Some finishes and more...

In the end, everything will be okay. 

If it’s not okay, it’s not yet the end. 

-Fernando Sabino

Ray's recovery is progressing. It's becoming more challenging as he is incurring more pain when his arm is lifted higher. The CPM machine lifts his arm; he doesn't. In a couple of weeks, he will begin using his arm and, sadly, I guess that will hurt more. He's a great patient and following doctor's orders. We'll both be happy when he is okay again.

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I try to get into my sewing room for a few minutes most days. I finished this Scrappy Trip Around the World. It was my least favorite in the pile to quilt so I decided to do it first. It's about 52" by 72" and I actually like it now that it's done! I took pictures outside today - the temperature was in the 30s with wind but, at that moment, we had sunshine and no snow!

I free motion quilted this with a meandering stitch using Aurifil 50-weight thread, #1103 dark red. The quilt has Dream Cotton batting. The back is a blue with a small off-white dot that was in my stash.

This donation quilt was made from some 2 1/2" squares left from my scrap cleanup in May, 2018. The dark red border is left from a grandson's quilt that I made  in November, 2017. I've used that red in a number of projects but now I think I only have about a 12" square left.

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I began this wool project early last spring. As much as I used to enjoy hand stitching, my old, arthritic hands just don't like it as much anymore. I'm glad to have this one done.

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I picked up a pattern from Christina Cameli for some Quilted Nesting Buckets. I enjoyed making these yesterday - they are quick and easy. Christina has you draw rectangles on fabric and then you free motion a different design in each one. Each area becomes a bucket.

Here are my buckets:

Large 6.75" X 6.75" X 5.5" tall
Small  4.5" X 4.5" X 4.5" tall
Medium 5.5" X 5.5" X 5" tall

They nest nicely. You can see the gray lining in this photo.

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I've spent some time trimming my blocks for the Crosswalks quilt again! The instructions from Missouri Star doesn't have you squaring up the blocks but I decided I should. For some reason, I used the diagonal connecting the two white corners to square them. After I was done with ALL of the blocks, I began to sew them together and realized my mistake. The blocks should have been squared up on the center of the colored strips. Notice the chalk line where the white arrow is pointing. The end of the chalk line should be the corner. 

I didn't take any after pictures, but all of the blocks are now squared up the RIGHT way! 

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Our high school football team coops with a team just across the border in Wisconsin and they play in a Wisconsin conference. For the first time in history our high school has a State Championship team! It's been an exciting season and we are so grateful that the games have all been on a streaming radio station. The championship game was yesterday and a real nail-biter. 

We live in a village (a very small town) that enjoys celebrating the accomplishments of our youth. The parade bringing our team home last night was incredible. We had firetrucks, police cars, ambulances, and lots of cars and trucks accompanying the team and the cheerleaders. We watched and cheered from our front porch.