to update you, but I am sure I will have kids coming to grandma's house more often.

If you are still reading this Thanks for staying with this post. Later Chris

Still here I think

I have been sewing some. Here is a pile of 46 blocks I have machine quilted as I go. They are for a Christmas present and I really need to get the rest of them done. I think  I have 18 more to quilt. I get an hour here and there. It all adds up, but just takes a little longer. I will have to square up and then I can assemble the blocks into a quilt top. 

Not sure you can see detail, but did the quilting by the block. This will be for a Toddler and wanted it to be secure so I did a extra amount of quilting and also the sashing between will be stitched securely.

I have been trying to get caught up on cleaning and also to help out more with the outside work. Which I need to do more of. We have been experiencing a lot of heat and humidity which is hard on the old bodies.

I have been sorting and rearranging the sewing room and get more frustrated because nothing is where I want it. Like put away and ready to use. I guess I will never be a perfect organizer, or a perfect housekeeper I just have to accept that. sounds like a 12 step goal. .LOL

Today is another Monday and normal things to do. We are just sitting and waiting on test results for my son. There is a strong chance he has throat cancer and the biopsy results should be coming in the next few days. Stressed, but trying to keep busy and accomplish something.

It is about a month until school starts here and the girls are really ready for some routine in their lives again. The year marches on and yet where has it gone. I try and reflect on what has happened this year and things are changing all the time.

Hope all of you hae a Great Day. Chris

Lots going on but not sewing

I have had a couple weeks of nothing but frustration. First off the computer and I were at war. Awhile back my stupid self ordered an item off of eBay and used a new PayPal account I had set up.

Here is the scary part. The person I was purchasing from said they would email the confirmation when payment was cleared. Shortly I got the item. Thought nothing of it.

Ok then about a week 10 days later I had trouble with my email account. They claimed someone else was using my email address and the password had changed. My stupid self had used my email address and my password for opening my email for several years and not changed it. So whom ever decided to change my email password screwed everything up. The computer repair guy said that others have had this happen.

Well it was a Hotmail account and after numerous attempts Microsoft froze my account and refused to help me. Well the story gets worse. My computer had a secure sign on every time I got on it and it was based off of my email address and also my password which would not work anymore.

My stepson and my daughter-in-law both looked at it and they said get a new email account, but I couldn't sign into my computer to do that because the login was email based.

Finally I threw my hands in the air and took it into the computer store. It is locally owned and he told me from now on emails need new passwords on a regular basis, Also any purchases should go through a different email address with a different password for confirmations.

I had to change my emails on all my computer accounts bank accounts and places like amazon and others like my utilities. What a pain.

So after 8 days in the computer hospital I lost all my pictures, my email addresses, my documents and PDF's I had saved to my computer. Also $90 to wipe clean and reinstall Windows 10. I am trying to get use to the program he install because I use Microsoft products and now I have to work with Google.  

I didn't realize that Picasa wasn't being used anymore so I thought I lost all my pictures I used on my blog. I had some on my cellphone, but not the earlier ones. I found out Google Photos had all my pictures store with my gmail address.

I am buying jump drives and backing everything up. Also the PDF's I really want to keep I am printing them off for now on. BACK UP BACK UP  everything you want to keep. Especially precious photos you can not replace. Even if you use The Cloud change passwords.

The recommendations were a phrase with punctuation and capital letters for your emails and the same for passwords. Harder to hack. Also date your changes in a notebook with dates so you know what combinations you have already used. That was one of the questions when I tried to recover my password was what had I used in the past and to whom I had emailed and what was the subject title.

I hope none of you go through this. Very Frustrating.

Please learn from my mistakes. I am older and I thought this works why change it. Well that was the wrong way to think about it. Chris

Starting more star blocks

Yesterday it was so hot out and I just didn't venture out.  I need 28 more of these blocks so I got the finished ones out and measured them and started cutting. I slowed down and decided since I hadn't measured them or wrote down measurements when I made the other one I would just cut one and sew it together.

I did this because I wanted to make sure I had the right measurements. I had bought fabric from the thrift store and used the strips that were cut so I need to be sure the measurements I was measuring were right. 

I got it right so last night I cut out another one with fabric I had pulled out. Trying to use smaller pieces that need to be cut up anyway. Today will pull more fabrics out to get this closer to being done.

I have been lurking on Pintrest and found several block designs I think would really look attractive using the method of quilting. The QAYG isn't as attractive with every quilt block.This method I am using works for individual block as or 4-patch blocks sewn together.

We finally are getting away from all the heat with rain. NE of here is Rockford Illinois about 50 miles and they had flooding. WE got a lot of rain quick and more to come today and tonight. We need the rain but not gully washers

I am going to try and get more of these blocks cut today and keep on sewing 30 minutes at a time. Chris

To hot to sew

I am still around, but I have stitched a stitch in awhile. It has been so hot and I just don't go into that room. We have A/C I know it is an excuse.

We have had the girls quite a bit over the last couple weeks. Mommy hasn't felt real good. In fact ended up in the ER last week. She got into Wild Mustard which has an effect of leaving watery blisters on the skin like poison ivy and can make you miserable.

So we have had the little ones while she recovered from that. She had no idea she was so allergic to it.

We had Father's day dinner yesterday and everyone had a good time. There was 10 of us for a big meal. We BBQ ed pork loin chops on the grill.

Still suppose to be hot today. I have a little kitchen cleanup and then I hope I can get to some cutting today. I have some more star blocks to make to get this quilt farther along.

Hope you are in a cool place and can enjoy the day. Chris

Hi, It has been awhile

Hi, how are you? I am doing ok. The saga goes on. I don't get to much time to myself anymore, but that is ok. 

I have had these blocks made for a couple years. Decided to QAYG method would work on them. 

Then a couple months later I figured out what the next step was going to be. I added sashing strips and get them all sewn together. 

Here is the quilt top so far. I cut backing strips and top strips and sewed all the blocks into rows and then connected them. I like the look this is coming out to be. I need to now figure out what kind of border widths I need and get them cut and quilted then I can do the connecting sashing again. This method is good if you can do a block  by block method of QAYG.

We have been busy doing things together to get stuff done. We are down to pulling weeds from tree seeds that have blown in. That happens each year. 

Hope you are all well and getting to your projects. I will pop in another day. Chris

Changes

Times have changed and my satisfaction with showing my efforts in quilting are no longer necessary.

I have been a member of a Facebook page and realized it is constant competition with the next person. I have learned to satisfy myself I don't need the competition any more. I still need to satisfy just myself.

My lifestyle has changed and the efforts to write a post and find subjects to stimulate a response from anyone is more than I want to put myself through.

I have some followers from the beginning and I do appreciate them very much. The ebb and flow of blogging seems to be more than my time can support right now.

I have stepped back from being even in competition with myself and others over this. It was becoming a bad job I was beginning to hate. I love to sew, but I need to sew my way and not in competition with myself or anyone else.

I still read your blogs and  applaud your efforts.

I will just close the door on this blog but not delete it in case my mood towards my efforts changes.

Please understand I have really appreciated your comments and support over the time I was here. About 9 years of sharing has drained me and I need to focus on other things in my life.

Thank you for following me. This was my way of contributing to the quilting world. Chris

It has been eight days

I will be honest. Not a whole lot of anything about sewing has happened. I have started to go into the sewing room a couple times each day and get called away.

I did get about an hour before cooking supper tonight. I am working on a QAYG method with some blocks that are already quilted.

I cut some sashing strips and didn't cut enough so in the morning I will get the rest cut. I need just one more. Then the assembly will be started.

The weather has finally turned to be nice during part of the day. It is suppose to be 32 degrees again in the morning. But them it will be pushing 70 during the day.

We need rain very badly. The farmers are in the fields and the cloud of dust follows them as they try and plant. They have called Red Flag Day. Meaning high danger of fire. Dry and high winds are making fuel of the dried grassed and real danger to others now.

We are not to get rain in the next few days, but until then we watch for smoke and hope nothing happens.

If the ground ever warms up maybe the grass seed we planted would grow. We have been watering to get it to germinate, but nothing yet.

Hope you are seeing Spring weather finally. Chris

Planned or unplanned?

This is so unplanned as far as colors. It is random rectangles sewn together to make these blocks. I am in the process of making a few more. I made 7 this morning in about 70 minutes. The rectangles are already cut. Pickup and sew is the method for this type of blocks. 

To me this is a planned block because you I had to work on cutting the sections and this was planned for the star. I very seldom make this type of block because I don't have enough of the background fabric to complete the blocks. 

I have the QAYG quilting done on the blocks and need to get the sashings cut and assemble the quilt top to see how much needs to be worked on the borders. 

The sun is out and we are going to go out today and plant some grass seed in bare spots. I hope the sun is shining in your World. Chris