Grassy Creek clue 7 --post 5

Project bag

Happy Father's Day to all dad's. I had a good dad. Cancer took him Christmas Eve 2016. He was a farmer,/rancher and he loved to hunt and fish. He was diagnosed with cancer and given three to six months to live. He lived about two more years which shocked all of his doctors. The shocking part pleased my dad who said he had some items on his bucket list to do so "he" wasn't ready to go, yet! 

Will be making a bunch of centers

We chatted every day. It gave us the opportunity to say all that we wanted. Although, he never would tell me what he did during the Korean War. He didn't answer all of my questions; but, he did answer a lot of them. I do miss him, even this many years later. I do chuckle at something he would have enjoyed. 

I have done as he asked. He asked me to be the executive of his estate. I did as he asked even though I asked that he name one of my brothers. As a result, neither of my brothers speaks to me as they feel I wronged them by receiving a portion of my dad's estate. 

One block stitched

The other request my dad had was for me to call his wife like I had called him. I did until she asked that we call just once a week. There have been weeks that I've been out of town and weeks that she has been out of town; but, for the most part, we chat once a week. Mostly, we catch up with the activities of the week; but, sometimes, we share Dad stories which make us both laugh.

Now, back to quilting! Goal number six on my June list was to unearth my Grassy Creek project and make progress on it two times this month. The last time I posted about this project was January 10, 2021! Bonnie had revealed the finish a few days before my post. I wrote that I looked forward to finishing. Instead, other projects went under my needle. This project ended up in a big plastic bag.

Because I wanted to finish it, I put the bag on a chair in the studio where I would have to see it every day. Yet, it took me three and a half years to open the bag; review the contents and figure out what to do first. The first step was to cut some green squares and to make centers of the block. Cutting the squares was easy.

Some of the strings to be made into blocks

I laid out a center. I stitched it. I started another center and called it a day. The following day, I took my project to our in person sew day for Mystery Mavens. I made all but six centers needed! These went together easily. I spent a little time the day after our sew day to complete the remaining block centers. 

I thought that the next time we meet I would work on making the blocks. Because we are going to meet via Zoom, I decided that I would work on the string border instead. I will work on making the blocks at our next in person sew day because that part of the project is easier to transport.

Instead, I've now decided to work on my friend Rita's Rhododendron Trail quilt until it is a top. I'll share the reason behind my decision next month!

I did make one block because I was curious as to how the blocks went together. I also wanted to know what mine would look like! I like how nicely my scraps play together! 

The first few string blocks

I did cut a bunch of strings to start piecing the border blocks. I decided this would be a great project for times that I am stitching with my group virtually using the Zoom format. 

String piecing is messy especially when you get to cut the strings! Usually, my string piecing happens because the strings I've collected over time are overflowing my container! Cutting a bunch of strings from my fabrics was a start!

Perhaps by September, I'll be close to having a flimsy!

Linking to Cynthia at Oh Scrap!