Two weeks!!

Two weeks!  It's been two weeks since our Zoom party and then I faded away.  The weather has been too beautiful to be indoors and while I am primarily a hand quilter my main focus lately has been to prep for Phase II of The Great Pause.  Or would that be The Great Pause, the sequel?  It's coming, I will not be an ostrich and laugh this thing away nor will I be unprepared next time. I will never run out of books to read,  so my main focus has been to get the scrappy things I pieced during round one layered.  I don't layer quilts on the floor.  My floor days are over.  I need large tables I can push together.  When the center I use opened last week I was there with the stuff to layer two quilts.  Since then I've gone out to buy the batting for two more.  I have one wall hanging to do, too.  I'll be ready.

 Till then, we are enjoying this gorgeous weather we've been having.  Every flower is healthy and happy

 and when I sit outside reading my eyes wander from the page to the petals just to stare. We have the most beautiful summers in Michigan.

In order to layer I had to finish tops.  The idea is to use the KISS method (Keep It Simple, Stupid)  because I don't like the machine and if I was going to get some scraps quickly finished I had to pull out the machine.  But for me using a machine doesn't mean the job will be done quickly or easily.  I do hate that thing.

 Scraps.  I used some of the smaller pieces of feed sacks that were given to me, one was a little dress, all cut out but not stitched together.  If my grands were little I'd have put it together as a dress but in the interest of using a pretty piece I cut it into squares.  There are pieces of past quilts, some batik, it's all in there.  

The blue border was an inspiration in the middle of the night.  Some of the pinks had this color periwinkle blue and I stuck in a few blue squares with the pinks.  When I remembered this blue feed sack with the pink flowers I was so happy to bring them together.


    When the shutdown happened we were in England visiting Brian.  We planned a side trip to Belgium by taking the train under the English Channel to France, then Belgium.  The whole trip was just a couple of hours start to finish but the fun was knowing where we were while on that train.
    When we got home I was looking for something in the stash and noticed these checked beige fabrics.  Again, late at night.  That must be when I do my thinking.  I saw these couple of pieces and thought immediately of the waffles we had in Bruges.  The first thing we ate when we arrrived was waffles.  Brian had his with vanilla ice cream.  PH had his with chocolate ice cream and a beer, I had mine with strawberries on top. 
    When I looked at these beige fabrics I started to laugh (middle of the night alone in my stash closet) and thought, "these look like our waffles!" and then started pulling pinks/reds.  I didn't have much of any of the fabrics but Friend Marilyn had some of the gingham in the top left row and donated it to the project. I pieced this one by hand.

So this is my strawberry waffle quilt.  I didn't get to Liberty of London as we planned but I will remember our Belgian waffles when I look at this.

 Our little group of retreat friends are making baskets.  Friend Barb made this quilt and I had been staring at pictures of this idea on Pinterest or Instagram...whatever.  When she showed hers to me I jumped at the chance to make one.  Since she was cutting pattern templates for me she asked if I thought the rest of our little group might like to do this as a retreat project.  It sounded like a good thing to connect us all during this separation. She put out a note to ask if we wanted to all make one in some form for retreat this fall (from my lips to God's ears) and everyone said yes!  It doesn't have to be finished, quilted, bound or even a full quilt, no pressure, just the flimsy will be enough, it will be fun to see everyone's color, size, etc.

The baskets meant the butterflies sifted to the bottom of the project basket for now.  I made a wall hanging of these for Jo in Australia as my gift to her for one of the SSCS exchanges a few years ago.  I liked it so much I wanted to do one for myself, but quilt sized.  Again, sifting through scraps and bigger small scraps trying to make a dent in them but have something good to show for it.  There are about 75 of them.  About.  I lost count.

 Yesterday was the day I wait for all year long.  I picked strawberries for the first time this season and made two pies and munched on their orphan cousins all day.  I don't care what anyone says, there is nothing like a Michigan strawberry.  Nothing.   this wasn't my first and ONLY time for picking.  PH and I are going to go tomorrow so I can make another pie for Father's Day.  I go about every other day during the short season.  Once they're gone, they're gone so we gorge.