The Chisel Stars blocks have been assembled and a border applied and it is now a finished top. March’s precut was bundles and I used a fat quarter bundle from Bluprint for my quilt. I’m pleased with how this one turned out! You can find brief instructions, or maybe I should call them quilt notes, on my website at this link.
I finished the binding last night on Maine quilt #4 pieced by Little Mary. Pantograph is called Raindrops. I’m working on borders and binding today.
We did another 10 mile bike ride today to Davis Island … it’s hot!
I’d forgotten that the area where the trail goes by the water is actually a park and we had stopped for our mid ride break when an official came to move us along. There were lots of people in the park and she was really nice about letting us know that we could use the bike trail but we couldn’t linger in the park.
Of course, we were keeping our distance and there was no one anywhere near us!
Luckily, biking and walking are still allowed under Tampa’s stay-at-home order that went into effect yesterday. Keith gets out biking most days after working but I’m lazier and didn’t get out during the week. Unbelievably, it was 90 degrees today and it’s still March – that’s way too hot!
Since we can’t bike to our usual places that serve food and drink … we’re riding over to Davis Island. It’s a little over 10 miles roundtrip.
We take a break halfway and sit and enjoy the water views. There’s lots of space here for everyone to maintain a safe 6 foot distance.
In the sewing room, I’ve got the chisel blocks together and just need to get one border on it to finish that top. It’s my March precut challenge project so I’m just barely going to finish the top in time but that my goal … one top finished for each month of the challenge. I’ve also been binding. I’m just about done with Maine quilt #4 and I’ve got the other two hanging over the longarm bar auditioning binding fabrics.
What are you working on this weekend?
It’s hard to believe that 6 years have passed since we moved from Minneapolis so Keith could be closer to care for his Mom and 5 years today since she died but we have great memories of time spent with her and his dad and they’ll always be with us.
I mentioned a while back that even though it may seem like we’re not paying attention to the COVID 19 crisis because of the Big Canoe purchase, we are. We don’t go out except for the store and biking and I’m taking Finn to the vet today … all allowed under the “lock down”. Moving and relocation services are still considered essential businesses and we kept a safe distance from the realtor while viewing the houses a couple weeks ago (and drove separate cars) and we haven’t come into contact with anyone else during the process.
Yes, we’ll drive to GA … that’s hours in the car with just us and two stops – gas and a drive through for food. Again nothing we wouldn’t do at home. The closing will be with one other person in the room at a safe distance.
We are not packing up our house, No movers are involved. We’ll get a key at closing and walk into a furnished house and we’ll have the personal items needed for a stay of several weeks in our car. The new house is more remote than our Tampa house and some would argue it’s a safer location than Florida.
So I appreciate the concern – we’re not taking risks and for those of you who think we’re ignoring the government requirements during this time, we are not.
UFO #3 is finished. I feel like I’m catching a up bit which is great because we’ve gone through the inspection process with the new house and our closing is set for April 8. We’ll drive back to Georgia on the 5th of April and stay several weeks.
The pantograph I used is one that came with the machine and it’s turning out to be one of my favorites. Easy to quilt and looks good. This is one of our HeartStrings quilts and rather than just piecing random strips on either side of the center, lights were pieced on one side and medium and darks on the other.
I’m going to head into the sewing room now and start to assemble those chisel Star blocks into a top. I’m also going to grab a couple bins and start packing up projects and supplies to take to Georgia.
