Design Wall Monday and other Activities

(Quilty stuff at bottom)

CHORES:  It's Monday and up until fixing my lunch, which consisted of only putting my leftover Panda Express meal from last night's dinner into a bowl and then into the microwave, I've done nothing but chores today.  Gathering, sorting, washing/drying, folding, hanging and putting away laundry - 4 loads so far!, picking a chicken carcass for home made chicken soup, putting a beef roast into the crock pot for dinner - either tonight's or tomorrow's, as yet undecided.  I've cleaned the cats' litter box, reviewed my pantry inventory, and of course took Nick to school before any of that. 

NEWS: As I sat eating my lunch, I turned the TV on and of course, learned about the bombing at the Boston Marathon.  Yet another sad day for our country.  My prayers go to the Lord on behalf of those suffering directly from this incident. 

GENEALOGY:  I've mostly taken a break from all things quilty the last couple of days and have instead worked on some genealogy - I am paying for that Ancestry.com membership, so NEED to be using it more than I have been lately.  I once was invited to attend a focus group, and for doing so, received a full 1-year membership for free, but sadly that was a year I didn't get as much time in as I should have on the branches that would have benefitted, especially for the databases included in their world membership level.  

The branch I'm currently working on is my great-great-grandmother through my mother's father's side of the family.  Her maiden name was Lind.  I uncovered a whole lot of info - this computer age makes it so relatively easy to find out information even on younger, living individuals.  Sometimes it's almost scary knowing what can be found about people (now you know why I prefer to keep my true name hidden here on the blog where one never knows who may be viewing).   I uncovered a 3rd cousin-once removed, who lives here in my same town but on the other side.  Who knows whether we may have crossed paths somewhere over the last ump-teen years of my living here. 

QUILTY:  I'm thinking I really need to get this quilt finished. 

"Cumberland Mountain" pattern from Fons & Porter's For The Love Of Quilting pp10-13

Some of the quilting - 1/4" from seam lines, straight lines echoing zigzags - it's that line that crosses the vertical rows I'm not gung-ho about.

Not the best shot, but shows from the back how I started with straight lines the length of the quilt and then started following the zig-zags.  AND, the backing doesn't look very smooth in some spots - they WERE/ARE pinned, maybe not closely enough

My friend Lois had given me 'tons' of fabric from her years of making her own clothing - yardage and scraps - back in September 2006, and as a thank you to her, I started this quilt using many of those fabrics just two weeks later.  I worked on it off and on in 2006/2007, sandwiched it in 2008, and started the quilting in January of 2009.  At the time, I wasn't pleased with how I was quilting it, so stopped and put it away.  I'm embarrassed at how long ago that was and yet amazed at how much time has slipped away - doesn't give me much hope in getting all the quilts I WANT to do DONE in my lifetime!  I think at this point, I need to just press on and get it done so she can have and enjoy it!  Head over to Patchwork Times for more Design Wall reports.