Hello, February

I finished making the blocks for the Tim Holtz Correspondence quilt:

It looks very denim-y to me. This isn’t my favorite Tim Holtz line but I like how this quilt turned out and I am happy to have used up some stash. Now I just have to sew the blocks together. The pattern called for 32 blocks and a border; I had enough fabric to make 45 blocks (5 rows by 9 columns) and I am going to leave off the border. This is a generously-sized lap quilt.

I’m sure I’ll use that Fat Eights Flapjacks pattern again. It was easy to piece.

We’ll see if this has scratched my quilting itch for a while. I am ready to work on some clothing projects again. I did all that work last fall to get a pants sloper that fits me and I really need to put it to use.

The husband and I were eating dinner last night when I heard the UPS truck pull in. We have a great UPS guy—he’s here so often that I make him a batch of chocolate chip cookies every so often as a thank you. He brought a package addressed to me, which was odd because I hadn’t ordered anything recently. Inside was a very special gift!

My friends Robert and Deana came to visit in September. At the time, Deana was shopping for an embroidery machine. She makes and sells items at local craft fairs. I put her in touch with one of the ladies from our Thursday sewing group who does a lot of embroidery. Later in the fall, she bought a new machine and has been embroidering up a storm. She made me this custom-embroidered hoodie and all the letters are made up of sewing motifs! She said she used her brightest thread colors because she knows I don’t like muddy earth tones, LOL.

I will get a lot of use out of this. Thank you, Deana! 😘

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We have a gathering here this morning for our semi-annual church conference meeting. I’ve hosted this gathering every year for the past several years. A group of us used to attend the meeting in person, but traveling to Portland was always dicey in February. During the pandemic, the conference organizers moved the meeting to Zoom and have continued that tradition. I’m a bit bummed not to have a reason to go to Portland in February, but a Zoom meeting is better than nothing. This year, the focus of the meeting is on the 500th anniversary of Anabaptism.

I hook the computer up to the television so everyone can see the meeting and it works nicely. We’ll have soup for lunch and lots of other treats to snack on.