Rainbow Blocks

We had a long list to get through at the grocery store. The prospect filled me with dread. Slow-stitching was mandatory before we took off on our quest to feed ourselves for another week.

I moved my hoop to the bottom of the piece to take in the edge of the tablecloth, and then, there was no putting it off grocery shopping any longer. It wasn't too bad of a trip, but I was mad that I dropped my two coupons somewhere in the store. Someone else will enjoy the $2 off bacon and frozen blueberries. Oh well. I'll think of it as a pay-it-forward, even if it was involuntary.

It was time for lunch when we got home. And, after such a long trek through the grocery store, a nap was in order. And that meant it was after 2:00 p.m. before I was able to make my way to the sewing room. No matter, though. I'd set a goal to finish May's blocks for my two RSC projects, and mission accomplished. I needed to add borders to the Books and Roses block I'd stitched up the day before.

Here are the blocks I have for this quilt so far.

After that, I dug through my green scraps looking for some appropriate for the three Jericho Walls blocks. These are a little tricky to sew together, and so I cut them and lay them out ahead of time.

When they were sewn together, they looked like this:

Here's why they are tricky. They can't really be chain pieced because there are too many different little sizes that complete the design. If you look at the right side of the next block, you can see that I got those turned 90 degrees somehow. It doesn't matter since it all works out visually, but the seams are going in the wrong direction compared to the others. I'm not going to bother changing it since it would involve taking pretty much everything apart to fix it. And...when the quilt is all sewn together, that will all get lost in the shuffle.

And here are all the blocks I have for this quilt so far.

That took me to the end of my sewing day. Aside from dinner preparation, the rest of the day was spent relaxing.

Today I'm heading to my favorite fabric store in McMinnville. It's my birthday, and I'll get a birthday discount there. I'm on the hunt for a backing fabric for the Ties & Tails quilt. It's a large quilt, and so I need quite a bit of yardage for the back. Also, I'm on the hunt for a background fabric for a new embroidery project called A Joyful Journey. When it's finished, it will look something like this:

Someone sent me most of the embroidery patterns. I apologize for not remembering who it was. If it was you, then thank you. It's a delightful series of patterns...one for each month...from Kathy Schmitz. You can find all the monthly patterns right here. The finished quilt pattern is downloadable for free. I'll probably end up setting it differently, but having the pattern gives me a place to start with the yardage. I won't start the embroidery for a couple of months, at least, but I can pick up the background fabric for the embroidered blocks on today's shopping extravaganza. 

We'll be eating dinner out tonight, and so I'm expecting a nice day to celebrate. The only fly in the ointment is the pouring rain outside. Oh well. Some fabric therapy will make me forget all about the dreary weather. So I'll get back to my slow-stitching next. Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone!