Day 10

You know, I always have such good ideas about what I want to write about in my blog, but when I sit down and open the page, all of those ideas evaporate.  What happens?  Maybe I have a better understanding of what some of my students might have felt as they sat down with a blank page on the computer screen in front of them as they were trying to work on a writing assignment.  Not quite the same, but similar.

Yesterday - a day of sewing.  I wanted to finish the table runner I had started for Amanda's birthday a couple of years ago.  I had found a pattern for it, then decided that I should make one for her in Cubs fabric.  I also bought Coke fabric to make one for Jill and Chris as a wedding present (they will be married two years in June).  Yes, I know.  I am slow sometimes.

But yesterday I had a challenge.  The table runner top was finished and it had been put with batting and the backing, basted together, and all it needed was stitching o the machine to hold it together.  Machine quilting?  Not me!  But I could, after the suggestion from my friend Karen in Michigan, do the classic 'stitch in the ditch' with it and make that work. 

I remember someone telling me it was always best to start in the middle and work my way out.  So that is what I did.  I stitched the long middle line first, then the two on each side of it.  Next I turned the runner to the shorter verticle lines, started in the middle, then worked my way out on each side.  Finally I sewed a running line around the perimeter of the runner to hold the three layers together. 

Cutting the fabric for the binding wasn't hard.  I used some of the extra pieces that I had cut off when I finished the perimeter sewing, then only had to cut one extra strip to make the length needed.  Sewing on the binding was incredibly easy after the last adventure I had with the queen sized quilt.  I needed Tina's help on that one!  Hand-stitching was easy also.  I sat upstairs in the dining room and visited with Karen and Clay, then Blaine, then Blaine and Hilary and the kids and finally finished it all before they left for home.  I even frosted the German Chocolate cake between stitches.

After everyone left (and everyone ate cake so half of it vanished), I started a new book, By Invitation Only by Dorothea Benton Frank.  It is a fluff reading book, but it has kept my interest and it is fast reading, which is what I need right now.  Nothing too heavy. Nothing too thought provoking.  It is a little predictable, but I like that in this particular book.  I can somewhat identify with the mother of the groom.  Being looked down on by those who think everyone who lives in the country is a hillbilly or a country bumpkin.  Yep.....been there.

Other highlights were today's church service.  I watched the live feed on YouTube from the Christian Church.  I really enjoyed it, and I texted E. Anne that listening to Jim was just what I needed today.  I realized just how much I have missed our old church and the services there.  Delphi Methodist just isn't the same.  But it isn't supposed to be, is it?

Catching up on my daily devotions, checking on email, and more reading will be on the agenda for the afternoon, since it is already 2:00.  I want to spend a little time in the sewing room to look for the rest of the fabric for the rag quilt Tessa is making for her doll.  I need to cut more squares so she can sew them and finish that quilt.  Good project for this time of quarantine.