Little progress on the spool blocks

  

  I finally decided I had enough spool blocks.  I am beginning to join the rows.  I did the arrange and re-arrange thing on the design wall, got tired of it, and just began to sew.  When it is so scrappy, you can spend a decade moving things around to make it perfect.  Not happening here..... I just need to see some progress here.

 

    And the leader and ender project continues.   For every 2 blocks I made of the spools, I put together one of the Easy/Breezy blocks.  I have a stack of them already.   So they will continue to be my L/E while I am putting together the hourglass blocks.  

    A few of the hourglass blocks from this week.  Again I am working very scrappy because I am using whatever I find  in my bin.  I will plan my placement a little bit with this in time to get some nice dark pinwheels to appear in the block on point.   

  FYI....I am beginning with 5'' squares sewn on diagonal.  The hourglass block shown here are 4'' unfinished.  

    We took a day trip to NC for apples and stopped for lunch.  Actually, it was the first time to eat out in 7 months!  What a treat!  The fall colors were appearing.    This year of 2020 has altered my perspective of so much.  It was nice to be somewhere other than here for a few hours.   

   

  Days have warmed back up for the next week, night are cool.  I keep checking on the large hickory tree out front.  It has the most glorious golden yellow when our leaves hit the peak.  Otherwise, life is much the same.  

Happy stitching.                                                         

And I found another

   Did you read the post at Cluck Cluck Sew?  Click here for the post and her great tutorial and pattern for an Hourglass project.     I loved the idea to make a set of hour glass blocks each day.  Keep it easy, make it fun.  It reminded me of the Quilty 365 Circles project from a few years ago, which I really enjoyed making.  So I thought I could add it to the list of on-going projects.  

  And then I discovered these large HST units!  A large stack already begun for a similar pattern.   They will be easy enough to turn into hourglass blocks.  

   All of the units, pattern sheets, and a stack of paired squares ready to sew went into another bin.   It seems you can never have enough of those bins.   I need to decide or figure out how I want to proceed, which pattern to go on with.  The choice is between   the Scrappy Pinwheel idea or the hourglass a day idea.  

   I will figure out which by the time the spool blocks are finished up.  

To up-date the vision eye problem .  I tried to reply to all who commented, but in case I missed you.  The doctor did several scans, and such on both eyes.  What I thought was the "good eye" now is showing damage to the retina from the lack of B-12 from 4 years ago.  The optic nerve appears stable with no damage, but a small cataract is growing.  So that leaves me in a wait and see mode.  I return in 4 months.    In the meantime, I am adjusting and finding ways to compensate for the blurry and often triple vision aspect of it all.  

  It takes intense concentration to do most things, like read a recipe.  For dinner last night I made a new recipe and glanced at the time and temp.  I saw "200 minutes at 3500 degrees".......a tilt of the head and a second look corrected that.  So it is what it is.....please bear with me when I rant.  Otherwise, life is good.  Happy stitching.    

Catching Up

 Fall arrived while I've been quiet.   Sir Old Man finished painting the shed and it looks really nice.    I spent one day digging out fall wall hangings and table runners.....and washing those that came down.   I changed out the mini to this pineapple, which is a favorite of mine.  I like the variation in textures from the quilting too.  

    I posted about the problem with my hands and wrists which slowed me down.  The season change and a few clear days with no rain etc. helped that.  So I managed to sew a little bit for a few days.  Some spool blocks and the leader and ender, Easy breezy.  I even ordered some storage boxes/bins for projects.  

   They were from Amazon, and a bit bigger than I thought.  At just over 3'' high they are more than enough for the spool blocks.  Then I started stacking the leader ender blocks and.....

  Ok, I need the depth!   And I then filled one up with string blocks than were in a shoe box and rumpled.  So they got ironed and given a new bin.  

  

  I thought I was making headway, until I woke up one morning about 2 weeks ago with a very red, and swollen  left eye.  My good eye, not marred by the lack of B-12.  So off to the doctor.  He says it was a ruptured vessel between the tissue layers.  Could be from trauma or spontaneous.  Give it a few days to improve.   

   So tomorrow I return for another exam and check.  The redness is gone, but the vision is worse.  For example, we went out over the weekend to view the full moon and Mars.  I told Sir Old Man that I saw three dots, or Mars.  Which one is the real one?  Yep, I see triple images at certain angles.  I sure hope the doctor gives me a better explanation or I am searching for a new ophthalmologist. 

  So I have been quiet here, reading posts and keeping up as best I can.  Sewing time is limited to prevent  eye strain, neck strain , and general irritation.  I did begin joining the spool blocks into sets of 4 and seeing how they looked on the design wall.  

   Does anyone think blogger complaint department ever read our feed back?  Do they ever read any posts to see how they look?  This thing is so awful to use.  Just ranting about the useless new features that make writing a post difficult.  Another example of fixing what isn't broken.

   Our mornings have been quite cool and crisp.  Time to go pick up some apples from the farm, and a good time for a road trip to view the leaves.  Maybe next week.  Happy stitching.