What I'm Up To

Tried to follow Gurmeet's Grand Loop in Alum Rock , but ended up coming short about a mile because part of the Penitencia Creek Trail was closed. Instead, after following the Mineral Springs Loop out one way, we took Sycamore Switchbacks up to where it connected with the South Rim trail, then continued on the rest of the "Grand Loop" as written. These pictures are all from the final half of the loop, and, in fact, all from the South Rim Trail. The first half truthfully had much better views, but also a lot less tree cover (open space preserve), and a steeper hike, so a consistent pace was prioritized. South Rim trail, just after Sycamore Switchback junction Love most things about the picture, except for one glaring error. A reminder to take multiple pictures.   Again, heading down on the South Rim Trail.

On choosing a quilt pattern to make in the remainder of my summer, I was drawn to the Dear Jane quilt, that classic 169 square monstrosity. Over the last couple of weeks, Didi and I had been drawn to various tile patterns that would make stunning quilt patterns, and many of the blocks in the Dear Jane are of very similar styles. Of course, the plan for now is not the entire quilt, just 5 or 6 squares arranged into a twin-sized quilt. Much of this quilt, however, uses foundation paper piecing, a technique I had never used until yesterday. Before I committed myself to any of the squares, I decided to learn how to paper piece, and see whether or not I could plausibly use the technique on many blocks. I started with a walkthrough from Craftsy (found  here ), that used the free Wonky Star block (also from Craftsy, found  here ), and went through the very basics of the directions of fabric, how much to cut, and how I should align it. After working through a block of this, w...