Fiesta BOM – Block 5

Ha!... if you’re good, you’re good!  Done with block 5 of my Fatcatpatterns BOM Fiesta and up to date.  That while taking care of my 82-year-old mom who moved in with us about a month ago and having my 80-year old mother-in-law visiting and having friends over for dinner tonight. 

Okay, closer to the truth is that I had to finish block 5 in order to have a table to serve dinner on, so I stepped it up a notch and got done.

I now work in my entertainment-/classroom as my sewing room is halfway between the room my  mom stays in and her bathroom.  I thought it was brilliant as this way I could hear her and see her movements however this plan backfired soon.  My mom has very little memory left, so there I would be sitting in my sewing room, working on notes for a class when in she’d come with a “what are you doing?  Quickly scratch my back.” and off to the bathroom she goes to return a minute or so later, peeking in the door, repeating “what are you doing? Quickly scratch my back.”  I nearly went insane but realized only I could do something about it.

So apart from rubbing her from top to toe with virgin olive oil (for possible itching) after every shower I moved out of my sewing room and both of these seem to work.  Mom isn’t itching anymore but I am almost too scared to move back to my sewing room for even only the “what are you doing?” halfway through a sentence being typed would still drive me nuts.

Fiesta BOM – Block 4

We had a bitterly cold day in sunny South Africa but after running the early morning errands fellow quilter, Rina van Straten, came over to see if we can’t quilt the cold away.

She did free motion quilting while I kept cutting away my appliqué shapes for the fourth Fiesta BOM from Fatcatpatterns.  Unfortunately not even after having pancake could we get rid of the cold but at least we got some quilting done.

Fiesta BOM - Block 3

Having such a wonderful time doing appliqué while watching the French Open tennis on television.  With this block I simply traced, cut and ironed on while watching one match after the other and before I knew it the whole block was done.

Switched on my main computer now – I keep my downloads on there – to see how many blocks still to make before I catch up.  Luckily I don’t have any groups or classes to teach this week, so I might just get updated with this BOM from Fatcatpatterns.

Fiesta BOM – Block 2

I’ve taken up this BOM by Fatcatpatterns again and if I hurry it might just not end up as an UFO.  The problem was that I finished block 2 according to schedule but the moment I pinned it to my design wall next to block 1, the two blocks just didn’t work for me.  The second block was way too dark.  Now redoing any block was never my idea of fun so for months these blocks were pinned as is on the wall.

Finally I got to fix block 2 but there was no way I would redo the whole block, I simply cut appliqué shapes in new colours and ironed these over the incorrectly coloured shapes and my block changed to this.

Even though block 2 is still much darker it somehow now feels better when placed next to the first block.

August PFAFF Block Lotto blocks

Our local PFAFF dealer hosts a quarterly Block Lotto to raise funds for our planned National Quilt Festival in 2013.  They give the instructions to make a single block; we make the block and pay a small fee for every block entered.  At the quarterly guild meeting a lucky winner is drawn from all the entries and the funds go towards the festival funds.

Last term we had to hand appliqué a Sunbonnet Sue and sadly to say I did not win the 33 block entries, so I am trying my luck again.

This term we simply had to join skew purple and pink strips framed on 2 sides with tan fabric to make a 10½” square block and I managed to finish mine today even though the deadline is only 17 August.  Well at least no-one can say I am not organized!!

Cutting kits for our planned National Festival in 2013

Hooray, I have something to write about on my blog again.  I've been so swamped with writing our guild's blog, teaching courses and working on projects that I don't want to or may not share now that I hardly had anything to write about.

These kits, I suppose, are somewhat of a surprise too, so I am not going to give much more detail apart from the fact that it kept me busy most of this rainy Sunday.  Good excuse not to get out of my PJ's.

We each only had to cut 6 kits each but with me being part of more than one group in our guild, I had to step up to the plate and deliver.  So tomorrow I'm off to do some ribbon shopping and then my cutting will be done and I can hand my kits to the respective group leader.