Miss Leann's Quilt

For the past several years, Squiddle has been going to vision therapy to help with his amblyopia.  It's about half an hour away from us in University Place, across the toll bridge, and pretty early on I made him a deal that he could have a McDonald's milkshake on his way home.  So mostly it's been okay.

But his vision therapist (Miss Leann) is retiring at the end of this month, and her successor has to pick up her child from daycare by 5pm so she can't do the 5pm appointments that have worked for us.  (Squiddle gets out of school at 3:30, so maybe we could get there by 4pm if I wanted to commit to leaving the house at 2:30 so I could be among the first 10 cars in the pick-up line.  But the cost of vision therapy also jumped by 50% at the beginning of this year, and our HSA is drained.  So between that and diminishing returns, we're calling it quits.)  So his last appointment is this evening.

But a retirement, as well as her many years of friendly help with us, surely warrants a retirement gift, right?  So I pulled out the stack of blocks I've slowly been making from the guild's scrap bins, and put them together into this:

Each block is 8" finished, so the whole quilt is 64" x 80", which I thought would be good for watching TV under, or building forts with her granddaughter under, or something.  And on the back is this fabric:

Because over the years, Miss Leann has been given a collection of flamingos that decorate a corner of her workspace.  So when I saw this Tula Pink fabric at the guild's sale last year, I knew it somehow needed to be for her.

April's I Aten't Ded Yet Post

So.  What have I been up to in the last month-and-change?

Stress and falling behind on things, mostly!

That said, hmm... I've been plugging slowly along on my Old World Map cross stitch.  I'm on the final corner!  Then I have all the borders to do.  And after looking at schedules and such things, I bit the bullet and will be attending Costume College again this year.  For the first time in four years!

Squiddle is finishing vision therapy on Thursday, due in part to his vision therapist (Miss Leann) retiring.  Her successor has to pick up her child from day care, so can't do the 5pm appointments that work for our schedule.  Between that and the 50% price increase earlier this year plus the fact of diminishing returns, we're stopping.  Squiddle will miss his weekly milkshake and fries from McDonald's (his reward) but he will love having back more free time.

Since a retirement seemed worth celebrating, I've made Miss Leann a quilt.  More on that tomorrow.

For today... y'all know that I run the charity scrap block drive for one of my guilds?  I just finished all the prep work for April's block.

I knew I wanted to present a 12.5" (unfinished) X block, but I couldn't find the instructions for one!  So I found a tutorial that finished to 14" and rejiggered the measurements.  Here's the instructions for my version, should anyone want them:

For each block, cut:

• One 10 1/2” square of background fabric
• Four 3” x 8 1/2” rectangles of “X” fabric
• One 3” square of center fabric

To make the block:

Cut the 10 1/2” square in half twice diagonally, making an “X” with the cuts. Sew the resulting triangles on either side of one of the 8 1/2” rectangles, using the short side of the triangles! The resulting two pieces will look sort of like the rectangles have wings extended on either side. Press the seam allowances outward, toward the triangles.

Sew the remaining two rectangles onto opposite sides of the center square. Press the seam allowances in, toward the square. This will help with matching seams.

Align the two triangle/rectangle/triangle sets to either side of the rectangle/square/rectangle set, matching seams, and sew. Press the seam allowances as you desire.

Centering the now on point center square as best you can, trim block to 12 1/2” square.

A variation of this block, with different dimensions but more construction pictures, can be found here.