Monday Meanderings 8 -14 - 2023

What a week! I was busy most of the week... not a lot of time to sit around and do nothing! But it was a fun week. I'll start with my goal list and share what was going on.

8/7/23

✅Work on Happy Block quilt (4 x 5 set) -- finished top

✅Grammy Camp - ✅make dog biscuits, ✅paint and assemble bird houses, ✅swim 

✅Work on red and yellow RSC blocks -- nothing finished but some parts were made

✅Meet up with Preeti Harris for lunch -- great fun to meet Preeti in person!  

I did finish my Happy Block top.  In fact I've already made a backing, stitched some batting scraps to get a batting to fit and loaded the backing onto my long arm. 

It took a while to figure out the layout to get a reasonable mix of light and dark blocks.  It'll be quilted this week.  

Monday I met Preeti Harris, who blogs at Sew Preeti Quilts, for lunch and conversation.  We gabbed about quilting for several hours. Have you read her blog yet?  She comes up with so many wonderful quilts. It's always fun to meet up with a fellow quilter. 

Preeti and Bonnie lunching.

Preeti is an ambassador for Island Batik and gifted me with three pieces of orange batiks from Island Batiks.  I can't wait until I can add these gorgeous pieces to a quilt. (Don't expect fast results.  I am so behind on at least one Christmas present that I shouldn't start anything new. Bummer.) 

Early Wednesday morning we picked up our two youngest Grands for three days of Grammy Camp.  The plan was to have a couple hours of swimming every day but one day thunderstorms were predicted.  Pat and I had made plans that we thought would fill up the three days. 

 

The kids made dog treats for the new puppy. I'm not sure what caused this look on ES's face but she looks like her dad with that look!  

The next day they made puzzle bird houses. Pat had precut most of the pieces but let them use one of his saws for a small cut. Then it was sanding time.

Followed by painting time.  TS, 6, painted the one on the left. ES, 9, painted the one on the right.  She also made a friendship bone she plans to give half to a friend and keep the other half for herself.  

ES showing off a face mask we made for her mom who asked for a big mask and may be a weighted one.  Hum.  ES traced the biggest mask I own and then I added a little bit more to it.  We decided to try to make a channel in the mask and fill it with ground walnut shells. I don't know if it does what Mom wanted but ES enjoyed modeling it when it was done. 

Read aloud time was included in the plans. We read Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner. It was just the right length to get read in two days plus it was pretty exciting.  What I didn't like was the dog dies in the last chapter and I started sniffling. (Darn sad stories!) I hadn't read it in years so it completely surprised me. But it was a terrific book and they enjoyed. 

I'm not sure why they were cuddling up with fleece blankets when it was 85+ degrees out. But they did every time we read together.

Friday afternoon we took them back to our designated meeting place where Mom was waiting to take them home. We were happy to find out our kids took advantage of no kids and had a very nice date night. It turns out Pat and I were totally exhausted. We picked up take out on the way home for that night and neither of us did all that much Saturday.

Sunday we went up to our son's house for a family party to meet the new puppy. (Well, we'd already met him but our daughter's family hadn't.) It was also a little celebration for us for our 50th Wedding Anniversary.  Kevin smoked a pork and we had pulled pork sandwiches and lots of yummy go-withs. It was fun to be all together.  Aimee and Kevin tend to host all of the full family get togethers. Lots of room outside to play and enough space for 10 or 16 when both sides of the family gather together. 

So after that busy week this coming week is mostly empty of activities.  Here's what I hope to accomplish. 

8/14/24

Quilt Happy Blocks top

Load and quilt Va Star charity quilt

Finish 30 Something top 

Work on misc blocks: FCQ Equilter blocks, retreat blocks, and red and yellow RSC blocks. 

Not a huge list but I'm hoping to get the two quilts done by Wednesday.  I need to take the charity quilt to the guild on Wednesday evening. We'll see how I do. 

You know the drill.  Please check the following Linky parties.  I haven't had as much time to do that recently but I hope to spend a goodly amount of time checking these parties out this week. 

Oh Scrap

Design Wall Monday

Sew & Tell

Monday Musings 

To Do Tuesday

That's it for me today.  It was a great week but boy am I tired!  This week should allow for lots of sewing time and reading time. 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie