Little Progress, Much Sadness

The bombing at the Boston marathon has left me speechless and sad.  Everyone relates in their own way–I once lived 1-2 blocks away from where it happened and have watched the marathoners from the sidewalk many years and so it is easy for me to imagine Boylston street and the crowds of people cheering on the runners. My heart goes out to Boston.

On a more personal and trivial note, after a near-perfect interview for a job a couple weeks ago, I heard yesterday that the funding for the position was pulled and so still no job for me. 

I have made some small progress on quilting projects.  I added a sawtooth border to the scrappy checkerboard picnic quilt.  It's ready to be layered, basted and quilted. 

I have also been working on the second round for the Cotton Robin quilt at my house. (I won't share any of that work until the robin has ended this summer).

When it arrived at my house, I immediately thought of a paper-pieced border I had made long ago, probably during my first year as a quilter.  When I couldn't find the foundation pattern anywhere, I remembered that I had an old–still not quilted–wall hanging I had made way back when, and thought I could copy the block from the pieced top. Here's what happened when I put it on the light box.

While this wasn't exactly as helpful in reverse engineering the pattern as I thought it would be, it does make for a particularly obscure clue to provide to the Cotton Robin group about the round I've added to the quilt :-)

I have only managed one more of the hand-pieced blocks.

I need to make one more of these (the December block), then draft the pattern for the missing block.

I also need to draft the appliqué idea I have for the top of the scrappy flying geese quilt so I can make some progress there ... since it's my designated Lovely Finish for April.

Events, near and far, have me feeling scattered.  I know I'll be able to focus soon enough on these quilt projects and other tasks, but for now, I am just feeling all kinds of sad.

I'm joining WIP Wednesday on Freshly Pieced and Esther's WOW lists.  Check them out for quilters who are likely making much more progress than me this week.