bits if progress, one step at a time

This weekend I am off to Cub camp where I will be teaching crafts to Cubs, Girl Scouts, and Boy Scouts. It is always a challenge to take a craft and tweak it up or down to make it easy enough for first graders and challenging enough for the older Scouts. We are expecting rain to add to the challenge.

The big event at the back of my mind will be the presentation of the Wedding quilt. I have asked to give "the Scoutmaster's minute" at the closing campfire. As much as I dread speaking in front of a group, I want to tell the youth about the importance of friendship, picking friends, keeping friends, and being a worthy friend. I hope I can pull it off.

Since that quilt was finished I have been working on several projects. Last year I made a table cloth for my son as a birthday present. This year my giftee is my number two daughter and I wanted to make something quilty for her
but she does not have a dining room table but uses a small coffee table for meals. I thought I might make her a series of runners for different seasons and began with some floral prints and some fabric left from my Son's wedding quilt and a border from one of my first quilts. I like quilted runners in my house because they protect the table from scratches and spills but I was not sure I was heading in the right direction for my daughter's house so I sent this one off and asked if she would like more or for me to make something else. This week word came back that it is a "go" and I will have fun making a series for the year. It makes good take-along work. I have lots of ideas. And, her birthday isn't until late in the summer.


Meanwhile I have been working on the border of the batik quilt. I could not find any fabric I could afford for the border but the floral print is almost like batik. I took scraps left from the blocks and cut assorted circles to applique over the centers of the flowers. I am thinking of using colored or variegated thread to quilt those flowers and quilt bigger flowers into the squares.

One reason I dragged out the tenugui is that my daughter is a teacher and might enjoy the series of children's games if there are enough to cover the back. This is the time I could use a very large design wall! It may take a bit of doing to figure this out but I still have three sides of border to complete before I get there. So... It's off to play Scouts... one step at a time.