I FINALLY finished the masks this morning. These are the last of the ones for Chris and the girls and while I don’t mind making a few masks now and then, making a bunch at a time gets to be a chore so I’m glad to be done for now.

This afternoon I was able to get back to the HSTs. I’d planned to use just 6 inch triangles in this next quilt but it wasn’t looking like I wanted so I fell back on a favorite of mine – Easy Flock of Geese – and I’m very happy with how it’s turning out. I’m also happy that I made pretty good progress on it today. I’ve got a lot going on the next few days and I would like to at least get all the blocks made and up on the design wall before we leave. I don’t think I’ll have time to get it assembled.

And speaking of working, Keith got a new desk – at his office in Minneapolis he has an adjustable desk and since he’s not traveling at all right now with COVID he spends all his time in his home office sitting – not good! It’s kind of a plain Jane desk but it works better for him so that’s what counts. I think I’m going to try and use the old desk downstairs in the sewing room. I’m not sure if Keith and I can move it ourselves but we’ll see. By the way, it does lower so he can alternate between standing and sitting!

I wasn’t going to post a wildlife video this week because with the cold and rain we didn’t have many visitors … some squirrels, a chipmunk, and the day after I posted the photos of the new walkway … our friend the cat decided to stroll up it … so here it is … our new “wildlife” path. Short but sweet!

I did not sew yesterday or today! Very, very unusual for me but we had a relaxing weekend with a couple nice hikes. Saturday found us on the High Gap trail – 4.76 miles

And today, I convinced Keith to hike to the upper falls with me… 5.16 miles … he prefers the paved Wildcat trails but I like walking the unpaved trails that meander from the lake, to the creek, to the falls!

You’d think that Finn had hiked with us … but he is a lightweight when it comes to walks so he stays home when we hike.

I wanted to share the transformation of our retaining wall and walkway. We’re thrilled with how they turned out!

My sewing room is a mess! Usually I focus on one thing at a time but I’ve got masks in progress, a new quilt that isn’t working out and needs a different direction, the small doll quilt is quilted and has the binding on and ready to hand sew down and I’m playing with shamrock fabric. There’s too much going on but hopefully by the end of the week I’ll be back down to one project and the mess should be cleaned up.

Today before I started working, I did a 6.8 mile hike but unfortunately, the rain appears to be returning tomorrow. I’ve decided that low 40’s is the perfect weather for hiking. It was 43 today and within a degree or two of that on all but two of my hikes last week. I’ve been pushing myself further and higher and find my ankle is still a bit delicate especially on uneven ground so I bought a set of trekking poles. I just used one pole today but it really does make a difference to my balance and stability when I’m climbing or stepping across streams on rocks.

I made a mess working on masks the last few days so I spent some time today cleaning up and cutting the last few masks. I have 18 left to make but they’re all cut and ready to sew and I’ll do them on another day. I wanted to start a new top today but I saw the pile of extra hourglass blocks and decided to get those assembled into a doll quilt. I just can’t stand seeing the leftovers go to waste.

Then as I was putting this top in the doll quilt bin, I realized how full it was and decided it was time to finish one. I pin basted an older one and started hand quilting it using the big stitch method. This one was pieced from chisel blocks that I thought I was going to use for a border but realized pretty quickly it wasn’t going to work … couldn’t waste them either.

I don’t do enough hand quilting to get very good at it but I enjoy it and these doll quilts are the perfect size to let me do a bit of it without dragging a project out for a long time. I’ve got the center quilted and one side of the border … 3 sides left to do and this one will be quilted.

So this week I didn’t capture visits from any deer but we had raccoons and a fox as well as more cats and squirrels and maybe a possum?! I can’t imagine anyone letting their cats run free but we did find out that one neighbor does … not sure which one it is because the other neighbor who told us about it didn’t describe the cat and you’ll see there are two making the rounds this week. I’ll also post this in the Life @ Big Canoe album and you can find that link on the right sidebar. The rain has interrupted the completion of our stonework but if you look closely in the video, you can see where it changes (hint … look for steps!) Who knew it was a migratory path for wildlife – Keith said he hopes they’re enjoying the improved path!

Keith fixed me a yummy brunch this morning. He’s the breakfast cook and I’m the dinner cook!

We both worked a couple hours after brunch … I wanted to finish some of the masks to ship them off tomorrow. I didn’t take photos of all of them but the bulk of them are being made for Chris including these sports related ones. We like the elastic that goes around the head vs the ears the best but he likes the t-shirt ties. I didn’t keep track at first when I started making masks but I know that I’m over 200 now … that’s a lot for me although I know there are many of you that have made more.

Then Keith dragged me on another 4+ mile hike … this one registered as 41 flights of stairs on my Apple Watch so you know it was hilly but it’s paved which is nice considering all the rain. I know some people wouldn’t call it a “hike” on a paved path but it is definitely a challenging walk through the woods so I call it a hike!

We worked for a couple more hours when we got home and then had dinner and watched a couple more episodes of Resurrection on Netflix. I’m really enjoying this series so I’m happy that there are a million episodes… it’s subtitled but we don’t mind that at all. And that was my day with MY Valentine! Hope yours was nice too.