Week in Review--A Little Unity, A Little Frolic and a Little Grassy Creek

Unity background swirl quilting

My thumbs are improving. I spent some time in the last week quilting the background on Unity. I am quilting the backgrounds in the pinwheel border. At the time of this post, I have four blocks left to quilt. It takes me about two hours which includes stretch breaks to quilt one background so my goal is to quilt one background a day. When I finish, it will be time to add the binding. I am so close to a finish!!! It will also be the first Bonnie Hunter project that I've finished!

For Frolic, the pieces that I thought I hadn't cut for the sashings, I had. The pieces were part of step one or step two which happened at about this time last year! I've stitched a few sashings. I've added a few sashings to the blocks. I've decided to make more blocks to make the quilt bigger. After all, I've a bunch of parts leftover from stitching the side setting triangles which would be great to use in the project. Oh boy, making more blocks is going to take a bunch more time. . .then again, I'm going to be using more of my scraps which is terrific!

In the meantime, on Friday, Bonnie released her first clue to the Grassy Creek mystery. This is the first time that I've been able to try a different method of making half square triangles (HSTs). This year, I've more yardage to work with than in previous years when I worked with pre cut strips.

All of the Frolic sashing pieces

Bonnie uses a folded corner triangle ruler to cut the triangles to shape. I like the method. It seems to be faster than cutting the HSTs from strips. However, I realized lifting the ruler to trim the blocks irritated my right thumb so I'll be more mindful of how I'm moving the ruler so that I can keep stitching!

With all this scrap piecing, I'm linking this post to "Quilting is More Fun Than Housework" and her Sunday Oh Scrap linkey. 

Thursday, the two of us had a quiet Thanksgiving. Earlier in the day, we Zoomed with our daughters. The granddaughters had fun playing a game that the youngest daughter managed in our first family Zoom call. The granddaughters wanted to play the game again. This time, they managed the game. 

Making more blocks using the leftovers

All we had to do was play. The youngest granddaughter was the judge. She was also the one who came up with the questions. It was a hoot. I even managed a couple wins!

After the call, we went on a three and a half mile "turkey trot" through the neighborhood. It was fun and I hope that we will make it an annual event. It took us 80 minutes. This has been the longest walk I've been on in a long time because walking makes my knees swell. I've slowly been building my walking time and I can consistently walk about 35 minutes without paying for it either later in the day or the next day. My body didn't rebel too much after the 80 minute walk so I know that at some point, I'll be able to consistently walk that amount of time. (I've arthritis in my knees. I am a candidate for knee replacements; but, I'm holding off until my knees hurt more because I don't want to be in my 80s and have the replacement parts need refurbishing!)

Beginnings the Grassy Creek Mystery

Since it has been an unusual year, we decided to have an unusual meal. . .pizza and beer! Bob cooked the pizza on the wood fired grill and it was delicious. Clean up was a snap!  I did miss spending time shopping with the oldest daughter on Black Friday. I, however have completed most of my shopping online. These packages will be delivered directly to the recipients. Call me old-fashioned; but, I like actually physically picking out the items, wrapping the package and giving it to the recipient in person. COVID, however, continues to keep me close to home.

Regarding COVID:                   Worldwide: 62.3M cases; 39.8M deaths.       United States:13.3M cases; 266K deaths.     Oregon: 72,506 cases; 896 deaths.

In Oregon, yesterday there were more than 1,000 positive cases reported. After the two week freeze ends on December 2, restrictions will remain in place. Some restrictions for restaurants will be lessened as owners will be able to serve a maximum of 50 customers until 11pm. Other restrictions for retailers are tightened. They will be operating at 50% capacity instead of 75% capacity. It appears that until vaccines are distributed, the restrictions will remain in place. Additionally, there is a risk level each county will be assigned with restrictions relaxed as the risk level is lowered. 

As I look back at the last ten months, I am amazed that the entire world has been in effect shut down because of this virus. Many of us have heeded government warnings and have followed recommended protocols. Last week, I read "The Tattooist of Auschwitz" by Heather Morris. In some ways, our world parallels the world of that time with all the restrictions.

Because this is my last post of the month, I'll report that I trained 24 people in American Heart Healthcare Provider CPR.