Dino Distraction

I am down to one more Farmgirl Vintage block to go but I had to take a break to finish the latest clue on the mystery in time for our weekly Zoom meeting to show progress.  It is basic but the fabrics are cheerful so it will make a nice quilt for community service.  I spent a full day in the garage sorting the 10 bins of community service fabric and kits.  It was a lot of work but I now have a more detailed inventory for my successor.  Six more weeks.  The great debate continues in my guild regarding when to physically meet again.  Most meetings have about 65 people and there is only one person who is anxious to get back together in person anytime soon.

Tomorrow is my brother's birthday, my grandmother's birthday and, apparently, a little boy in the neighborhood's birthday.  When his parents said he is into dinosaurs, cars and construction, I decided there was no better time to finish the dinosaur top I made earlier this year for a pattern testing.  I saw a remnant of this print when I was at Mrs. Miller's a few months ago and couldn't pass it up, although I had no idea what I would do with it.

I had just enough to cut the larger blocks.  On that same trip, I pulled some Judy fabric for the four patches.

I had the skinny panel for the back (what an annoying size!) and I used exactly the amount of the constructions signs that I had to finish the back.  The pieces I trimmed off before binding were as small as an eighth of an inch so I'm lucky I didn't get myself into trouble with cutting it that close.

I had two pieces of the black dot fabric but I used all of one of them for the border and binding.  I had a batting scrap that fit after a couple of cuts and seams.  The whole thing just seemed meant to be. I hope little Levi enjoys it.  It was a fun weekend diversion.

Arizona has opened up with great enthusiasm which meant we were forced to quit the basketball team and will not be at baseball practices starting later this week.  It's just the first in a series of tough choices, I'm sure.  Onward and upward.

Moving on

My mask making group has essentially stopped now that health care facilities are no longer placing requests.  Typical requests were for batches of 100-300 masks.  I think the last totals I saw for the group were over 6,000 delivered.  The group can be proud of those efforts and I hope it is an encouraging sign that our healthcare workers are getting the equipment they need and/or patient intake is slowing.  It all ended fairly suddenly but I was able to send my last batch of 100ish to the Navajo Nation.  I am a big fan of the USPS Click and Ship processes that mean I don't have to leave home to mail things.

I am working through the online mystery I mentioned last time.  Join in if you want a very low key distraction that will result in a lap size quilt. https://www.thequiltersmarket.com/blog/  Here are my fabrics from the charity stash. I have always loved the Merry and Bright line and the white on white is so lovely.  Usually white is boring but this one is designed by Jim Shore and has a beautiful pattern.

I have also been working on my Farm Girl Vintage blocks. I think I have three more to piece. I may keep a Jan Box (registered trademark goes to Mrs. O). of the fabrics I used because I really like all of them and could see doing future projects based on them.  The more recent blocks I did are much softer contrast so I'll have to see how they mix with the others. This is one of my recent favorites.  It is not pressed yet but you get the idea.

We have been going in the pool a lot after I finish my work day.  The evenings go by so fast.  The number of Zoom meetings after work has increased but it is not exactly a hectic schedule.  My employer pushed out the date when 42k of us would be able to come in to an office (at the earliest) to September 1 so that has calmed a lot of my teammates, as evidenced in all of the Zoom Happy Hour meetings I am invited to.  We just keep clearing away all of the little challenges to isolation.  Basketball will continue to offer virtual practices.  Baseball season was cancelled a couple of weeks ago.  We worked out an alternate plan for a school text book/yearbook exchange that doesn't involve the collective parade through the gym and cafeteria (uh, no).  We are figuring things out and enjoying the simpler schedule.