a freaky friday....

a challenging start involving medications, bathrooms and....well i'll let your imagination finish...LOL!   after a few (ahem) cleanup chores, finally got to sit at the machine and let the hum of needle and thread restore serenity....put some of those recently acquired plaid scraps to use sewing up this festive wall quilt...the phone camera doesn't capture it optimally.

the santas were from a panel donated to the senior center, likewise the light sashing plaid.  the christmas geese blocks were in the baggie.  i did have to sew up 3 more to finish the second border, and of course it isn't perfect...had to do a bit of fudging to get the santas aligned close enough to fit and there might be a couple of geese that are a tad narrower than the others, but once it's quilted, will be a cute christmas wall quilt i think.  i like it anyway and naturally, for this my opinion counts most!   ***  but before christmas comes other holidays and this parade of pumpkins is now done!

also in the goodie box i received was a spool of 28 wt aurifil dark orange. i took a chance and used it as the top thread in my machine without any issues at all and got this quilted with my walking foot.  the bobbin had 50 wt orange.   it doesn't show up much in this photo, though, but nice to try something and have it work ok....  ***  it's a 4-day weekend for me and aside from some very little cleaning and cooking, hope to get some serious sewing accomplished.  a roast chicken is on the menu that'll last way beyond 4 days.  planning to keep the water closet close by as well...just in case....LOL!

birthday prezzies...

do i look older?  do i feel older?  absolutely NOT on both counts, but as of yesterday i have crossed over into a new decade, the 70s....huh?  how that can be?  not complaining of course but it seems impossible to me....even more so to my 92 yo mother...she can hardly believe her firstborn has reached this milestone...wasn't it yesterday she was curling my hair and tying my shoes?  surely she thinks so....i spent the day with my dear daughter and awesome son-in-law....we lunched on pizza (ssshhh don't tell the cardio!) and a bit of red velvet cheesecake and hugged and talked and basked in each other's love....i got this for a special upcoming release...

she has one also and i'm thinking opera gloves and a tiara would be required as well; after all, the king and queen are coming to downton!  after we finished celebrating, headed west for the apartment and a mailbox chock full of stuff including these following goodies from some stashbuster pals...

a delicious quilty collection for sure!  was after 11 pm before i stopped drooling and ogling and planning new projects....the bottom photo is the lincoln museum quilt and i have been eyeing that on blogs for some time, on the fence about diving in.  with this gift will definitely be taking this on and hoping can round up a few others who will sew along with me.  the autumn fabrics, the batiks, the new-to-me books are all going to be used...in addition there were a few spools of aurifil and an infinity bag for take along projects.  oh and those kaffe urchins!  2 whole yards of blue/gray/purple excitement!  funny, didn't notice the purple when i first saw this swatch....today back to ordinary days and the to-do list....and it's only wednesday....gonna be a busy transition back to the 70s and autumn!

conundrum solved and an announcement!

remember this block posted the other day??

this project got started years ago from an oldie but goodie book by jan halgrimson.   i had xeroxed the pattern and assembled a kit of sorts for "someday"....a few times pulled out the kit only to be confounded and stymied by something not quite right.  the pattern says it makes a 12" block but this block measures only 11"....i re-measured and re-measured my pattern and the calculations were right....so decided to pull out the book and check once more...

and the answer was right there....when the page (left) was copied, it skewed the width dimensions of each template piece about 1/8"...not much you say but when added over the entire block with so many pieces, it was significant.  so the tried and true basics still hold.  fortunately i had only one block completed, but there were these...

eight (so far) centers all finished...solution?  from the centers out i'll add the strips of the correct width..for some reason the length of the logs were true....and the block will probably be a skosh under 12" and i might have to make a few more than planned, but they'll all be the same and the project angst has disappeared.  early morning sewing has been productive indeed and i'm already liking this project a lot more!   i think 30 blocks should be enough and the one already finished will go in the orphan pile...as for the announcement, on september 3rd i'll be participating in "quilters meet and greet"....have a special project swirling around in the gray matter, so please do stop by and check it out!

it's a beautiful day in my neighborhood, yours too i hope!