Moving Right Along

Awoke this morning to an expected 'storm'.  Out here we call them storms, but I laugh because it amounts to just being overcast with scattered showers.  It's enough to get the pavement wet.  Which will be just enough to catch many foolish drivers off-guard...with long periods between any moisture at all our roads get quite slippery with just a touch of moisture so drivers tend to either over compensate and drive like they're on ice, or utterly disregard the conditions and spin out, either way, driving can be frustrating, but I've determined I will not let it bother me today.  I'm going to enjoy this wee bit of rain, and the wonderful cooler temperatures along with it.  This is the view through my Sanctuary window this morning:

zoomed in to show the raindrops on the window

Yesterday again, I was able to continue working on Grandma's Scrap Bag.  And then this happened...guess it's time to change spools......

becomes a cat toy, briefly and then they lose interest

After putting on a new spool and threading the machine, I sewed the last strip onto each of four strips sets and didn't notice until I went to press them that this happened...ugh, why?  I re-threaded the machine, pulled the bobbin out and checked it and put it back in, and tried again after of course, removing all the bad seams.  All is well now :)

boo! hiss!

"Why yes Mom, I DID take your nice warm seat when you got up to press those strip sets!"  Thank you Flame for keeping my seat warm for me, now SCOOT!!

And the end result of the strips sets after pressing and sub-cutting into 3.5" (x 8") sets.

And showing on the almost-design-wall how the strip sets will fit in among the blocks with a "post" block set in as well.

Oh dear, is the sun trying to peak through all ready?  Excuse me while I adjust the blinds so that I can see the computer screen, brb....ok, that's better.  Wow, the reflection of the sun off the clouds is really bright, but there's still plenty of cloud cover, and some of it looks pretty black, so hopefully more rain will come.

Last night we celebrated Nick's 15th birthday.  We went to Red Lobster...birthday's are special occasions and there isn't another now until my own at the end of July, so we didn't worry too much about 'splurging' by eating out in a nice restaurant.  We have held off on his gift though as it seems everything on his list is very spendy...our only child has been the recipient to perhaps a higher standard than most, of our past blessed financial position.  That must change until Marty gets re-employed, and may change indefinitely.

Marty's really bummed of late again, to the point of nearly giving up on looking for a job, after just two months of looking!  That's a side of his personality that causes me great concern at times.  Not that he's a danger to himself, but just that he gives up and doesn't put in the effort.  We've not experienced this in this same arena before, but have in other areas, and it is very hard on me, because I then have to be the strong one and not add further to his dejection, which then puts that much more weight on my own shoulders.  He left after our dinner last night to go to the mountains with one of his friends for a little photography, so hopefully that'll help his mood, and his friend can be of encouragement to him.

Today I head to my quilt student's for our weekly meeting which resumed just two weeks ago after taking the summer off.  She's putting a binding on her quilt, and I remember the last time she did, I'd found a new tutorial on connecting the final ends that was so easy and wouldn't you know, my old brain has already forgotten how and where it was I found it, and I thought I'd kept the directions, but can't find them.  I think I'll check here on the blog and see if I wrote about before, and/or if I private messaged her on the social network.