We had 6 wonderful years at the Tampa townhouse and now we’re ready to move on. After a stressful few months and several delays, the closing was today and the house is officially sold.
I can’t tell you what a relief this is to me and I’ve told Keith we’re never moving again … of course, by that I mean that if we need to live somewhere else for his job for a period of time I’m fine renting somewhere and keeping our home in Big Canoe. This is where we plan to end our days!
I started another blanket tonight. An easy one – no thinking required. One row repeated over and over. Does that sound boring to you? For me, it’s perfect for working on sitting downstairs late at night listening to my audiobook.
Out of curiosity, I looked up a list of National Parks to see how many I’d visited. Not as many as I expected. Now if you added National Monuments, historical sites, and State Parks, my list would be much longer. When it becomes safer to travel longer distances again, there are definitely some on this list I want to visit.
I almost hate to hope just in case anything else goes wrong but I spent a good part of the day finishing up paperwork and making phone calls about the closing on the Tampa townhouse and by 4pm tomorrow it should be done. It’s been an ordeal and I will be so glad to have it sold!
Tonight after Keith went to bed, I came downstairs pieced a back, pieced a batting from leftovers, loaded the top on the longarm and the Dinosaur Town Square 3 yard top is now quilted. Pantograph is Stegosaurus. I bought this one a couple years ago when I made Caleb’s Dino quilt so it was nice to use it again.
This is the last one I’ll quilt during our Sew along with Maine week. I’ve got housecleaning to do tomorrow to get ready for company on Saturday. My goal for the week was to piece 3 and quilt 3 and I’ve pieced 3 and quilted 4. I’m going to look at patterns for my next crochet blanket now. If I’m not too tired from cleaning and laundry tomorrow I might just piece a Quick Strippie after Keith goes to bed … if I’m too tired, I’ll just crochet!
The Linen Stitch blanket is done – I even wove all the ends in rather than setting it aside for later.
Although this pattern isn’t available anymore, you can find a similar one for free by clicking here.
The Doggie Town Square 3 yard top is quilted. Pantograph is Dear Heart. this makes 3 pieced and 3 quilted during our Sew along with Maine week. I’ve got company coming this weekend so I’ve got some house chores the next couple days but I expect to have some sewing time. I should be able to get another one quilted and I have a Quick Strippie cut out that I might just get pieced. I count those as part of our 3 yard project too.
I’m going to start the border on the linen stitch blanket and might even finish that up tonight.
I made the mistake of not measuring my fabrics before starting this morning and ran out of the Dinosaur print. I made it work but I won’t show a full photo until it’s quilted because this is another one of the 3 yard quilts that just is not photographing well. It’s really cute in person and in the close up but the overall photo looks odd!
I pulled a backing and pieced some batting leftovers and the 3rd top is ready for quilting tonight. I also trimmed the ones from the last 2 nights so they’re ready for binding but they’ll wait until next week.
The closing on the Tampa townhouse was delayed again as I expected. They’re just waiting for the permit to be closed by the city now and they’ve rescheduled for Friday but that might be too optimistic. We’ll see.
Another one of my 3+ yard tops is quilted. This pattern is City Lights from Fabric Cafe. Pantograph is Belly Bop. Kind of silly to use a pantograph for simple loops right?… but my freehand loops are small and tight. This panto is nice and open, perfect for a cuddly donation quilt.
I had to text Chris a photo and thank him again for hanging my blinds in this room. I’ve been quilting at night and I very much appreciate not having the whole world looking in on me!
I’m not worrying about trying to get these bound this week. I’ll bind and stitch them down when Mom is here. After piecing and quilting … anytime left in the night hours is being spent crocheting. I’m making good progress and I’m on my 4th and final skein on the linen stitch blanket.
I love my raccoons! When we first installed the cameras last fall there were a pair of raccoons that showed up and I just knew one of them was pregnant. The last several months I’ve only seen one raccoon at any given time and I wondered what happened to its mate … and I never saw any babies … and look what showed up last night! Little ones! Keith just shakes his head at my enthusiasm for all the wildlife we see here.
So, the scale is off on this one for me and the quilt doesn’t flow from block to block but I wanted to try a different 3 yard quilt and it’s another one that just doesn’t photograph all that well. I don’t dislike it, I just don’t love it.
Although, when looking at it closer up … it doesn’t bother me as much.
This is one I saw online when doing a search for 3 yard quilts and I debated what size blocks to use. I think I might have been happier with 8 inch finished blocks and a border rather than the borderless 10 inches finished blocks I went with. I did play a bit with the idea before piecing the top but I don’t think I’ll do this one again.
You might wonder what the appeal is in the 3 yard quilts – although let me say I always use more than 3 yards and adapt the borders, number of blocks and binding to suit my needs/taste. There are several reasons I’m enjoying making them.
And in case you’ve forgotten what my large stash looks like … it’s still a bit of a mess with the bins everywhere. One of these days I’m going to have to take some time and get a bit more organized.
I’m missing the Maine sew-in this week. We decided flying up there just wasn’t something we were comfortable doing right now with the surge in COVID cases but I’m sewing along from home. The theme this year is the 3 yard quilts we’ve been working on and I got started Monday afternoon piecing this Unicorn Stepping Stones top. Pattern is from Fabric Cafe. That pink is not nearly as overwhelmingly bright in person!
Here’s a close-up of the unicorn fabric.
Even though I wasn’t in Maine with the others I had LOTS of company – there was a steady stream of deer walking by and peering in my windows!
After Keith went to bed, I came back down and loaded and quilted my Turtles – another one of my 3 yard quilts. It just so happens to be the Stepping Stones pattern too. Pantograph is Beaded Curtain and I think this is the first time I’ve quilted this one. I’m going to try it smaller next time but I like the curvy quilting on this top.
