Our cable and internet service was out for a good chunk of the day today. That's probably a good thing, as I had been obsessively watching coverage of Hurricane Harvey and feeling depressed and hopeless. Based on past experience, my best way to fight depression and hopelessness is to sew.
I've been working on completing Diane Knott's Summer Star Scrappy Sew-Along. I finished most of the body of the quilt last week.
All that remains to be done is sew the four long rows together to complete the star.
Diane offered different options for the quilt borders. I decided I wanted my quilt to look like her sample: double strips of pieced squares separated by a white strip.
Diane came up with a great way to piece the borders, making strip piecing feasible.
So, I obsessively pieced border components yesterday and today.
Here are the blocks for the border corners.
And a stack of pieced strips that will eventually become the borders. The strips are sewn together into blocks containing five strips, which are then assembled to become the borders. I'm hopeful I will be able to assemble a block here and there during the week - keep the fabric therapy going! (BTW, there are 180 of these strips. I definitely made a dent in my blue scraps, chunks and yardage!)
If you have been watching news from Texas and are wondering how to help, I have a few suggestions. Last year, when the Baton Rouge area of Louisiana had catastrophic flooding, local agencies seemed to provide the fastest and most useful services. I'm not knocking the Red Cross, but I really prefer to give my money to hyper-local groups. This link from Texas Monthly magazine has some good ideas.
Whenever bad things were happening, a friend of mine used to say she was going to mix up a big batch of Voodoo Vinaigrette to make things right again. I'm definitely going to be mixing up a batch of it myself, and including lots of prayers and Hurricane-Go-Away-Vibes as well. I hope you'll join me!
