Moving slowly in the heat

Friday the bible quilt met. All the blocks had been finished while I was travelling. Our next step was to organize the blocks and the sashing. I took a quick picture so we can remember our plan when the blocks are ready to be joined.

This will be a quilt-as-you-go project. Next step we will sandwich and baste each block. The members of the group will quilt them up to the sashing. Then we will join them in rows and quilt the sashing. Last, we will add the outer borders.

Although I have many projects needing work, the + and X blocks are all arranged in zip-lock bags and ready to be taken along to meetings and train rides. All the other work involves lots of prep ... crawling around on the floor which is still coated liberally in dog hair and digging out fabric from my stash ... piled in boxes in the upstairs sauna (bedroom).

Husband is nagging for me to finish up a church banner which I have not yet drafted.

Meanwhile, the more that gets done on this project, the more it calls to me. 8 rows are together so that is about half ... if I count  the outer boarders.

I un-sewed the coffee stained blocks and put in new pieces. Since then I have been experimenting with stain removing. So far I have tried "spray-and-wash", "shout,
"bac-out" and one Japanese product. Those stains aren't even a tiny bit lighter so I'm glad I replaced them.

Several of my blogging friends have heard this saga, but when my eldest daughter was small, she fell in the dirt in our front path and soiled her under shirt/T-shirt. I could never get that dirt out no matter how many times it was washed. (at least once a week for about 9 years). Then, six kids later, my two sons got mulberry stains all over their Sunday clothes on a trip to Cleveland. I tried lots of things my mother and sister recommended to no avail and then bought some "biz". The stains all came out with the first washing. I then washed that first shirt with "biz" and after all those years, it too came clean. I don't know if that product still exists but I haven't seen it here in Japan. I can't help wishing I might try it on those stained pieces.

Anyway, I hung those rows 1 - 8 in my doorway. This is the width of the quilt so you can get an idea of the size. Rows 9 and 10 are together and 11 is almost done. Next week is Vacation Bible School (for which I should be preparing game parts) ans I am thinking I might be able to find some space at Church while I am there to lay those rows out and select cornerstones.

One picture I wanted to include last post was what was waiting for me when I got home. For some reason, like the first picture above, I can not get pictures to rotate. They seem to right themselves at a whim but when I try to turn them on my own, they get very stubborn. Out of three pictures all taken with the same camera in the same position, this is the only one not on its side. The frustrating thing is, the computer used to do this automatically when they were down-loaded. Perhaps something happened when the rescue pictures were added to the equation.   Leia got out the box of doll clothes and changed the doll into something more summery. It has been quite a few years since that doll got so much attention. Now she is sitting properly waiting for Leia to come back and play. I am too. (well, maybe not the properly part).