I Like Thursday ~ Fabric, Friends and Fun

 

My first flag block for the 

United Block Exchange 2024 @ Olie & Evie

 is sewn and ready.

The swap closes tonight at midnight, Mountain Time, I think.

Never have I ever starched fabrics,

but I did now to follow the guidelines for this swap.

I washed, dried, then soaked my fabrics in a 50/50% solution

 of Best Press and water and hung them to dry again.

Tuesday was warm enough to hang them outside that day.

Then it got very breezy, so I had to finish drying inside.

Then I pressed and started to cut and sew.

I must admit that this method does make the fabrics very flat,

eliminates the normal stretch distortion,

and is very nice to the touch to work.

That said, I think I will never, ever go to this extent

to prepare fabrics for making my quilts again.

I have also been sewing my daily temperature quilt tree blocks.

I write the date on the seam on the back with a permanent fabric marker.

I now have the fourth row done and the fifth begun.

Our temperatures have been changing rapidly of late.

I discovered two days ago that I made an error on my 

color chart for this quilt and left off the 60 degrees Fahrenheit. 

So I updated my chart to make 60F to 69F yellow.

Then I changed up the upper temperature colors.

Last night it was cold with a biting wind.

Today it barely went above freezing,

but the wind chill made it feel much colder.

Good weather to stay in and sew I did.

Progress has also been appliqueing my Dresden Plates.

This is a slow process as I slow down my machine and use a smaller stitch 

so I only do about one block a day. 

 

Yesterday was monthly lunch day with my friends.

I am usually asked to bring dessert and February

is Homemade Chocolates for dessert.

I blend my own milk chocolate.

This year I made Milk Chocolate Nonpariels,

Cashew Caramel Clusters, 

Orange Creams

and, as always requested, Raspberry Creams.

I only make these when I am going to give most of them away

as they are yummy, but they are  oh, so sweet.

Linking up today with my friends at

I Like Thursday @ Not Afraid of Color

Hope you are having a Happy Thursday!