Happy St Valentine's Day

Okay, so it's a holiday created by candy and card makers, who cares?  It's still a reminder to say I love you.  

Every so often, I have a Monday when nothing really seems to have happened.  As much happened around here last week as happens every other week, but most of it wasn't very interesting.  

I tried to make the Barbara Brackman American Stars challenge block 2, but when I got it cut, I didn't like what I created and had a choice to cut new fabric or move forward and make adjustments.  Everybody else was making beautiful star blocks where the star was the feature and the background was more quiet.  I decided to try it with the star as the quiet part in a heavy background.  And, when I got the 8 half square triangles pieced, I realized I was not going to like that, so I cut up the rest of the red and blue fabrics and put another star in the center.  It's a beautiful block, but it's not the challenge block and it's very bold and will likely really stand out in a quilt with the other blocks I hoped to add it to (a previous Brackman BOM made with my civil war repro fabrics).  I may make the block again and use this for something else.  That decision will not have to be made for a while.  The beauty of a BOM is getting to make changes to the theme over time as new blocks are introduced.  

The block is the Star Spangled Banner block and the story she featured to accompany it was of several generations of Francis Scott Key's family.  Definitely lots of historical information I didn't know.  

I made my way all the way around the arc quilt border.  It is complete and I don't think there's anything I'm going to go back and correct in it.  That's definitely good news.  I have a couple days off this week and I'm going to lay this quilt on the dining room table and tie off the last of the knots and mark any other errors I want to correct (at this point, every safety pin is an error that will need correcting, but there aren't many).  Then, I will need to cut a black bias binding for it and this could be finished very soon.  That would make me very happy.  September 2019 when I started this quilt feels like so long ago.

The change to a more Mediterranean diet has been a climb.  It's a different way of eating and I'm getting more fresh fruit and yogurt and olives, and now, avocado.  This is what my average lunch looks like now.

  

This is not what my average breakfast looks like, but it was a nice treat.  Avocado toast with hummus, rye bread, a splash of lemon juice and some fresh ground black  pepper.  I see why Avocado toast is such a big deal!

Everybody have a great week!  I'll be turning 60 tomorrow.  Just another day.  But, then I remember all the friends that didn't make it to 60 and I'm humbled at my good fortune.  I celebrate and remember them.  

Everybody have a great week!  My optometrist told me I should be wearing a wide brimmed hat, so I've become a "hat guy".  This is my newest.  

Lane