No name

I don't know what to title this post, so it is what it is. Yesterday, Sunday, dawned cloudy, humid, and warm. By midday, it was cloudy, humid and HOT!  I'm not used to this very warm weather and it usually takes me several weeks to acclimate to summer weather. But here, we're having a couple of cool days followed by a couple of warm, and even hot, days, and then back to cool. But I'm trying not to complain--just not having to wear a parka, hat and mitts on the cool days is very nice, and I can tolerate a day or two of insufferable humid weather, cuz I'm tough!  Today promises to be cooler and drier, and I think I can get some things accomplished.

I'll admit I didn't get much done yesterday because it was too sticky and humid.  My husband says I'm super sensitive to humidity and I think I am because I am so uncomfortable in this kind of weather.  I deal with it by trying not to move too much and by employing fans as much as possible, and at home, I will occasionally relent and turn on the AC in order to dehumidify the house.  But I don't like to keep the house sealed up in the summer since we MUST keep it sealed up all winter long. In the summer, I want the windows and doors open to let the fresh air flow through all the rooms.

Enough of my weather comments and on to what I did accomplish yesterday.  First up was to fix this Solstice Challenge block. This picture is the one with the points turned around as I'd made it the first time.  I took apart the wonky points and then decided I might as well take the entire block apart and redo it. As I was putting it together the first time, I had to ease in the HST as they were a little too large. After I'd stitched the entire block, I reread the directions and realized that I'd made the HSTs but neglected to size them up, thus they were a little too large.  Well, this was the time to fix this and I did before I sewed the block for the second time.

And here's the block, all put together again, and lying flat as it should! No ruffles!

After I finished with the Solstice block, I took out the Scandinavian fabrics I'd purchased on my trip to Duluth last November.  I didn't have any pattern in mind so I looked at Quilter's Cache for ideas. I chose a simple block and made five of them out of the deer print, coordinating taupe and a red from my stash.  This is the center of the table runner.  Measures about 40" (8" blocks times 5). 

Then I pulled the coordinating border fabric and cut a strip.  There's enough red shading in the border print to work with the red in the blocks.  Working at the ironing board was a little too steamy for me, so I put this aside and will attached the borders today. The whole thing should measure about 40" by 20" and it'll go in my Etsy shop when it's finished.  I have a lot of these fabrics so I'll be making other items for the shop as the weeks go by.  

I've also been continuing with my Among the Pines embroidery project and I finished the Bear block, leaving 2 more 6" blocks to do, as well as 4 rectangular ones.

As soon as I finished the Bear, I hooped up the Snowshoe block and got a good start on it.

Today's agenda calls for some laundry and a little cleaning in the bathrooms and kitchen before I begins sewing again. And I'm also finding time every day for reading my current Jane Smiley book.  Nearly finished and already have another book waiting for me to begin.  I love having the extra time to get all this reading done.  Ah, retirement!