Back from the Ranch

We spent three relaxing days at the ranch last week.  We needed to rest up because both of us are volunteering for Vacation Bible School in the coming days.  I’ll be working in the kitchen making snacks and Bob will be towing a group of 5^th and 6^th graders from event to event.  It’s a good bet that very little sewing will happen around here.  

I didn’t have anything ready to go on the quilter while we were at the ranch so I made these Jane Stickle blocks.  The blocks are A-1, Pinwheel Gone Awry; I-3, Family Album; A-5, Cathie’s Campfire; and E-9, Quilt Jail.  The two green fabrics used in E-9 were remnants given to me by a Sit ‘N Sew friend.  They were two width-of-fabric strips.  One was roughly two inches wide and the other more like three inches.  I flipped through the book until I found a block that would accommodate them.  It sort of looks like my jailhouse has foundation problems, but I’m calling the block “done” anyway.

My DJ blocks are creating lots of little bitty scraps.  The paper foundations for the log cabin blocks surfaced when I went through my quilting closet recently and I pulled them out.  They were part of a pattern featured in a special 2007 issue of Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine.  The design is by Lesly-Claire Greenberg and is also included in Jane Hall’s, The Expert’s Guide to Foundation Piecing.  Her version was a very color controlled wall hanging in pinks and greens.  The blocks finish at three and one-half inches.  My block is anything but color controlled.  After struggling with the Jane Stickle blocks, it was a relief to play.

 

Unlike our last trip to the ranch, we had no adventures with bats or coyotes, but upon our return we found a broken window and a golf ball.  Fortunately Bob had an ample supply for duct tape and a rigid plastic sheet to stop air conditioning loss while we await repairs.