Chookshed Challenge May 2025

I have been absent from blogging most of this year. Been a bit distracted with a trip to India, Breast reduction surgery and 11 weeks of treatment for a wound that did not heal quickly becuse of an infection. Time to get communicating again. 

Yesterday I had an appointment with a hand/wrist specialist that was booked nearly a year ago. I wanted another opinion.They put freezing in the palm of my hand just at the base of the bad finger. Then the cortisone directly into the joint. That did not hurt. Much. The swelling from that is almost all gone. Just a bit stiff in the finger. I can now use a butter knife and I tried pushing and pulling the needle and thread in one of my Ella blocks. The fingers are stiff, but there is no pain. These blocks have been waiting for over 3 years. The Chookshed Challenge number for May is 8 and that is Random on my list. What shall I work on? As soon as I announce what I plan to do, I change my mind a do something else. 

I have been dreaming again about starting a bunch of new quilts. I have discovered a new to me quilt shop about 1 1/2 hours from here that has retreats and workshops for the Quiltworx Judy Neimyer amazing patterns. I have the Bali Wedding Star I bought a lot of years ago with pattern and all the papers. I went hunting through my many project boxes looking for the Batik jelly rolls I bought from Craftsy back in 2011? And some yardage at a half price sale.

My research shows lots of different colour options. And custom quilting. I wonder if I could machine quilt as you go? I have lots of time to obsess about that since I have not yet decided to start. 

I have gotten new square project boxes to organize all the papers when I start cutting them out. That is something I could do if we zoom with Chooky tomorrow night. Hhmm?

These were for the Bali Wedding Star. I asked almost 12 year old Devan if she liked the pattern enough to spend the next 5 years helping me make it. Maybe.

I found a tutorial to make the thing so I saved it here .

I want to be able to find it again easily. 

I have a quilt retreat here at the farm the last week of May. My quilting friends from Cornwall will be driving up for the week. My friend Robynne said she would give me her Cattails in the Meadow kit. Pattern and papers. And now, suddenly, I may or may not be in advanced Quiltworx school. Am I ready for this? Come back later this month to see if I remembered to pursue it.

I am off on a Norwegian Cruise with my daughter and plan to take along my Ella applique blocks. Will I finish all 5? I hope so. 

 

Blessings,

Chris

Tuesday To-Do List

 I appreciate this group where I can ramble on about my dreams and goals and plans. Even the ones I actually follow through on. I completed all the things on my last 2 to-do lists and feel pretty good about that. This week's list has a few more things on it.

1. The new EPP papers from Paper Pieces arrived so I can play with them by glue basting the pile of already cut white hexies for the sashing and corner units for Lucy. I also got three shapes for Winderemere. FedEx came to the door twice and I paid the import tax. 
2. Stitch together one Lucy block at the Q@F online meeting Sat morning. I did not touch her for a whole week. I am so proud of my self control. 
3. Write 3 times this week. This includes blog writing, journaling, and book writing as well as responding to comments and writing emails. 
4. Clear my tables of their clutter. Where does it all come from? 
5. Bright Jane. The RSC colour for January is dark blue. I have 5 blue blocks to make. These have been prepped and ready to go for several years. It's only 5 little 4 1/2 inch blocks. They will be foundation pieced.
6. Stitch for 15 minutes at least 6 times this week. That seems to be the pace I am doing right now. Need to have some wiggle room. 
7. Continue to ignore the Wedding Quilt. I succeeded this past week. Now to keep the momentum. 
8. Resist the temptation to join in the SAHRR. I put it on my 2023 calendar a year ago. But how can I put time into something new when I have so many other things I want to do?  Not going to go there in my thoughts. 

Need a picture. My next Lucy block. 

This one is a bit fuzzy but then, so are my eyes these days. I went for a pre-op appointment with the eye surgeon today getting ready for cataract surgery. I have been on this pursuit for nearly a year and will have to wait a bit yet. They will not do the procedure until after I get back from Australia in April since I will not be allowed to fly for 2-3 months after wards. I got that memo. But not being able to drive for 2-4 weeks after each eye? How can I not drive? I have been driving since I was 12. Okay. I waited until I was licensed to drive on the road. I have kept the entire month of May clear of commitments. I may have to forgo daily stitching. Sigh. 

No problem. I will just get a head of the game with my projects. Is that even possible? to get ahead? By this fly by the seat of her pants last minute girl? But then, I do have my 2023 calendar all marked up with exciting adventures for the coming year. I have learned to do this in pencil. 

Blessings,

Chris

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End of September

I want to say this month flew by, but it didn't really. I was in not one but two covid isolations. It visited our family last month. Our son got it first and was mildly sick. He did not think it was covid so did not get tested immediately. But the damage was done and we all got tested over the next week and again a week later. In the end, I had a positive test but was not sick nor was my Sweetie nor was Jonathan. So, all in all, I had 20 days in a row with the younger grandchildren here at the farm then 11 days without any children.  Do you think I got any work done? 

Some. I made 4 Ella blocks in the foundation piecing method. I love the accuracy off this, but do not like removing the papers. I sat in a zoom meeting with Chooky and friends the other night and removed papers from 7 blocks. Also, this past week the online writing group I belong to, Christian Book Academy, had a week long writing conference. Messages were posted on our facebook group and I have been so blessed to learn from other Christian writers who are way ahead of me in writing, publishing, launching and marketing their books. 

I have been writing. I have new accountability partners and that is very helpful. So far, I have a rough draft for 20 chapters for The ABCs of  How to Stay Married for 50 Years. My ultimate goal is to have a final draft by December. I keep reminding myself that I completed 5 courses for my doctorate back in the spring in just 3 months. I put aside quilting, went to bed early, got up early and even took time for a nap most days. I read blogs and facebook but did not comment or interact. All this to say, I accomplished a great big goal because I made a decision to focus and get the job done. And I had a deadline and accountability partners. 

Being in 2 isolations, I had to reschedule appoints twice. So the first thing I did was have a pedicure. My feet are happy. Next was to go to the chiropractor and get a massage. 

I continue to work at decluttering my old sewing spaces. I made the impulsive decision to donate a dozen old ufos that do not bring me joy. Perhaps that is why they have languished in the quilting cupboard. I posted pictures in our Quilting at the Farm facebook group and several have been spoken for. The rest will be donated to either a local guild for charity quilts or to a local missions donation center where my niece works. 

My 13  year old granddaughter, Ava, is now in high school. She has to do 40 hours of volunteer work and got a position at a hair salon close to her mom's so she can walk. And it is beside the local Tim Horton's coffee shop. She is a bit OCD, so will do very well in doing cleanup stuff.  

Five year old David got to ride a school bus for the very first time ever. He liked it so much, he forgot to get off at his stop. Mom had to flag the bus down to locate him in the very back seat. To his defense, he had just moved into the new house the day before and did not know the routine. The driver was new too and did not know the routine either.

My OMG goals for Sept were to try out some of the new Aurifil thread I won. There are no less than 36 different colours and not one of them matches any of my Ella block fabrics. I did not achieve my goal for Sept.

I also finally set up the new Jazz 2 machine I bought 6 months ago for machine quilting. It took me about an hour to figure out how to thread it, remove the thread and take out a bobbin, wind the bobbin and thread the machine again, then pull up the bobbin thread. All this to discover it was set in basting mode and had to figure out how to change the stitch length. I have not yet actually sewn anything on it, but am ready.

Blessings,

Chris

Sept 2021 OMG Goal

My goodness! How can it be September already? I guess time flies when you are having fun. And fun we have had this summer. It was a time filled with family and rain and people and Covid. Our son tested positive last week and so did 7-year-old Jonathan. His parents were moving so he and David came to the farm for a few days. David was negative so he is isolated at the trailer with Mom. 

Dad is in the new house alone and Jonathan is asymptomatic (not sick) and is isolating here at the farm. He finally has 10 whole days where his little brother is not picking a fight and trying to beat him up all the time. He says he misses that. He has been busy helping Grampa around the farm. The rains finally stopped and we have had a whole week of sunshine so now we can bale dry hay.

Aug 7 was our 50th anniversary. We had a simple family BBQ. It was great. The weather was amazing until we cut the brownie cake that the grandchildren had made, and dished out the ice cream, then the skies opened and we got dumped with about 2 inches of rain. This would have been okay, except that all we adults were outside in the dining tent. The children all had the good sense to run into the house. 

Chooky has hosted several zoom parties this summer. Last night I joined some of the girls from Australia, the USA, New Zealand, and Germany for a few hours to stitch and catch up with what is going on in our parts of the world. 

This is what I worked on. I did so little quilting this summer. This is as far as I got on the Summer QAL from Quilting Gail. I had lots of the smaller units sewn up in July and put them all together last night. I still have to sew all 35 blocks together and add a few borders. It is a bit smaller than I want. I think a half-inch dark brown framing the center, then each of the 3 colours around that. 

Today is my 8th Anniversary of blogging. What a ride it has been! I have met quilters and farmers who quilt all over the world. I even went to Australia in 2015 and met some in person. I definitely want to go back. 

It is time to choose an OMG quilting goal for Sept. It has to be simple this time because  . . . 

drum roll please . . . 

 

I have 36 thousand yards of the most amazing colours of thread that I won for the May Aurifil Thread prize from OMG. I think there might have been an oops because there should have been a 3-pack. So, thank you Patty from Elm Street Quilts. 

My OMG for Sept will be to crack open a few of these threads and give them a try. I will use some for hand applique for slow-sunday-stitching on the 50th Anniversary aka Ella blocks 

and others for machine quilting on the Disappearing 9-Patch that I will be using as a sample for a new quilting class starting here at Quilting @ the Farm in 2 weeks. 

That should keep me out of trouble for this month. 

Blessings,

Chris 

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Saturday Stitching

 Most Sat mornings I hang out with a couple of friends on our Quilting at the Farm Facebook group room. We do get some stitching done.

Today I started early because I had to wash up last night's dishes. Somehow that got forgot. I had cooked supper, so someone else should have done them. But I had cooked a crockpot of beans to use up the ham bone from last week and I made a mess when I dropped the new large container of bread crumbs I used to bread the lamb chops all over the counter including the kettle. Took a shower and got set up to sit here and stitch. I did clear off the table and later we set up another large table for the gift wrapping station. The tree goes up tomorrow when the girls return from Moms. 

I ended up prepping a 3030 block for hand applique then, prepped one of the Dec Ella blocks for applique. 

I must remember to not overdo the hand stitching. It appears that typing is not hurting my hand so much, as long as I remember to not use the right index finger all the time. But it is improving.   

Blessings,

Chris

Friday Night Stitching with Friends in Australia on Sat Morning in Canada

 Some of us meet on Facebook Messenger to sew together on Sat mornings. I have been working on some the 150 Canadian Women blocks that were a block of the week project 4 years ago to celebrate Canada's 150 birthday. I started a Facebook group called Quilting @ Farm several years ago for the women who came out to the farm to learn to quilt. We usually got together Sat mornings. Seven of us took on the challenge to make the Dear Jane quilt. Mine is complete but not yet quilted. We often had small retreats. That was when the guest rooms were guest rooms and not family living in them. There are presently 10 of us living here. Well, most of the time. The 3 girl grandchildren go to their mom's half time. So it is only chaos part of the time. 

Last week I got 8 blocks made. So far this week I have made another 8. My OMG goal for this month is to have at least 20. Now to find the bin of patterns and precut pieces to put another 4 together. 

It's only noon so I have lots of day left to sew. 

Blessings,

Chris 

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Quilt-In @ Farm

This Sat April 4 I am hosting a Quilt-In here at the Farm. I have invited all the friends on my Quilting @ Farm facebook group to join me in staying at home and quilting. We will be connecting on facebook chat live and doing our own thing in our own quilt rooms.

Once I gave myself permission to start making blocks for the Ella Maria Deacon Quilt, I was hesitant to actually get started. Maybe it was the adrenaline rush of the anticipation of wanting to start it that kept me wanting to start it. Maybe it's the wanting to complete my doctorate that has slowed me down. I have submitted 2 courses so far this year and 3 others on the go.

I have foundation patterns printed off and background fabrics chosen. After looking long and hard at the wonderful tone on tone cream fabric I was considering for the background, I think I might now use a variety of creamy prints and solids. I had to reprint the foundation patterns because I had printed them off at fit instead of actual. It is the difference between making the block the right size and being too small

This week I pre-washed some fabrics. I just like how they feel for hand applique. I had not intended to use turkey red or poison green or chrome yellow. There are a lot of those colours in the original. Instead, I plan to use softer reproduction colours. That stripe on top is for the sashing strips. I will use the lighter stripe and not the darker brown. I might add cornerstones.

Then I prepped several blocks so I could back baste the fabrics on ready to hand applique later.
This will be my project for Sat so I can sit at the computer desk all day and still be productive.

I told my friends to remember to comb their hair and that we can see everything behind them when on camera. PJs are totally appropriate. Well, appropriate ones are. We begin promptly at 9 am, assuming I get out of bed by then and comb my hair.

Blessings,
Chris

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OMG Finish for April

 And one more BTCT block is complete.

This was my omg-one-monthly-goal. 

 for April.



Today I made up 4 yellow perfect circles for the centers of my imperfect flowers.

This will have to do for slow sunday stitching . 

I started stitching on this block in November on my way to Shipshewana in the back seat of the van. Got 8 leaves done.

Then I took it to Poland with me and did the rest of the leaves and buds.

I did not have enough bias strips to do the whole wreath

so made some more when I got home.



 I am off to babysit little boy grandchildren for 5 days

then my Quilting at the Farm friends will be coming on Sat.

I haven't seen them for a couple of months.

I have 2 BTCT blocks to take along for some slow stitching.

Blessings,

Chris



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Mid January Update

Has it really been 2 weeks since I last posted? Unfathomable! Life never gets dull when you are a grandmother. The little darlings have all been so generous and sharing sickness with each other and now, finally, Gramma has it.  No voice to sing with them but still can give lots of snuggles. I have made the 3 hour drive to my daughters 3 times now to help with the baby who is not quite sleeping through the night. Almost. But the rest have been sick everyone needs a bit of sleep.

It is mid January already. Where has the time gone? Oh yes. Snuggling little boys and babysitting little girls. Stitching away on Simple Simon. All 36 blocks are done and now to stay home long enough to sew them all together. And I had planned on being home for 4 weeks in a row. Not much appliqueing going on. I did complete the leaves and buds on one block and was pressing some green fabric to back baste the wreath around the leaves, and didn't I press the block and obliterate the frixion pen marking! I put everything in the project box and cleared away all the clutter in my quilt room for my Q@F friends to come over Saturday to quilt all day. I pulled some dill pickle soup out of the fridge for lunch. That messed up my whole30 clean eating program since it contained sour cream and butter (dairy) and flour. Not sure if I will start counting from Day 1 again or just carry on. I did notice that after 11 days of clean eating, I can close my right hand into a fist without pain. Nice! The left can close more than it used to, but not quite tight. Back to the program and no more cheating. 

Got home the other night to find an email from my publisher to tell me that I am a published author. Yay me! We are planning a book release event for mid  February after the first shipment of books arrives. I will have more information when I know what we are going to do. In the meantime, you can check it out at http://www.friesenpress.com/bookstore/title/119734000015785209.

I decided to join the Rainbow scrap challenge 2017 and work on my Bright Jane blocks in the designated monthly colours. January is purple.   

Blessings,
Chris

Home for Now

I have been home for 4 days now after being away for 49 days in the last 4 months.  I am hosting a Quilting at the Farm retreat here next weekend. The farm files need to be completed for the bookkeeper and its raining outside. It is 2 days away from the middle of winter and my next trip will be back to visit the little boy grand children mid March, although my daughter would be glad to have me return next week. Three week old David rolled over today and 19 month old Jonathan said excuse me after burping and pooped in the toilet. Major developmental milestones. The plan this time is to take 8 year old Ava with me. If she wants to go that is.           

Serious progress on a  Beyond the Cherry Trees block. It still needs a bias wreath to complete it. There is another block similar to this one with fewer leaves and flowers. It should be easier. I might use a different colour for the flowers.

BTCT Block # 12

I finally made a simple phone call to our internet provider about the slow upload issue and they tweaked something and suddenly I can upload photos in 6 seconds instead of 60 minutes. Can I keep pace with that kind of speed? I can now stream lectures so no more excuses and procrastination about school work. 

Did I mention that I missed my flight home? Craziest thing. We picked up the other grandma at 4 and my flight out was for 8. We went for a quick supper then back to the airport for 6 for an early check-in. It was then that I found out that the flight I booked in October had been cancelled and they emailed me Dec 11 to inform me of the changes. I was in Europe then and had done something to mess up my net book so had no internet the final week in New Brunswick. So I did not see the check-in email that had the new flight details. Oops. So, I missed the 4:30 flight back to Toronto. It did not kill  me. One of  my anxiety triggers has been getting to the airport late if you want to see my stress levels skyrocket. Now I know what it feels like. They were very kind and put me on a flight the next day no charge. That was very nice of Air Canada.

Blessings,
Chris

I'm Going to Australia

Yes it's true. I am going to Australia in April. I was doing research for a business trip to New Zealand for April next year and thought how much fun it would be to just plan an extra week and slip over to Australia for a few days and  . . . oh  . . . by the way . . . the AQC is mid April . . . and isn't Esther Aliu teaching her Love Entwined class at the AQC this year  . . . anyway, my Sweet husband said I could go to Australia anytime I wanted. So, I am going this April. I will be attending the AQC on Fri April 17 then heading to Adelaide to visit a friend who interned at our church a few years back. She even came to the Farm for a weekend retreat and made her very first quilt. I think it was a purple and white single Irish chain.

But that isn't all . . . It occurred to me that there might be some Guernsey farms in the area so I posted on our Farm facebook wall about my trip and . . . by golly . . . I have a few new facebook friends and half a dozen farms that I can visit . . .  Sweet . . . Now which applique blocks will I prep to take along? Not this one since I finished it already.

CCCQ # 29

Not this one since it might take me until April to get it prepped for machine applique. These pieces are not yet glued under. This is the only block that has blue in it. Oops!! I just realized that the center star is supposed to be red. What to do? What to do? I might just leave it. sigh.

Ben Biggs # 13

I tried something different for the wreath. Cut out the skinny circle using floriani fuseable. Ironed it onto the underside of the green fabric. Cut only the outside part then glued the seam allowance over. I thought this would keep it from distorting too much. 

Then cut out the inside of the circle and snip the skinny seam allowance before gluing it on. Seems to look okay. Now to get at the 21 tiny leaves.

 Blessings,
Chris

Q@F Winter Retreat

Leslie squaring up her blocks

  Everyone helping Leslie arrange her Sunbonnet Sue blocks

 Robin hand quilting a Double Irish Chain wedding quilt for her daughter. She is using a 360 degree rotating wooden hoop on a pedestal and sitting on a stool. Sometimes she quilts standing up because she is short and likes to keep moving.

 Janice appliqueing

 Daiva working on GORF

 Esther adding sashing to her sampler blocks

 And me machine quilting GORF now that my machine is finally home after 3 months in the repair shop

I only got a few stitches in CCCQ # 28, probably because I was talking enjoying myself so much

We have to do this more than once a year

Winter-is-half-over blessings,

Chris

GORF Retreat Update

We had our very first ever GO Real Fast Quilt retreat here at the Farm this past weekend. I had this crazy idea that a whole quilt could be prepped, cut out using the Accuquilt GO cutter and dies, blocks designed and laid out ready for machine applique in just 1 weekend. Two of the girls are making a 9 square quilt with swag borders. They are designing their own blocks using mine for an inspiration starting place. The other girl is making the same 16 squares that I made with swag borders. She could only come the one day and I forgot to take pictures of her progress. Each of the girls will be returning in the next 2 weeks to complete their blocks.

This is my yet unfinished quilt. I am quilting it in sections and my quilting machine is still at the repair shop. I machine appliqued the flowers onto the swags as a demo for the girls who practiced setting up their machine tension and thread on scrap bits after cutting out their shapes.

This is Daiva's work space above and she is ironing on the heat-n-bond fuseable web.This took longer than I expected.

How creative is this? She got 3 blocks done and 3 more started.
We laid out the blocks and border  on the design wall to see how the swags are going to look, then auditioned different options to connect the swags by pinning them on.

Leslie is cutting her very soft pink focus fabric after ironing on the heat'n'bond lite fusible web.

Her creative process was fun to watch.

 I learned a lot.

1. Everyone needs their own table space.
2. You cannot make the whole thing in a weekend if it is your first time.
3. Laughter is very good for the soul.
4. So is potluck food.
5. Not everyone wants to copy my patterns exactly.
6. Giving freedom to use my blocks for inspiration to create their own works.
7. This takes more time than copying a pattern.
8. I can learn from my students.
9. Helping each other is faster than doing it alone.
10. Three quilters at a time is perfect.
11. I never take enough pictures.
12. I want to do it again.  

Blessings,
Chris

Glorious Winter Day

Today has been a glorious winter day when the temperature finally rose above 0C/32F. The kind of drippy, sloppy day with the sun sort of shining and you need to use the windshield washer fluid to clear off the grunge. I started out by going to do a 30 minute waterfit workout, the third this week, then banking, dollar store to get a spatula, local quilt shop to find a 3/8" bias tape maker since I could not find mine and they did not have any, so, I drove into the city to Fabricland and they did not have one there either, then Staples to get a new mouse for the computer since I dropped mine when I relocated the computer from the quilt room to the new upstairs hall study corner with the new window then, on the way home to Walmart to get some tomatoes for my Sweetie and bumped into my neighbour who I haven't seen in years who moved away a few months ago then I looked for the bias tape maker and found a Brother sewing machine but, they only had the floor model so the guy called several other Walmarts and got me a chair to sit in until he located the Brother SQ9050 in Waterdown so, I drove the half hour there to buy it AND just happened to stop in at the antique store that I pass all the time on the way to and from the airport but am either in a hurry or its closed where I found this . . . 

Isn't she gorgeous? I bought one in a London England airport once that has 5 dolls. My granddaughters just love playing with it, especially the one with the annoying squeak when it is turned.
However, this 8 1/2 inch babushka  has no less than 10 dolls altogether!!!!  

I won't mention that it cost $10 per doll. There is another set there. I could not justify buying both sets since I had just bought a new sewing machine that has 100 fancy stitches, but only cost $240. I might have spent that much if I had driven the extra 10 minutes to the quilt shop that had a big sale today. I don't need more fabric, but I only have 1 sewing machine that does zigzag and it is a temperamental Bernina that hates monofilament thread and it is in being serviced. I dropped off that machine Wed and today gave him what I thought was the zigzag foot, invisible thread and a pack of metallic needles so he could get the tensions all adjusted for machine applique. He phoned tonight to tell me I gave him the embroidery foot not the zigzag foot and that the zigzag foot has a smooth underside and . . .  maybe . . .  that is why I have been having so much  problem with sewing with invisible thread.
I also bought 2 new seam rippers because I keep misplacing mine. Did you know that those things get dull and replacing them periodically is a good idea? I know that now.
What I could not find is the Jan '14 Quiltmania magazine that has Di Ford's new mystery quilt that so many are posting pictures of. Last week the 2 store that I know carry them still had the Christmas issue. Seems kind of crazy . . . spending $14 to get a free pattern and that is only the first installment.
 
So, all in all, it has been a very good day. Now for Q@F tomorrow. Whoops! That means clearing off all my work tables and making room for 5-6 quilting friends.
And guess what I found . . . yes, my 3/8 inch bias tape maker. 

Blessings,
Chris

So Far in 2014

We are just 7 days into 2014 and I have worked on no less than 7 projects so far. Nothing is finished and only 1 new start. I am working on CCCQ #15 and #16. Two of these are for block swaps. 
AND,

I started the Just Takes 2 Benjamin Biggs Wedding Quilt and machine appliqued it in place. I might rethink how I am doing this for the next block.
SO,

I pulled out one of the oldest and yet most almost complete UFO's and gave it a press getting it ready to practice my machine quilting skills.
BUT,

I had to first move the  two 8 foot tables and the Brother sewing machine into machine quilting position and just happened to find the bundle of  1930's squares I had cut out last summer to make a disappearing 9 patch so, I had to start sewing them together until I found I was one 5" white square short.
THEN,

as I was looking for some more of the Kona white, I made the mistake of peaking into one of the project boxes in my upstairs cupboard and guess what I found? Yes, another UFO in the most delicious blues and greens. Rosemary Makhan's Rose Sampler Supreme that is one of my all time ever favourite patterns. I took time to look over what is done so far and glued under some of the shapes because almost all the blocks have been cut out with freezer paper backing ready for machine applique. I started this May 2009 and thought I should be able to do a block a day and get the thing done in a month. I told one of my friends that and she laughed and laughed. I put in into a box and took a summer course on anger and anxiety, went to India for 3 weeks  where, among other things, I taught a workshop on anger at a women pastor's conference and dedicated our school, then returned home to 2 weeks of house guests and our son's wedding, started the fall semester at school
AND,

I started  the Dear Jane project here with 6 of my quilting friends. To date I have 169/169 squares complete and sewn together and now to complete the triangles. I want to finish 2 more triangles and the top left corner kite before our Q@F retreat here later this month. Sounds doable . . . 3 blocks in 3 weeks.
HOWEVER,

what I really wanted to work on this week was the Red and Green applique sampler that I cut out using my Go cutter and dies. No pictures as no blocks are prepped yet. I was trying to figure out how to iron on the fused appliques after laying them out on the background squares and centering them on the glass top table I bought to use as a light table. Great light table but not sure I should iron anything on it. So, I have tracked down one of those portable ironing pads from June Taylor. I used to have one but took it to the cottage once and gave it to my daughter.
So, all in all, I got a lot of work done, but nothing completed this week.
Blessings,
Chris