Quilt oddity

24... 23... 22... 21...

For some reason I feel like it's time to start a countdown, even though there are still so many flowers to make! I hope Major Tom would approve. 

I finished the nearly-done flower, and have made good progress on the others already underway & a new one. See?

The clumpy bits at the bottom are two different red flowers, demarcated by the three-hexagon bits in the center, in case that's not obvious.

There are now 9 weeks left in the year, so I would have to complete 2.66 flowers each week in order to finish. I'm torn between "Yay, that's an ambitious but achievable goal - I will dedicate the time to make it happen!" and "Oof, that is ridiculous, and I shouldn't set unrealistic expectations that will just depress me when I don't finish on time." I also have two other goals (related to reading and walking) that could work in my favor (audiobooks) or against (hard to walk and sew)... we shall see!!

Full flowers: 40/64 (3 started)

- Catherine

Pushing 40

My flowers must be facing a midlife crisis, because we are only one seam away from 40 complete flowers! Very exciting. 

I went to a charity quilt sale recently and was reminded how cool quilts can be when they are actually quilted properly. I think I will plan to get this one done on a long-arm machine, if I can find a pattern that will play well with the flowers - I've certainly invested enough time already to make it worth doing nicely. 

That also suggests to me that I will need to pause on this quilt at some point and work on another one - I have never used one of those machines before (or had someone use it on my work) and need to test out the process in case the person/place I find makes a mess of it, or if I make a mess of it - there are a lot of specific instructions about how wide the edge fabric needs to be, etc. I will try to keep my momentum on the flowers and then we can pause during the endless white hexagons in the middle!

Ta ta for now!

Full flowers: 39/64 (3 started)

- Catherine

Nails + tires

Look at you!  You're over halfway on all your flowers!  Good job.

I love web meetings where I don't need to take notes.  We have a weekly seminar on Tuesdays that I need to observe for trouble, but I don't need to pay attention, so that's knitting time.  I am also recently took an Excel class at work that was online that I decided to screen record so that I could refer back when I needed help, so that was also knitting time.  I have an in-person training currently that is mostly stuff I don't need to take notes on, so I sit in the back row and knit then also.  It's been very helpful!

As a result, I'm almost done with the festive socks, and just this morning I've reached halfway on the blanket for Carroll's grandbaby.  I did finish Jeff's scarf and he received it for his birthday.  We talked about various ways he can wear it, which was fun.

Once I finish, I have some Xmas mittens to make for Jeff's older daughter and her husband.  They want mittens that will allow them to hold hands with mittens on.  Ravelry has several patterns for "Lover's mittens" that are exactly that!  So, it's about to be mitten time.  And I think I need to make her a new hat.  The one I made her last year seems too small.  And then there are some other socks I want to make, and your sweater to return to.  I still need to do some math.

Jeff is currently making some shelves for the closet in the front room, that is Sarah and Lauren's room, but also just a room with a closet full of stuff.  Adding shelves will help make it more functional.  Yay!  The Boy and I have had colds, I think because of allergies.  We are almost done, but they are lingering.  Boo.

Oh - Smallest and dance!  We headed up to Virginia the second weekend of August and she decided that she didn't want to take a large amount of stuff because she didn't like driving with the UHaul trailer.  So we were zippy and got there in two days.  The drive up was nice, and uneventful.  We did notice that the tire light was on the second day, so we put more air in the tire.  Once there, we ran some errands and then made a plan for Ikea.  On the way to Ikea, we noticed the tire light was on again, and when I went to put air in, I saw a nail in the tire.  No bueno!  There was a tire place right next to Ikea, so we headed in with the car.  Long story short, there were nails in two tires, and chunks missing out of the third tire and they were all pretty worn, so Smallest got new tires.  Her dad paid for them, which I appreciate.

Ikea haul went well, we assembled lots of furniture, and she is happy with her space.  She has nice windows that make her plants happy.  She was missing some boxes from storage, including the one that had all her bakeware in it, but we replaced the essentials when we got there, and her dad sent her a new set to replace the one he had given her before.  That was very nice.

I think that's pretty much it.  Things here are slow, we're trying to decide what we want to do for our anniversary.  This year would have been #30 if Ex and I had stayed together.  While I'm glad we didn't, seeing other friends share anniversaries stings a bit.  It's definitely possible to get there with Jeff, if we both stay healthy!

Do you have a favorite flower color to make?

Margie

See Cat sew

 My sewing break has paid off - I am reinvigorated to work on my flowers! I have finished three more, and am 5 seams away from having 4 more complete. See? The first photo is from a week ago, and the second is from just now, to capture more progress. 

The first push came courtesy of sewing in the car on our way to/from western Colorado, where we stayed in a cute campground along the Colorado river, visited Colorado National Monument (why that isn't a national park is beyond me), and attempted to go on a winery/bike tour, only to be stymied by some very pokey plants that gave me two (!!!) flat tires. 

The second push came courtesy of a 6 hour training at work (which unfortunately turned out to be partially redundant with another training we'd had in July, which I just caught up with the night before) and some other meetings where my presence was necessary, but there weren't a lot of notes to take.

As a result of all this forward progress, I've had to pull out some new sets of hexagons to start on; when I get to the end of the longer seams and have short threads left over, it's nice to use them for shorter joining-of-individual-hexagons rather than starting a new long seam and having to knot off/start over partway through. 

Very exciting! I also have some events coming up that should lend themselves to sewing; let's see what happens. :)

Full flowers: 35/64 (5 started)

- Catherine