Week In Review - July 30 - August 5

This week has been a really great one.

Lady K, is passed "Eel" and is now ready to become a "Ray" in swimming lessons. A child who screamed and cried having her hair washed to the point police were called, now cries when she has to leave the swimming pool. She is floating, bobbing, jumping in. If you had asked us if we thought this was possible at the start of summer, we would have said no.

Now a popular 'treat' is to go to the 'big water park'. That's our local pool with a lazy river and a couple of slides.

So that hurdle over and swim lessons don't resume until October, so we are signed up for that.

And day trips have been put on hold for a bit. Montana is on fire - literally. Lots and lots of smoke in the air.

Otherwise, my concentration has been on quilting.

I completed my block for the Almond Country Beauty and the Batman Quilt. And then I did some figuring on my Noodle Box quilt to see if I wanted to go with black or cream background colors. More on that later.

Then I finished up the blocks for the Disney Villains quilt. And ordered a panel for the backing.

Once the top for the Disney Villains quilt was done, I was on a roll and didn't stop. So I started on my "Queen of Ween" quilt.

After cutting out the blocks I wanted to use and putting a border on some of them, I taped them all to my non-existent design wall. Which really didn't help me all that much in planning a layout and how I was going to sew them all together.

Then I hit on an idea of using Illustrator which I had been fiddling with recently.

I measured the blocks I had to work with and came up with a design which works and will allow me to piece background material between the blocks and come up with what will essentially be five vertical rows to sew together. There will be more of the background on the top and bottom to match the sides. This will be a queen size quilt for Halloween!

Now it is a matter of picking out the different background fabrics I have to work with and making up the rows. Soon it will be 2 more quilts off the to-do list. And learning how to use the quilting machine at the quilting studio!

Otherwise this week...

• Attended Orchid Society potluck meeting and came home with a new orchid for me (and Lady K picked out one for herself)
• Did another round of Postcrossing cards and got them into the mail
• Ordered and received "Moonshine" quilt pattern 
• Won a giveaway from Emerald Post Shop and eagerly awaiting my winnings
• Finished one book
• Complete a couple of Skillshare lessons

The coming week will be fun...

• Shakespeare in the Parks will be here Monday and Tuesday...MacBeth! And Savvy off work, so planning on going with a picnic (lucky there is a playground right by where they have it, so Lady K will be happy
• Fun Run Saturday morning the Lady K, followed by the Montana Beer Brewers Summer Festival where Texter and I are volunteer pourers (have 2 great baby sitters coming for the day!)
• Finish backing on the Disney Villains lap quilt and starting machine quilting it
• Start piecing the Queen of Ween quilt and see how much additional fabric I need, then start looking for a back for the quilt
• Texter gets her new textbooks on Monday!
• Do more Skillshare lectures for Photoshop and Illustrator

So off for more coffee until then...