It was a gorgeous day on the lake!

I’m missing my little ones and can’t wait until this summer when we can visit safely with them again!

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It was a gorgeous day for a hike – 4 miles round trip, to the waterfall and back while I was waiting to pick Finn up from grooming.

Everything is blooming … the leaves on the trees, the wildflowers … it’s time to go back on my allergy meds! I did manage a few hours in the sewing room too. I started sewing blocks for my rectangle quilt since I had gray thread on the machine from yesterday but next up will be assembling the log cabin blocks.

The last set of Strips and Strings log cabin blocks are up on the design wall. I thought I was going to assemble this one first but I want to live with this arrangement a couple days or so and move blocks around if needed. I don’t fuss a lot with the layout for these scrappy quilts but I stop and study it every so often when I’m working on something else and make small changes.

I also pulled a Jelly Roll and background for my April Precut project.

And now I’m ready to sew! Since the design wall is busy … I’ll start with one of the 3 yard quilts that doesn’t need to be laid out in order for me to assemble the top.

I need to work faster or stop buying yarn and fabric …. or both! The yarn arrived from Joann’s in multiple boxes so I pulled it all out to check if it had all arrived. One colorway had just one of the 4 skeins ordered because they had run out of it so that skein will probably be used for a hat down the road. So in addition to the 8 blankets that all this yarn represents, I packed up and brought 6 Afghan kits I’d ordered from Blueprint with me this trip. So that’s 14 blankets waiting to be made and no, it’s not the only yarn I have here and at home in Tampa. I can’t resist buying for these projects when the yarn on sale and my hope is that I’ll eventually get them all made and donated. I brought the pink and tan shell blanket to work on while I’m here … I’m about 1/3 of the way done with that one.

And while I was unpacking and organizing I pulled out the bundles of fabric and my 3 yard books and made more plans for our HeartStrings 3 and 5 yard project. Luckily, that’s going to run through June because I have other items on my list of goals to accomplish too. I’ve decided on patterns for these 4.

These Quick Strippies were already cut and are ready to sew.

I’d set aside these two bundles here at Big Canoe – I call them bundles but these are fabrics I pulled from stash to make Strippies … they might end up as Strippies or they might end up as other 3 yard quilts.

And of course, I also brought the two bundles I pulled from stash the other night …. this one ….

And this one ….

I think I need to get busy!

One of the nice things about my MaryQuilts.com challenge is that while I’m looking at all the quilts and deciding which ones I want to remake each month, I can update the webpages with more recent photos of quilts I’ve made. Like the Rectangle quilt I posted the other day, I’ve made my Boxed Squares 4 times … but I only had photos of two of the quilts on the website. I’ve updated it now with all 4 of these that I’ve made – the instructions are dated 2007 but since that was the date I set up the website it might have been made earlier than that. Just an easy quilt made from a jelly roll, or from 2.5 inch strips cut from stash … or from a kit – yes, I often buy discounted quilts and make something completely different with the fabric!

Who would have thought we would get caught up in Spring Break traffic?! Not me or I would have chosen another day to drive to Big Canoe but we made it in “just” 10 hours. A quick stop at the grocery store, happy hour on the porch, then relaxing by the fire. Keith carted all my bins and newly arrived yarn downstairs and I’ll head down tomorrow to get it all organized.

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Chris is sharing more photos of his camping trip with the girls! Counting the weeks until we can spend time together this summer. I MISS my little ones!

I love this boy! It makes me incredibly happy and proud to think of the memories he’s creating with his girls. Becky is not a camper so these are father and daughter weekends. They’ll all have amazing memories of these times.

I didn’t sew today but I did play with fabric! I had some errands that tied me up most of the afternoon but when I got home I started to play with some fabric … first, I pulled fabric for a 3 yard Map quilt. Yes, I pulled more than 3 yards but that will give me a chance to make to last minute changes if I want too.

How about another one?! Again, more than 3 fabrics but it gives me options…. or maybe I need to make a 5 yard quilt from this one?!

I also cut two quick Strippies. I’m hoping to get one pieced tomorrow but the other one will go to Big Canoe. We’re just going to be there a week and a half and I hope to do some kayaking and hiking so not sure how much I’ll get done but the bins are packed!

This is what my cameras caught in the wee hours of the morning … and it’s why I wouldn’t let my cat run around outdoors at Big Canoe! ( Not that I have a cat! )