DH wants to get some shopping done, so I took some time off to go with him. Going to the town we use to live near (an hour away now) and I'm going to stop in at the LQS and I've decided to give myself a $200 allowance to spend there. I need more assorted neutrals, and would love to get a fat quarter pack, but I'll probably get a yard of several fabrics. And then who knows what else I may find.

There is an LQS in the town I know live in. It use to be run by two ladies, but one retired, and now I don't find as much that I fall in love with there. The lady that retired had similar tastes to mine, and when she was buying, I could always find fabric to love. So if I don't find enough fabric at the first one, I'll have to stop at the second on my way home!

Sounds like people are doing nice things!

Today I'll be meeting with my Tuesday group hostess about this comfort project we are making. We are both concerned that the dark backgrounds may indeed be too dark and dreary and want to do some layout with the border and sashing fabric to see. We might need to go to more medium fabrics. Everyone has enough of the consistent slightly yellow cream center fabric to make 8-10 blocks, we only need 4 each. Currently we have a rusty sashing and a batiky large fish print for the borders, so the backgrounds of the blocks were to work with those.

It was funny how even knowing the pattern was "reversed" and that the light triangles didn't go in the outer corners, but I had to constantly make sure I had the sub-units in the right position.

Edit: Next set I make I'm going back to pressing open. I know we all get used to what we do but I am not happy with the results here.

Cathy, I went to our local quilt shop (in North Georgia) and there was this man in his early 70's sitting waiting on his wife. I commented how patient he was to go with his wife fabric shopping. He started laughing and shook his head. Then he explained that they had got up around 3 in the morning to drive to Arkansas so she could go to this one fabric shop that sold by the bolt!! Then of course they stopped at several shops along the way -- both directions! Now they were in Blairsville, GA and still an hour and half from home!!!! I told him he was a saint!

Iceblossom, wonderful colors you put together. I love interesting prints. Hope his health and quality of life improve.

We also have a family friend in the hospital for complications. It's a scary time to be in/at the hospitals in most cases alone.

I have said this before but ... I just love seeing others quilting ideas and how they come together and blend with others.

CarrieM, the purple is so complimentary to the blues. Just beautiful. I have 2 fabrics in mind to add. One is blueberries! I thought since I was on a wacky fabric trend, I would just continue. But I have to wait and see how the blues and purples play together.

LeeAnn, I mailed Reba's center to you today. My schedule next week is crazy so I wanted it on it's way. I hope that is OK.

Iceblossom, I will watch the mail for your package and let you know when it arrives.

The restrictions on visitors in hospitals has been pretty severe. Something like 6 hours total per day. Maximum 3 people per day/1 per time and one entry only -- if you leave for lunch you don't come back until the next day. As I understand it, the hope is that the surgery will increase blood flow and oxygenation and maybe that will help him be more comfortable and able to deal with things better. He has been depressed and isn't doing the things he should, even the things to make himself more comfortable.

One of the other ladies isn't in all that good of shape herself, and her husband is in worse shape. He's been in and out for various procedures and tests and emergency visits for the last six months as well. The big difference between the two husbands is mostly attitude and belief systems. This one is going to keep living until the end and is satisfied with the past.

My doctor's office is actually located at a hospital and they don't want either of us (me or doc) there unless it is urgent, we had to do a virtual visit for my lab results and monitoring of the various things we monitor. She's authorized the knee x-ray and I need to have it done, I just don't want to sit there. Am going to see if I can set up an appointment instead of drop by.

Anyway, quilting related, we laid out our blocks and each of us will make 4 more, we think that will be enough to mix and match with the others once we get together on Tuesday. The red swirly one I did wasn't good with the rust and will most likely not be used. But the good news was the rust brightened up our darker blocks just fine. The dark blue Asian print looks more like the lake I envisioned (they live on a lake) than the pool of despair in the dim light of last night and works really nicely with the border.

I'm going to make two more brown, and two of bright medium colors. That will help balance out her green/aqua choices and there is a bright golden yellow that most likely won't be used in the end, but might work out with my two brights plus what the others bring.

She said she had the same issue as I did with construction, kept wanting to make the blocks as Shoo-fly with white corners and she was the one who picked the pattern!

Cathy, I'll be off on a road trip to a quilt shop tomorrow, too. This is a very old shop out in the Boonies, that my friend's mom shopped at when she and her siblings were children. It's been in business at least 40 years.... I can't wait to see it and dig out that treasure that is buried in some back corner somewhere. Hoping she has old patterns, too.

Advance warning for the September round. I didn't think it was going to happen but the hubby is still planning on going on a road trip this year to visit his sister, it's actually a trip in honor of my 60th Birthday. We will be driving from Seattle to Sacramento down I-5, then turning around and going up 101 and through the Redwoods and coastal Oregon the way back. Mostly will be us in the car and various dog and people rest stops. We will be staying in a variety of funky dog friendly Air BnB units -- we looked at all the treehouses and yurts and things like that!

It shouldn't impact my participation, just perhaps maybe some of the mailing because I think our first day out is the 16th and we are back on the 22nd -- he's doing the planing so I may be off a day either way. I'd be mailing before I go and I can certainly have one of the neighbors pick up mail if needed. After the trip he has a one week at home stay before he can go back to work. This is the first time ever he's taken off two weeks at once as well as the first time we've taken a trip together of this length. Usually only one of us goes visiting and the other stays at home with the pets.

Sounds like fun! Enjoy your trip!

Prayers for all that are hospitalized.
Mary, sounds like quite the adventure.

IceBlossom, If you haven't seen the California Redwoods before, then you are in for a real treat. They are amaaaazing trees! I recommend that everyone goes to take a look at them! I went to the Jennifer Pheiffer park on Route 1. :-) Where did you research the BnB dog friendly places? I'm thinking about visiting my son out west next year and will probably take my dog. Any advice about doing that would be appreciated.

Last time I was in the Redwoods it was pre-husband and my son and I were driving to Disneyland in February Early Spring Break in an El Nino year... 1999-2000 even?? -- we had great weather until we passed into California and it almost immediately began snowing! With twilight approaching and snow gently falling we headed through an almost deserted old growth forest and it was gorgeous. As it was getting darker and the snowfall heavier I realized my headlights were getting dimmer and made it to a town (where I think I will be sleeping on the way back) and found it was just heavy wet snow that had built up on my bumpers. I grew up in Alaska but mostly the snow I know didn't act like that! Talk about relieved to find out it was just snow and not an electrical problem.

My husband did go to visit his sister for a mini-family reunion last year, but this will be the first time for him on the car trip past Portland. So pretty much all of Oregon and Northern California will be new for him. We do plan on stopping at the Olive Pit (olives and pickles are keto friendly!), and I will be spending the night very close to Jordan Fabrics in Grants Pass... but mostly it will just be driving.

We just went to AirBnB.com and specified pet friendly in our options we created an account but I think if you google air bnb pet friendly there is a tab that will fill out that filter for you. You can also specifically look the Unique Stays, in that filter area.

They have put in Covid protections, we feel limited/no contact small owner managed spaces were our best bet for a number of reasons. We do have AAA and did look at standard pet friendly motels as well. As always in real estate and vacations there is location, location, location to consider and that impacts price. If you are willing to stop in a more rural area, it is amazing the offerings and the affordability of some of them. We had some problems finding our night back in Oregon along the coast where we originally planned, but since our route was very flexible we ended up moving inland maybe a 100 miles earlier for a much nicer accommodation within our price range in the Springfield (the real home of the Simpsons)/Eugene area. Go Ducks!

Yay!!! Iceblossom, the package came today with SewBizgirl center in it. !!! it is even prettier in person! You are a tough one to follow. I am going to let it talk to me a couple days before I get started.

Love all these road trips. The place in Arkansas must be the Marshall DryGoods - the place is awesome. Visited there last year on our return from NY. Thankfully I brought a list of items to keep me on track. And I have used almost all that I purchased there already!
I have been working on getting house ready again for my mother. Decided that a landline phone would be easier for her so called the company we have for internet to get a bundle. They tell me that they are not doing any installations due to COVID! So I left an email to the company headquarters, thanking them for their service and their donations of computers to the schools and then saying I wished they would treat the seniors the same way so I can have a phone for my mother.....Less than a week later I get a call from the local company to come do an installation. Is this the way we need to do business now? Just glad we will have a phone for her - at only an extra $25 a month!
Have been giving my seam ripper plenty of exercise lately - maybe the stress of things??
DH and I spent the morning Geocaching and trying something new called Adventure Lab. Fun to check out things and get a little exercise doing so.

Dh and I had fun out shopping yesterday, we even went to our favorite restaurant. This is the third time we've been there during the pandemic. It's a small Mexican grill, and they've taken out several tables.

I spent way more than I planned at the quilt shop, DH kept walking around pointing out fabric he thought was neat - he's a big enabler, but we had stopped at the sporting goods store earlier and he bought himself a nice tripod. Maybe he felt a bit guilty. We aren't spending funds we don't have, so it's all good.

Here is some of what I came home with - the ombre style print is super neat! No idea what I'll use it for, but I'm a big sucker for ombre fabric!

DH fell in love with the Peter pan panel, that will be a fun one to practice free motion quilting.

And then a couple of pictures of what I'm working on. I got the piano key border on my crazy quilt, (pic was taken before adding it), so it's ready to go. It's a king size quilt and it's going to be heavy!

Just got to get the lap quilt that is already on the frame quilted up.

Lovely fabrics and quilts, Macybaby. I found some things today too, but I'm too pooped to take pictures right now. Later...

Ice, you and your hubby are really going to enjoy that trip! Just keep in touch with your mailing partner and try to stay within the deadline. Thanks.

TG so glad you can get a phone for your Mother, I'm sure she will be happy too.
Macy, beautiful fabric! I love that black!! I got your package today but I haven't opened it yet. Will do it tomorrow, didn't want it to tempt me to try and go downstairs to start looking at fabrics. This hasn't been a great week here, just another chemo reaction but they are miserable. Since Tuesday the couch and my PJ's have been very good friends. Today pretty good but very weak on water and juice. Hopefully now it will get better day by day if I can start eating soft stuff again and gain some weight back.

Jaba, so sorry you are going through this. I was praying for you. since i had not gotten the mailing info, I felt something was wrong. Don't push yourself.

Prayers for those with friends and family hurt, sick, or just in need of a hug. Traveling mercies for those traveling short distances or greater. Regardless of our locations, its kind of scary out there. Be careful and safe.

So glad we can still fabric shop... that is an essential need! On the way home today, I stopped in Asheville NC at the Cotton Company... SO many fabrics there was barely any room to walk. I came out with $88 of fall prints. Goal is to make a couple of 3D table runners. Whether it happen this year or next, it was good therapy and I feel better!

My goal is mail the first of the week... packaging up tomorrow. Its a bit early but Macybaby is ready so all is good.

Jaba, sorry you have been so under the weather. Didn't realize you were still getting chemo.... yuck. Big hugs and prayers going out and up for you. Rest and feel better!

Just a reminder to all - make sure the next in line is finished with the center they are working on and ready to receive another. I know I would feel stressed if I had two sitting on my table unfinished!
Waiting to see more pictures.

travelinggramma--I am working on my blocks to add to your center. I should be able to mail by a week from Monday (as long as I take breaks and don't try to sew too much in one day). I got a few done on Friday and know my limits before my wrist starts acting up. I plan to make a few more this afternoon. :)

Mona, if you want to mail the one you finished that would be fine...I will be glad to have it here so I can start picking fabrics/see if I need to get to town to pick something up.

TG, I am so sorry, I really thought that I had posted that your package was on the way. I didn't send you the tracking though and I should have. You should have the center that I sent to you, did you receive it? Receipt is downstairs and I haven't been able to make it there yet. A big maybe today but hopefully tomorrow for sure. I'm feeling better today just need to get a little stronger from being a couch potato so I don't tumble down them. Need to get the groove back! or at least the groove I've got :)

I admit this is getting kind of confusing to me -- so, I've made my center, and Round 1 and Round 2 and have sent them out. What I'm calling the August round is Round 3, and then my vacation trip will be September, so Round 4. So if I'm still on task, my group's mail out is the 15th of each month which is coming up next week. I'm still good waiting until the official mail out date to receive the incoming August round as I go through my possible addition in my head... I think this one is going to be very challenging for me.

I did want to give advance warning on my trip, but I'm hoping it won't impact anything other than maybe giving a couple extra days to get the September round to me since I won't be home that week, or that I will need to alert the neighbors to watch for mail. I still don't know what I'll be doing on my next round, but the goal will be to mail it before September 15/the trip if Mary is ready for it.

We will be staying home the second week as isolation time, should be good quilting time :)

Iceblossom, your group (group 1) is doing round 2 right now, due to be mailed by Aug. 15. You should receive a new one to work on for the remainder of August and up until Sept. 15. That is round 3.
End of Sept. to Oct. 15 is round 4.

I'm still waiting for my next center to arrive, for me to put round 3 on it... and you should be too, unless you have already received it early.

Hope that clears things up a bit. You should have plenty of time to work around your trip. If you time runs short, consider making a simpler round this time, so you can stay within the deadline. I'm sure you can!

Ok, we are on the same spot and I am doing just fine waiting to receive my next round after the 15th. I was able to mail my round (your center) early because Mary was ready for it.

The round I will be receiving next week or so is the one that will be due before my trip so no problems there time-wise. Will coordinate with Rebecca on when she mails for me next month on whether she might like a couple extra days or if I should alert the neighbors about packages.

I have so enjoyed watching your progress. All the quilts are just beautiful. You all have certainly given me ideas for what I can do with my own quilts. Each of you will end up with a very unique and wonderful keepsake quilt. Thanks for sharing so we can all enjoy your work.

Thank you Colorado Quilter! Maybe you might like to join in on the next one we do.

Just my "checking in daily post". Yesterday ended up going to Costco, we were almost out of cat food and Tomas does not like it when that happens. He will stand on a pillow and pull your hair with his teeth when he believes it to be 8:00 am (breakfast time) -- but he's usually a bit early :p It feels good to see full shelves and no limits,(all the safety precautions still in place of course) and it looks like meat prices are going back down. We don't use a lot of bottled water, but we take it with us on car trips and it was time to get a fresh case (part of our trip planning), first one this year.

Yesterday I did do some prewashing, today I'll do the last two of the comfort blocks and then pull out the Frolic UFO and start making red/blue HST. The original problem that led to the future confusion was that the original maker made 41 units and not 41 sets... but there is plenty of fabric and all the other sub-units are complete -- and as it turned out we didn't use all of those anyway and now I know that part of the mystery :)

CarrieM, I'll mail the package tomorrow .

I'm sorry but I'm a worried mom. We just had a major storm go thru Iowa. One son drives a semi and is parked on a Hwy with trees down all around him and another son...damage is bad in his area and I can't get a text thru to him due to cell phone service being out. Power is out there.

Mary - will send good wishes for your sons! It is scary when you can't make contact!

I had a bit of a "fun" time yesterday - I decided it might be fun to start a new project, so I pulled out a quilt kit that I'd bought a few years ago. After getting the fabric pulled out, I was missing five pieces!

I had a moment of "did they short me?" before the brain kicked in and I remembered I'd prewashed all the fabric, so I'm sure it was all there at that time. Must have not all fit back into the bag and I probably had it sitting on top, which was fine until I packed everything up and moved - and unpacked and put loose fabric on the shelf.

As I was looking at the fabric pictures - I recognized one as something I'd use to make masks. I remembered it because when I was digging through me "folded but not ruler folded" fabric, I asked myself why in the world I'd bought that?

So I started digging around more and located four of the five, and only one had been partially used. I dug around for at least another hour looking for that missing fabric, found a lot of stuff I'd forgotten I had, including way too many UFO's that got packed away for the move and conveniently forgotten!

I finally gave up looking for that last fabric and pulled another brown out of my stash to use, and took a long break.

So when I got back to it, I started move the fabric around and organizing it - focus fabric (check) Three beiges (check) seven blues (check) and 5 browns - wait, I've got six! Turns out my missing fabric was there all along, it just got "stuck" to another of the browns when I laid them out and I didn't notice until I started picking them back up! Glad I found it, not glad that I spent an hour looking for something in my stash that was sitting on the cutting table the whole time!

On a good note, the pattern called for the covered corners method for square in a square using the fabric I cut into. Since I don't like that method, I cut much smaller center squares and had enough fabric!

Update... I was finally able to talk to my sons. The truck driver is OK and on the road. The other one lost 2 trees in the front yard. They fell in the street so no damage to the house! They will be without power for a couple days. He has been out cleaning up storm damage and got bit by a squirrel. Always something.

My word!! What squirrel bites a man?! I hope your son gets that checked. Next I would worry about rabies... It doesn't matter how old they get, does it? The mother will worry!

We are supposed to get the storm here tonight. Our power company sent me an email saying they are waiting and ready to come help with downed electric lines. That seems grim.

Macybaby, I liked your story. How many times have I done that? Found fabric/project, lost it, found it again. Used fabric I intended for something else because I forgot first intention, remembered too late, had to make do/re-invent. It all sounds so familiar.

My brother lives in Cedar Rapids and they lost their front porch due to a big tree falling on it and part of that tree is in their bedroom.
Thankfully no one was hurt, but not a fun way to start the week.
My other brother lives in Waterloo, I don't think the winds were bad there.

Yikes! Sorry to hear of all the scary storms! Hope all of you are ok. I need to contact my son because I think he might be in Iowa now too. His in-laws live there and since the house fire I think they have been staying with them. Hope they haven’t had storms too.

Here the weather has been fine. We had a few lovely cool days lately.

My son in in IN. They were supposed to get the storm over night. I've not talked to him this morning. Praying for safety. You can replace things, its the people that are valuable. Hope everyone stays safe.

Wonderful finding old projects ... those UFOs seem to be everywhere!

I was following some of the storm coverage away from the computer. Was so happy when Mary found out everything was ok, or as ok as it would be.

I had told our group leader/project starter on the comfort quilt that I would make 2 brown and 2 bright mediums (that most likely won't be used) to help balance out what she was wanting to work with. I cut the fabric without re-reading the directions and cut the HST too big, easy enough to trim down but I was one square short of off-white. There is more fabric and I'll be able to finish it after group, but I have 3 blocks and 3/4 blocks done. Already had made 4, we decided one didn't work with the sashing fabric so I have 6 ready to go (4 required).

I really like the bright medium blue, hoping it will get used but probably not. Won't know until we see what everyone brings. I like the browns too, the Australian fabric was from the lady we are making this project for and we used it in the last comfort quilt the group put together last year. I was specifically looking for just that scrap.

Iceblossom, I like all three but the Australian fabric is my favorite. Probably because it is so different.

Macybaby, I am mailing to you today. Tracking # 9405 5036 9930 0487 9616 26