Back At It

We are back from West Point, NY, minus DS.
Bittersweet, and certainly an adjustment.

The trip was waaay more taxing than it should have been

but it all worked out well for DS.

I will share more of R-Day and some photos in my next

post; today I want to catch up on quilty things.

It's really hard for me to leave for even just a few days

during the summer months.  Everything gets backed up.

I'm more than knee-deep in onions and carrots...and weeds.

The humidity is horrid--this past Wednesday it was 93%.

(Most people don't think of Kansas as humid but we

definitely get it, as my hair will be the first to attest to!)

And while my son is at boot camp, I've declared my own:

no sugar, no flour, walking daily and upping my prayer life.

1-cup portions of onions for the freezer, perfect for soups, etc
So far, 48 of these in the freezer; expecting about 80 to 90 total.

We've been back over a week but I think the effects of that

(an air travel story for the books)

are still with me and are compounded by my "boot camp".
  The onions, carrots and beets are screaming to

be dealt with but today I am waving the white flag for a bit.

My achy, tired self needs to head to the sewing room
for some much-needed therapy.

I've already gotten a good start on DS's quilt.

The day after we got back, I headed out to the LQS

because they were again having that bolt sale.

I scored some nice clearance goodies that would

work perfectly, including a small layer cake of blacks

and grays.  The gold on top was a non-clearance item but

all bolts were $2 off and with the little red dots

to match the reds going in the center and in a border,

I happily snatched some of it up. 

Chloe gave her sign of approval to these purchases...

but really, white cats and black fabric are not a good

combo so I sent her on her way.  (With a treat of course.)

When I made DS's last quilt, I found myself with a LOT

of log cabin strips leftover.  Right now I'm patting myself

on the back quite heartily for keeping them organized

by size in little baggies.

So you see, it was easy to get started on this one.

I'm sure DS will never pay a bit of attention but personally,

I didn't want these two quilts to have all the same fabrics so

I'm trying to mix in as much of the new purchases as I can.

This brought out some deja vu.  Didn't I just

go through all of this??

Here's a block from my last West Point quilt:

And here's a new one:

The layout will be different of course.

See?  Progress already.  And in weird order.

'Cuz I'm like that I guess.

One challenge a quilt (with a specific theme)

can present is making a color scheme work.

These colors look great on a uniform but up

close in a quilt I wasn't so sure about. 

(The red fabric is a little more "red" than pic shows)

I tossed my red fabric into the center to get an idea

of how the star will look.  I think it will be helpful that
the gold has those red bits in it.

Today I'm working on the 24 outside stars.

I was a little worried that I over-bought on that trip to the

fabric store, especially once I discovered my log cabin

blocks used the same sized strips as before. 

I've decided to stick to just grays and blacks, though,
so I'm a little worried about having enough light grays

for the stars to keep it scrappy.  I'll get a better feel for
that today.  I'm heading up to Missouri Star later
next week so I can always pick up a little there.

Happy quilting!