Windy Day

After working on the temperature blocks yesterday morning it was almost time for Jim to get home. After lunch the wind was roaring but I didn't feel like staying here. We jumped in the truck with the girls in search of strawberries and a place to walk the dogs. We also stopped at a garage sale and to look at a yellow Jeep alongside M-61. Too high millage and they had smoked in it. The Jeep, not the garage sale.

We found strawberries (OMG the price [$6.00/qt.]) and then Jim dropped me off at Riverwalk so I could follow the trail back to moms condo. He met me there and we thought we'd visit with mom if she was home. She wasn't.

It was after 5:00 when we returned home. Jim searched out more strawberry resources (found one for $4.00/qt.) and I appliquéd another cowboy boot...

I was going to call it a night, but still had plenty of energy left. I fired up DW and started quilting the cousins quilt...

Of course, I can't just free motion the whole thing! I'll do a hand guided free motion in the center portion but the sashing, border, and geese get custom work done.

Nothing in the studio today. We have to go visit mom because when we were there yesterday she was (of course) out running the roads. It's no wonder the woman needs a new car every four years. 

Scrapped

The AQS state blocks have been scrapped. The Oklahoma block started turning into frustration and I was not liking what I was doing. Time to move on at this point. 

I've been hearing about something called a temperature quilt. I started delving into these through IG, Pinterest, Google, and other smaller sources. I wanted to see pics. Layouts. Options. I love house quilts and I've chosen to not only make a temperature quilt, but it will be very simple houses showing the daily highs and lows in Gladwin for this year.

Obviously, I'm already way behind. I can catch up throughout the year and since I already have 50+ days to make up, and the houses are fairly simple, working on them at a retreat or to fill in between projects shouldn't be earth shattering. 

The first thing Jim and I did yesterday out in the studio was to get pockets aligned and sewn down to keep things under control. He was a big help in that while I was sewing, he was clipping and putting pockets in a cute color order. We got all 31 done...

The next step(s) are to line up each pocket with the side of the backgrounds and baste in. After doing that the bottom of each short side needs to be folded up a half inch and stitched down to hide the raw seam. I have done two. I'll chip away at those as time permits. 

While we had decent daylight in the scrap dresser room I started pulling colors for the temperature quilt. The cool thing about Michigan is we have a large range of temps and I have plenty of scraps to fill in those ranges. I'm probably narrowing the temps down too tightly, but ya know what? There are really no rules to this thing. It's all in how YOU want to do it and I'm pinning my mid-year temps down a little tighter than the winter temps. 

After pulling, sorting, bagging, and labeling, (thank you again Jim for your assistance in this) I headed in the studio to do some 'real' work. I don't have a pattern for the houses and was relying on my brain to work through measurements. I did two sets of test blocks and found where I needed to head. Then, I did a Fireworks block and completed my daily strip on DW. 

I only have two more Fireworks blocks to go so I think I'm going to get those completed so I can clear those fabrics away and tidy up the work area from that project. I'll take the blocks to retreat in April and put them together there.