Reunion, Weather, Sewing and Quilting

Last weekend was my high school class reunion in Newton, Iowa. From my class of about 360 students, 75 showed up for the Saturday night get-together; 32 have passed away. 

I'll confess that it's been 40 years since I carried school books through the halls (no one thought of using a backpack), shared a locker and secrets with my closest girlfriends, worked part-time at a grocery store (Hy-Vee), and agonized my way through those hormonal years. 

DH and I spent part of Saturday afternoon at the Iowa Sculpture Festival, where I posed with this giant metal cardinal, the mascot of Newton schools. 

Water has been in our news. Iowa rivers and creeks are spilling out of their banks, a problem that started when excessive snowmelt in the Dakotas innundated the Missouri River. Flooding has impacted people in western Iowa cities like Council Bluffs and Hamburg. Spring has been wetter than usual too, with more than 6" of rain already in June. Rain is making flooding worse.

We've also seen more hail than I can ever recall. Two nights ago we were awoken at 2:30 a.m. to what sounded like softballs hitting our house. It was actually only quarter and nickel-sized hail, but noisy none-the-less.

The past few days have been overcast, rainy and cool - 60s (15-16C). The only thing to do when the weather is so dreary is spend time in my basement sewing room.

Continuing quilting "Snowflake Medallion," I'm making progress. Twenty-four of these flower motifs are in the quilt. While I don't mind quilting the shape, I don't enjoy echo quilting. But, I'm coming down the home stretch with only 12 more flower motifs to quilt, and then one side of the last border. 

It's very satisfying to look at the quilt from the back.

I've had the urge to work on something different too. Ever since I came across this Circle of Geese block and then saw it again on Carla's blog, I've wanted to make it. It's foundation paper pieced and I love the color possibilities. It took me about an hour and a half to make this block which I consider my test block. I'm not happy with my color choices. Next time I'll leave out the brown, gray and black. 

12-1/2" X 12-1/2" unfinished Circle of Geese

Thursday night is the second meeting of our new Des Moines Chapter of The Modern Quilt Guild! Yay! It's a great group of gals. They're interested, enthusiastic, and ready to have fun with new approaches to quilting - both in design and the use of technology. If you're in the area, join us! Bring along your favorite quilting book (or two) to tell everyone about.

Thursday, June 16 - 6:30 p.m.
West Des Moines Public Library - Community Room
4000 Mills Civic Parkway

Linda