And Just Like That....

another weekend has arrived! My, how the time flies when you are old. The date for our move to Vancouver in early July just keeps getting closer and closer! In the meantime, we are staying busy.

Matt and Tom have an anniversary coming up, yes, it has been three years already at the end of the month. You will not be surprised that I made a quilt to honor the occasion which I sent a week or so ago, thinking it would take some time. You never really know. In this instance it took only one week and since I sent it to Matt's workplace, he opened it right up and sent me a text to say he loved it! That was a relief because it is a little different than some quilts I've made. When I had only the top pieced Bruce was a little skeptical of the end result, however, after the addition of spiral quilting, and ORANGE binding, he was a convert!

For a touch of whimsy, I used a fabric with drawn kitty cats for Tom. The beginning of the spiral is somewhat sketchy, but I did the best that I could.

In my last post I mentioned how I struggled with the diagonal layout, however, Bruce convinced me to leave the blocks whole and then cut them off, so here's how that happened.

I sewed the first border on, and then lopped off all of the pictured triangles. Not the best use of fabric, but triangles tend to stretch, so this method kept everything really stable and square. Now, one more border, and the quilting, which is actually pretty daunting, as it will be the largest I've ever done. Good thing there is no timeline. Perhaps it will be ready by the time we move and I can take it with us? We shall see.

Looking to have our home in the best shape possible before we leave, I called these folks to pump our septic tank that has been working fine, but it has been six years. We used this company over at Maureen's house when the new drain field went in last year, and they are super.

Should you need this service, I can recommend them highly. Remember how I told you that while making those cookies Sunday that the batter seemed to keep multiplying, and I ended up with about eight dozen cookies? Well, these guys took home a bunch.

When you are not sewing constantly, there is time to accomplish a few things. In my case, I went to the mall to continue celebrating my birthday and Christmas with my remaining gift cards.

No gift card to BR, but for the first time in ages and ages, they had some clothes that I thought were cute, beginning with this window!

Everyone is on the orange bandwagon, and rightly so in my humble opinion.

Furthering the orange love, I picked up a few Gerbera daisies to add to my garden. Yes, I actually worked in my garden, planting innumerable flowers to brighten up the yard.

The Geraniums and Snapdragon are looking mighty fly, if I do say so myself.

We've had a wonderful cold snap this week with temperatures plunging into the 40's, really, the first cold weather all winter. As such, the other morning when I heard some bird calls that intrigued me, I went out in bare feet and that was not a wise move, for sure. I did, however, find the source of those calls, two doors down from our front door.

Basking in the warmth of the rising sun, I suspect, that hawk was warmer than I was!

Speaking of our neighborhood, I learned that Herb has died. Should you not remember who Herb is, he used to live across the street from us for nearly 20 years before having to be moved into a home at age 90 due to dementia. Corrine, his wife whom I loved to pieces, had to go back to live near her children in Alabama. I hope it doesn't hit her too hard. Reminder to self...send her a card ASAP!

I also wanted to mention how last weekend we lazed around on Saturday afternoon, following our little jaunt to St. Cloud. We watched two excellent things on Netflix, beginning with "Sing Street." Absolutely charming, and I just know you will love it if you love music. Secondly we watched the documentary, Justin Timberlake and the Tennessee Kids. He is such the entertainer! You may recall how our stylist Monica was once the stylist for 'N Sync, doing Justin's hair and makeup for the tours. As well, our son Bill was in a band that opened for 'N Sync at the Superdome in New Orleans. So, we have a little connection, don't we? Both are well worth your time.

Thursday I began getting ready for my first paid quilting class. The previous one I attended was free, and as the saying goes, "you get what you pay for." I needed to make some quilt "sandwiches" to practice on, and the instructor recommended spray basting, something I'd never attempted. Bruce brought one of our plastic tables outside, setting it up under the palms in the bright, beautiful sunshine.

It worked pretty darn well. Above my head I started hearing some buzzing and although you can't really see them, this was chock full of bees. Thankfully, I was spared.

Arranged by the guild, everyone was very excited to be learning from Jacqui Gering, who is quite the force in the modern quilt movement.

There were several woman, not part of our guild, that drove from Plant City, and the one on Pam's left came all the way from Amelia Island! She's written a new book, that of course, most of us had to purchase.

It is all about maximizing your walking foot, meaningless to most of you, but it is super important to me. My goodness, spiral quilting was included in the class, using a template, and a method to get the circle off to a good start.

Remember how I said my beginning on the anniversary quilt was not the greatest? Now I have some knowledge to improve my next go round. (no pun intended!)

She is a fantastic teacher, giving hands on demonstrations:

Apparently, in 2009, after seeing a Gees Bend quilt exhibition, she decided quilting was for her. If you click on the link provided, you will see how quilting is like modern art in some ways, only with fabric. Both Pam and I came away super inspired! In fact, we both were dying to try some of the techniques when we got home, but we had a party at the Hill's to attend. Such fun!

Our friend Lisa loves dressing up for every occasion.

We are so going to miss our group while we are gone!

Can you see Baxter napping?

It's still a little chilly, however, before long we'll be complaining about the heat, so I'm loving these few days, although I hope, when we are at the Orlando City game tonight with David and Michelle, it is not too cold!

yours truly,

Gail