Prolific Weekend

I went through phases of lonliness this weekend, not having anyone to call up and say, "Hey, let's go get some dinner and see a movie!" or "GIRLS' NIGHT!"  The few that are close enough to call up were otherwise occupied, as could be expected during the holiday weekend.  My best buddies--my 'wives"--are too far away for a get-together.  Despite having lived here for five years now, I really don't have many girlfriends that I can call up and invite out for a girl-date.  I know lots of people, but few close friends nearby.  Sometimes things just click and it's like you've been friends forever, and you can call them up anytime and say, "Hey, let's go!" 

But I spent most of my free time sewing.  Because we will be coming home in the next day or two, I decided to bring my sewing machine home with the quilting stuff to get it out of the way.  We will probably have to make a couple trips as it is, so the less stuff we have to haul around, the better.  I got the Irish top finished a few days ago, so I brought that home, along with the Harry Potter blocks that I started.  You saw the first four blocks, and here are the next two:

Block 5:
This block's tipped book has better perspective than the other block that I altered, but it's just more boring books.  More embroidery of book titles later.  I stopped by JoAnn's today and picked up some embroidery needles and skeins of thread to do a bit of embroidery on the blocks tomorrow and Monday, assuming I'll have time to do so.  Purse project...I really need to find my Pigma pen to write the names of the books on the spines so I can embroider over them.  A list of the book titles are found here.

Block 6:

And the most recent block--three more books and what I suspect is a vial of Professor Snape's memory juices.  This may be the last block I make for a few days.  Gotta catch up on other things.

I finished arranging the pieces for Emma's One Block Wonder.  As I sat catching up on my TV shows recorded on my DVR from the week, I kept glancing over at the quilt pieces hanging on the design wall.  There were just a few of them that were out of place and it was bothering me, but I didn't have the time or energy to really look at it and figure out what was wrong.  Today, I saw a few pieces that really needed to be moved, so I shuffled them around. I think I'm finally satisfied with the arrangement.  These, of course, are just stuck to a flannel sheet; they still have to be sewn together.  To the right, a monster for Ben's monster quilt.

I kinda fumbled around, looking for something a little less mentally taxing than the Harry Potter blocks, and I saw this pile of Road to the White House blocks.  After counting them out, pairing them up, and sewing them together, I laid them out and discovered two things:  1) I mis-counted the blocks.  I thought I had 42.  I had 45.  2) I couldn't find a layout I liked that worked with the way I had sewn them together.  I messed around with the blocks and decided on a new layout--I tried ric-rac and diagonal stripes, but neither of them appealed to me.  Then I laid them out in this Around-the World style, which meant tearing the stitches out of about 8 or 10 seams.  When I laid them out in this more pleasing arrangement, I then realized I needed 4 more blocks.  Drat.  I found two red and two blue fat quarters that went well with the blocks I already had, so I cut up the fabrics and sewed four new blocks in about two hours.

I laid them out on my bed and assembled in sections and now the top is done! It needs a couple borders for the drop on the sides of the mattress--I'm thinking I might put the borders on three sides and skip the pillow tuck. I might do three or four strips alternating white, then red, then white again (and red again, if I go with four stripes), which will give a flaggy effect...although I'm concerned it may look too busy...maybe I'll just go with one red and one white and keep it simple; blue squares in the corners; and binding it in red. I may have to buy red fabrics for this part--I don't think I have a single red fabric that is big enough to accomplish borders.

So tomorrow it's back to the hospital for at least one more night.  Hopefully we'll be back home Monday night.

K