My projects, their projects

I was sick last week.  I felt bad all weekend, but Sunday night, I was up most of the night, chills and sweats and misery.  Fortunately, none of the people that we were with over the weekend reported being sick,  but I do remember a friend hugging me at the wedding who sounded like she felt the way I did a couple days later. 

Rob's cousin and his wife were wonderful.  This was our first meet and we took them out to one of Austin's classic Tex-Mex restaurants where the food was wonderful.  But, the Margaritas...not so much.  They use natural lime juice and it was tart that day.  We all had a lot of fun, visiting and laughing and sharing stories. 

Saturday night, we went to the wedding reception.  The wedding was a private civil ceremony on Friday, and Saturday night there was "a catered affair".  We knew one of the brides and over the course of a few parties, we are meeting the other bride's friends.  It always starts awkward, and then we find someone we remember, but don't remember their name yet, and we end up striking up a conversation and celebrating together. 

Then, Sunday was Rob's birthday and I made him carrot cake cup cakes and we ate good food and laughed a lot while we did chores. 

Monday, I sat on the couch and finished these. 

I love knitting socks so much that I've finally decided to start a sweater.  We'll see if I have the skills...or if I just think I do.  It's looking good so far...after a false start and a re-do.

Most of my time has been spent on the guild's 2020 raffle quilt.  A couple weeks ago, we bought the fabrics.  We ordered one and that's holding us up.  I showed the test block I made a couple weeks ago, but now I've been able to make samples using most of the chosen fabrics to show at the meeting tonight.  I have kits in various stages of "finished".  The border kits are done and I will be taking them with me tonight to hand out to volunteers.  My co-chair is bringing the background fabric.  I plan to take a border kit, so you'll get to see it.  Here are my samples for the blocks. 

The volunteers will make two of these "quarters".  They take paper piecing skills, an easy Y seam, and Drunkard's Path curve piecing skills, so not too difficult.  Unfortunately, I had to substitute in a turquoise fabric, so these samples won't be in the actual quilt.  But, they did help me write the instructions.  The kits are bagged up and I just need to add some photos to the instructions and they'll be ready to print. 

We've had lots of rain.  Lots and LOTS.  The garden looks tropical, and unfortunately it's full of mosquitoes.  But, I get out there every day and do a little something, even if it's just pluck off a few dead flowers or pollinate Syd's pomegranate.  Here are some garden blooms. 

The Oakleaf Hydrangea is in full bloom and looks happier than ever. 

A little yellow Gerber Daisy.

Some strawberries in the strawberry jar. 

A very vivid Echinacea.

I thought I'd show the little leader/ender I've been working on.  A friend shared the solid squares.  They were a fabric line sample pack, so they weren't square and they were all different sizes, approximating 1 3/4".  Make a block and toss it into a box.  When you run out of little squares, turn the blocks into something.  I've fun out of little squares after about three years.   I went out looking for 2 1/2" squares in the scrap bins to mix these with and found a whole stack of dark blue squares.  We'll see what it turns into.

 

 

And, finally, I've been tapped on the shoulder and made aware of a new job opening.  They want me to fill this spot and approached my manager to let me know.  It's working on a bigger product and is supposed to give me more name recognition because of that.  (In my job, good name recognition gets you invited to work on tons of different projects.  Bad name recognition leaves you at your desk, playing solitaire.)  This job would mean giving up the variety of little projects I work on now that give me more name recognition than the person that currently has the job that's coming open.  That really feels like I'd be giving up a lot, but before deciding, I'm going to talk to her and talk to the hiring manager and see whether I'm looking at this right. 

 

Lots of stuff going on.  Lots of decisions to make.  Everybody have a great Monday!  Wish me luck at guild tonight.  It's always weird to show off my work and try to get people to volunteer to work on guild projects.  I'll have my smile out of my pocket and pasted on.

 

Lane