Day at Home

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

It was a much-needed day at home with nothing more on the agenda than sewing. Then, Mike called after leaving for work this morning to let me know "a guy" was going to come this afternoon. It seems we have "aggressive water" in our well. That would explain its attacking me in the dead of night. Or maybe that was the cat. 

Anyway...our well water is good. It tastes good, but nevertheless, its chemical make-up is such that it causes corrosion in our copper pipes. We discovered this because of a blue stain that appeared in our shower some years back. Turns out, it's the copper corroding that causes the stain. So, plumbing service to the rescue to install some kind of tank (don't ask me) that conditions the water in such a way that it stops eating the copper pipes. I think we can all agree that this is highly desirable. Last week, I noticed the dreaded blue stain had come back, and so "a guy" is coming by today to refill the conditioner tank. That is, he's coming if he ever shows up. He is officially six minutes late at this point. If he doesn't show up soon, he'll be missing the lady of the house because I'll be leaving to go to my guild meeting.

Yes, tonight is my second guild meeting. I learned via email this morning that the guild is offering a hand applique class taught by Connie Sue Haidle of Apple Blossom Quilts in May, and it is my intent to sign up for that tonight. It'll be my first guild activity. Yay me! And at Sharon's suggestion after last month's meeting, I'm going to sit a row closer to the front of the room. I'm feeling bold and daring today. It could be the aggressive water acting on my psyche, I suppose. It's hard to say what has gotten into me, but there you go. Sometimes I'm a wild woman. I suppose I could blame St. Patrick's Day as well...a touch of the blarney maybe.

So want to know what I did today? I finished up the latest Folk Art Cat block. Here's where I left off with it last week:

Today I needed to make the two little cornerstones for the lower sashing. The first one is a variation on a Bear's Paw block.

According to the pattern, this next block is called "Thrifty". Keep in mind that these cornerstones finish up at 3 inches, and so the little four-patches in the one below are just half-inch pieces once they're sewn together.

Then I needed to make a strip set for the checkerboard sashings. It's a little tedious sewing all those little strips for the sashing together, but I really like the looks of it. Once I had that done, I added the cornerstones and the whirlygig. Then, I top-stitched the whirlygig, added the hot fix nailhead for the eye and the block was finished!

Each block of this quilt is about as much effort as making a doll quilt for the doll quilt swap. Lots of pieces for each one. Here's how it will look when it's sewn to the block above. You can see the beach ball now.

And here are all the blocks I've made so far. 

Recall that there are four rows of three blocks, and I'm only getting started on the 2nd row. I have not made any blocks for the 3rd row, and so you are seeing the top and bottom rows of blocks, plus the first block in the second row. It worked out like this because this was originally a block of the month. I started the quilt in October of 2012, and so I started with the first block in the fourth row, which was the October block. I had in mind to do a block each month, but I fell behind after December. Only now, enough time has gone by that I can say I'm ahead of the game! April's block is complete! (Pauses to polish fingernails on shirt.)

Anyway...the next block will be the May block, and if I'm really on the ball, maybe I'll actually get it finished in May. Wouldn't that be something?

So I should probably go eat something in preparation for my meeting. Mike will be on his own, but there's lots of corned beef and vegetables left from last night. He will not go hungry, nor will I.  So enjoy your evening, and don't drink too much green beer!