Goo. Gone?

Yep. All gone.   For years (about 5?) I had a Dritz adhesive tape measure on the front edge of my sewing machine table.  Recently, the clear top layer with the ruler marks started to peel up and catch on my fabrics.  I peeled that layer off but I really missed the ruler!  So today I scraped off the white plastic layer, soaked the adhesive with Goo Gone and stuck down a new tape measure.

It's silly I know, but I feel like I have my table back!  Funny what you get used to.  :-)

Mom sent me pictures of her row quilts.  She's doing two!  I particularly like the bright one, but then I always prefer brights.  :-)  I'm looking forward to seeing both of them as they progress.

A friend in my bee won these pinwheel blocks a few years ago at a guild meeting.  She decided she didn't want them so I took them.  (goodness knows what possessed me....don't I have enough UFOs?)  I'm not sure what to do with them but am considering methods of sashing and I also thought I'd try Sally Schneider's method of built-in borders.  I own the book and haven't tried it yet.  My books are all cataloged and numbered - we use Delicious Library - and darn it, that book isn't on the shelf.  I can tell you it's book #170 but I can't tell you where it is! 

So I put that aside and went back to working on the big mystery retreat quilt.  The dogs were restless so they got rawhide sticks to keep them busy.  Ivy gets right down to business.

 As does Maisy.

Ngaire however, worries and worries and worries, paces around and around the furniture and from room to room.  Up and down and back and forth.  (yes, that's a stuffed skunk on the floor!)

Finally she finds a safe place to put it, in this case under The Tramp's desk, and lays there guarding it.  I offer to take it from her but she'd rather deal with it herself.  :-)  Oh my!  I think I need to do some dusting! 

After the other dogs chew a bit I do a switcheroo and then she joins in.  Funny girl.  Though all of them are like that.  The bone the other dog chewed is so much more interesting than their own.

Once they and Charlie were settled I was able to get down to sewing!   I got far enough so I could pin a corner of the big retreat quilt up on the wall to see the effect.   We've all had our frustrations with it and I can see where the components aren't going to fit together easily.  There will be four baskets in the center.  The next step is to applique the basket handles but I want to see how it all fits first.  Several of the other quilters have found that the basket center is too large.  Mom suggested a clever fix though, so I'm not overly worried.  The flying geese unit is a bit short but it still has the paper on the back of it.  Maybe when I remove the paper it will have enough give to fit. 

It sure is colorful!  Love me some brights!  I'm hoping it's going to be amazing when I get the appliques on it.  :-)  We shall see.....