Time for a catch up, a bit of this and that.......

I was up before 5am this morning, and after devotions and brekkie, I turned Max on ready to work on the large quilt that is on at the moment. I spent most of yesterday trying to work out a plan, and did make some decisions so was ready to get onto it.

Then I realised it would have been our normal patchwork group sewing day tomorrow, and as the Publicity Officer, I had planned to send out a newsletter for those days. So I sat at the computer instead. The members of our group have been sending me photos of projects that they are working on, and also sending messages, news updates and even recipes and pictures of favourite gadgets they use. A few phone calls, emails, and many hours later, the newsletter was sent to members. There was only one problem, in that I forgot to attach the document! Take 2, and all was well. And now there is only 2 and a bit weeks before I do it all again. While I was at the computer, I sent out the Bible Study group emails as well, and now have decided I may as well do a blog post while I am at it!!

There has been some quilting happening, although I do admit to not as much. I am managing to fill up the days easily, but not a lot of it is photo worthy. I have finally spent time in my bedroom, sorting clothes, and CLEANING! My car was in desperate need of a clean, but I didn't want to negotiate the car wash down the street, so a quick hose off of the dust on the front lawn did make it look better. I have spent time in the kitchen cooking for elderly friends.

After talking to a friend today, I remembered that it was 2 years ago that the bags were packed ready for us to leave on the "trip of a lifetime" to the USA. We are so pleased that we did this 2 years ago, and had not planned for this year. This photo is of the 3 "Bordertown girls" on the trolley bus in Paducah.

A couple of days before Easter, I received some deliveries from family, which was lovely. 

Although it was not possible to attend church services in person this Easter, it was special to be able to "attend" services online, and I managed to watch quite a few. And with messages going back and forth between us, we still managed fellowship with each other. Most Easter time's I have a house full of quilters, and I did miss it this year. But in the absence of people, there was a silence and a feeling of being more aware of the real meaning of Easter. 

I will admit that for a few days, I fell into a "slump", for want of a better name to call it?? I guess there are lots of changes to process. I did give myself permission to take "time out", and spent all of one day sitting in the recliner and reading a book. When I start a book, I usually have to read it until it's finished, and this took me until about 7pm. This is an Australian author and the book is set in Queensland and was an OK read.

I found this on facebook, somewhere and seemed to fit my mood.

After a couple of days of "wallowing", I came good and picked up a project.

Step 4 of the QGSA Casa Felix Mystery project was released and I have finished that, and now await the last step and the reveal this weekend. There will be another Mystery after this, designed by Lessa Siegele, so I am looking forward to joining that one as well.

I did spend some time in the garden, and my dahlias are still blooming and the first of the Chrysanthemums were out in flower.

The weather has been lovely and outside in the sunshine listening to the birds sing, it is hard to believe the turmoil of our world. I have a shed full of wood, the flue has been cleaned out, and I am ready for when the temperatures drop as we approach the winter season.

A few weeks ago I saw the pattern for a quilt online "somewhere" and thought I would check it out. It is the Paper Doll Quilt Sew-Along by the Red Boot Quilt Co. It is a free BOM and being released periodically over the next few months. I decided it would be cute for one of my grandies, as there are a few little ones that their grandma has not yet made a special quilt for!! Now it seems like I might be able to find the time for this as there are no retreats happening for some time to come yet. I was planning on searching in the scrap stash for fabrics, until I saw this range that just happened to arrive at my house not long ago. I found a few extra matching pieces, and the vliesofix, printed the first 4 installments and started tracing.

Here are the first 8 blocks, that are now ready for stitching, which will be done by machine.

While I was browsing the Red Boot website, I found another cute pattern, and have printed this out as well. The last few days I have also traced all these patterns onto the paper. All this tracing and cutting, is like going back to kindy?? Just a few decisions re the background fabrics and to choose some pig  fabrics, and when they are all fused on, I shall spend time sewing them. This should save a lot of thread colour changes I hope.

I still plan on working on the Mystery quilts, and these 2 also. I  have many (not counting) UFO's around somewhere, but I am giving priority to these for the grandies, and hope to get them done before they grow to be too old to think they are cute quilts. I don't know just how much social isolation time I have ahead, so better make good use of what I do get.

I think that's about enough newsfromjude for now. I have some quilt photos to show, but will save them for another day.

Blessings, From Jude