Four Months and Still Stuck

I looked back at my blog and realized that my last post was April 20. that’s just a little over four months ago. I’m a little surprised it’s been that long. The time has flown by.

It’s been a good summer, but a little crazy as well.

Congress voted to eliminate federal funding for public media so my job as a fundraiser for public TV and radio has been a little nuts the last few months. We had a lot of planning and preparing to do in anticipation of the funding cuts. Once they happened we jumped into gear and executed a vast array of fundraising campaigns. The good news is that Oregon loves its public media! the community has really stepped up! The crazy amount of work has eased off a bit but we still have a lot to do. I sure never thought my last year of my career would look like this.

On top of that, It’s been announced that I will be retiring in December. It’s so hard to believe that it’s just a few short months away. And then I’ll have so much more time to do what I want to do. But it’s a hectic time making sure all my ducks are in a row before that time comes. I’m really looking forward to it!

Since my last post I’ve done a few things in my sewing room. Mostly tasks that have needed to be done, but not much creative work so far. Still waiting for those creative juices to start flowing again.

I added borders to two quilts to get them ready to be quilted. This Jewel Frames quilt is for my bed. It’s been sitting and waiting for quite some time.

I just did a simple wide border of the Jade millefiori fabric. I wanted this quilt a little bigger because the one I have on my bed now shrunk up more than I had anticipated once it was quilted and washed. I want this one to be plenty big.

The second quilt I added borders to is the yellow and brown Japanese X and + quilt that is for my guest room. It needed significant borders to make it the size I want for that double bed. So I added three borders. the inner border is of this lovely big leaf fabric.

I think I have enough of this left over to make pillow cases for the bed.

Here’s all three borders.

I wasn’t going to add the green spot border because I didn’t want to wrestle all that fabric for another round. but it really needed it.

Here’s the quilt top on the bed. It’s generous!

And a close up.

This fabric combo is not for everyone but I love it!

I still need to make the backings for these two quilts.

The next thing I made was a set of pillow cases for my friend who I gifted my blue swirly quilt to. She loved the blue feathers fabric so it seemed like a no brainer.

A set of pillow cases make a really nice gift.

Tonight I started chopping up my woven stripes quilt blocks (from my last post in April) because I wasn’t loving them. So I’m cutting a 2.5 inch strip off each side and will sew them back together.

I managed to slice up all 40 blocks this evening. At least I think there are 40 blocks. It will be pretty fast to sew them all.

I’m sure I’ll like it better with the blocks sliced up.

We’ve had a nice summer. It’s hot right now… over 100 today. But the summer has generally been really nice. I had ripe tomatoes earlier than I have since I’ve lived in Portland. I ate my first ripe tomato the first week of July!

I’m also really happy that the raspberry bushes I planted last spring are producing fruit right now! I wasn’t expecting much in their first year, but I’ve had several breakfasts with them already and they are soooo good!

They are putting my strawberries to shame. I will tear the strawberries out and plant more raspberries.

My brother and his wife were here a month or so ago and I gifted them a quilt and let them select which one they wanted. They surprised me and selected the one I call my black quilts. Here is it hanging from the loft in their house.

I love it there. I doubt it will stay there because it will get a good deal of sun. But it’s a great place for a quilt.

I’ve been playing a LOT of pickleball. Seriously, at least six times a week this summer. I’ve also been taking a weekly lesson and am feeling really good about how I’m playing. I even played this morning before it got too hot and had some really great games. I ran into a former co-worker there who I haven’t seen for years! We got to play a few games together and had a blast!

I have one more week of work and then two weeks of vacation. My friend will not be coming since I have so much to get done to be ready for my December retirement. It will be good to have some time off I really need it.