The vacatiion that didn't

Well, about 15 minutes before Rob's sister was going to pick up their Mom to take her to the airport, the airline cancelled the flight due to maintenance issues.  Which is good because there wasn't a crash.  But, disappointing, too.  But also probably good because we spent the week feeling poorly from something germish/viral/contagious that Retail Sydney brought home.  Also disappointing. 

So, I spent the week eating through our disappointment with high calorie, protein rich foods that were supposed to feed four people three times a day...but Rob and Sydney weren't eating at home.  Thank goodness I didn't cook the roast!  And, I managed to eat or feed them almost all of it.  We lost some rice and some mac&cheese and a little hummus and baked beans.  But, boy, it was hard work eating my own best cooking.  Terrible hard work.  (NOT!)  But, I did kind of feel like a rolling lump by Friday. 

Anyway, we spent the weekend resting.  And, trying to take care of the yard which, if you hadn't heard, have been subjected to some mighty rainfall that's flooding the lakes and rivers around here as it makes its way to the coast.  That left limbs and leaves and extreme growth and plants that have started to drown in the mud.  There wasn't a lot we could do because the ground is still soggy, but it was a sunny day, so we did what we could. 

And, I did some sewing. 

I got some of the arcs made into blocks.  Here are 8 laid out as they will be in the final quilt. 

 

 

This is when I figured out that I was making the pattern's mirror image, which is weird because I spent a lot of time trying to make sure I didn't do that.  I found out when I attached the first print "comma" shaped piece and looked at it.  This is how that comma should look.  See how it leads into the small arc from the center?  

 

This is how the first one looked.  I saved it just to show you.  The black pieces I cut are reusable, upside down, but I'd only cut three or four commas when I found the mistake, so that was good. 

This one is taking all my skills and my patience.  Each block has to be blocked because they don't come off the machine the right shape.  The fabric is there, but it takes some spritzing/pinning/ironing to turn that fabric into the right sized square.  Fortunately, Sally Collins taught me that secret and I use it a lot when complex blocks don't come out just like I thought they would.  (If you're tracking my progress on the reusable freezer paper templates, 12 large arcs from three templates, and still going strong!)

 

I also spent a couple hours yesterday starting to quilt the tree quilt.  This is a wedding gift for a couple that's marrying on 12/1, so there's a deadline and I wanted to make sure I get well ahead of it.  Can't let myself get distracted.  There is a LOT happening between now and then. 

 

 

I'm quilting the wind pattern into it.   I wanted something that would be loose and comfortable that they would enjoy and use, so no over-quilting.  Even though my nature is over-quilting with dense background shapes.  As I was pin basting it, I thought of all kind of things I could do that would compliment the pattern.  And, I refrained.  Thank goodness.. 

 

 

 

Everybody have a great week!  The city just issued a citywide boil water notice.  I've been here 34 years and I've never seen that.  The flooding has sent dirty water into the system and it's taking longer to filter than normal, so yesterday, they asked us to use water sparingly so we didn't overtax the system.  I guess maybe not everyone did that, so now we have this.  Yay!  Fortunately, Rob had bought a case of bottled water yesterday to take to his office, so I'll just need to boil a little. 

 

Lane