I had to chuckle when, on Thursday, my husband asked, “So what do you want to do for Mother’s Day?”
“Ummm…stay in?”
Still n’ all, it was a very pleasant day. I unintentionally, but very appreciatively, slept WAY in—far later than usual. Not sure what was going on but it was nice. Then my daughter made me an excellent french toast breakfast. Okay, so maybe brunch. But I counted it as breakfast and just skipped lunch.
Then I baked another loaf of bread. I can’t seem to stop myself. This one turned out quite nice but I didn’t get a picture of it. I’d still like more of a rise on it. I let it go extra time and it’s good enough but I’m not getting the “artisan holes” I’d like to get. I think my house is just a bit too cool. I may have to resort to a very low oven. Guess I’ll just have to keep baking bread until I get it right. Twist my arm.
All four of us drove over to my MILs where we all stood on her patio—in 40 degrees and sprinkling—while she stayed inside so we could talk with her. We probably weren’t there more than about 10 or 15 minutes but it was nice, and she certainly appreciated it.
The rest of the time I got to play in my sewing room.
I finished quilting Baby Quilt #1! I think I only crossed over myself once—although it may have just been a very, very near miss. I have a few too-long stitches although not quite toe-catchers, and no eyelashes on the back, so apparently I haven’t lost my touch quite as much as I thought I had.
I’ll leave squaring it off for tomorrow or the next day.
Earlier in the day I’d been playing in EQ8 designing my niece’s wedding quilt (we’re in round 2 since I lost the first design). I was going through my stash and ran across the color card for the next Cotton Cuts Puzzle Mystery Quilt. They have some great colorways lined up. Tempting. Orders open on May 28th.
Now, mind you, now that I have the AccuQuilt one might say I shouldn’t do any of these Cotton Cuts die-cut mystery quilts anymore. But I’m well aware that once our stay-at-home orders all ease up, I’ll be back on the road and my quilting time will decrease significantly. And they do have great mystery quilt designs. They turn out great.
So, for now, while I bide my time thinking about it, I told myself, “You really can’t sign up for a third until you at least finish one of the first two!” So after I finished quilting tonight, I pulled out Stratford and knocked out month 6. They really do go ridiculously fast when I’m paying attention and not making stupid mistakes. I had both blocks done in about 20 minutes.
2018 Cotton Cuts Puzzly Mystery was Pastures New. I have the blocks for that all done, but had to stop on piecing the top when I realized some of the blocks were wrong. It was a long and winding journey to get that corrected and, at the same time, I was starting my new job. So even though everything got fixed it’s been languishing in a bin just waiting for me to finish piecing the top.
2019 brought Stratford, which is the one I’ve been working on now. Before I finished Stratford, I’d ordered Cosmos. I haven’t even pieced a single block of that and I believe I might have just gotten the last clue this week. So I have some work to do.
So my current plan is to do as follows:
Square up and bind Baby Quilt #1 (this week!)
Do month 7 of Stratford. (this week!)
Find and add borders to Baby Quilt #2 (next weekend!)
Do month 8 of Stratford (next weekend!)
Find baking and sandwich Baby Quilt #2 (next weekend?)
Do month 9 of Stratford. (the week after)
Quilt Baby Quilt #2 (the week after)
Do month 10 of Stratford. (That completes the piecing)
Do bindings on Jelly Roll Race quilt #1 (a UFO from awhile back)
Piece top of Pastures New—possibly send off for quilting, or just doing a fast-and-easy quilting job to get it done.
Do bindings on Jelly Roll Race quilt #2 (another UFO from awhile back)
12. Piece top of Stratford. Probably will send that off for quilting as I believe it’s throw-quilt size and I just don’t want to be bothered.
What I do next depends on what time of year it is by the time I get all of that done! All of it seems like it shouldn’t take much time at all, but we know how that goes. And given how unpredictable the outside world is at the moment…well, I’m not taking any bets.
Happy Mother’s Day, y’all! How did you spend your day?