I spent most of Friday sleeping or resting with my feet up. I am back to reading Lincoln Rhyme forensic novels by Jeffrey Deaver. Right now I am working my way through The Broken Window - all about data mining and the dangers of homicide by geek. :) Of course, this is interspersed with reading quilting blogs ... and Instagram ... and Facebook ... and Pintrest .... there is no end of ways to do a lot of nothing while feeling connected. Grin!
The two partially pieced blocks above are for the current month's Bee Queen, Sarah B. Remember, I'm piecing by hand. This design is foundation pieced ... I managed to print out one set of four segments at the local public library (which means they were printed on 20# printer paper). The other set of four sections I traced off onto tracing paper (sadly, not nearly as soft and flexible as the tracing paper I used in high school, lo those many years ago:). I had plenty of scraps and bits of bright, happy prints for the center wedges but only one kind of white background fabric - a piece I found in my Mom's quilting stuff.
Since Mom was pretty much a beginner, I decided that I needed to be sure the white solid was 100% cotton (she might not have known or understood the difference between that and a poly-cotton). I haven't done a burn test in years but it was easy to remember how. Luckily I have a good lighter (for candles) so I didn't have to futz with matches. Sure enough, the scrap I burned turned into fine gray ash (which promptly blew away on the breeze as I did the burn on the front porch:). I _think_ this white fabric is a good quality bleached muslin I sent Mom when I had my store (probably Springmaid?).
Anyway, I worked out what size pieces to pre-cut and spent several hours yesterday and today piecing the block sections you see in the photo. I was hoping to finish assembling the two finished blocks today, too, but my fingers are too sore. I'll sew them together tomorrow evening when I get back from my drive to Columbus (fingers crossed).
It has been HOT, HOT, HOT here in southeastern Ohio for several days. The humidity is pretty high, too. Makes sleeping unpleasant in an un-air-conditioned house. :P It was really sunny Friday and Saturday but today a big rainstorm blew up in mid-afternoon and we got buckets of rain (which lowered the temps nicely:). I posted two short videos on my Instagram feed 'cause I enjoy the rain so much. :)
I had to buy a new tire for my Dart - ran over some kind of sharp metal piece in the roadway somewhere (lots of construction this time of year). Don't remember if I mentioned that or not. Sure have had to do a lot more car maintenance than usual this year ... but, then, the poor machine is working way harder than usual, too. :P
I'll be driving back to OSU Hospital in Columbus tomorrow morning to see my brother. The folks there are starting to talk about moving him into acute care rather than the ICU ... so maybe he is improving?
:) Linda
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