Beach Trip

DH, DD#3, the grandtwins and I took a quick beach trip for Mother’s Day. It was the twins first time at the beach, and they loved it! We took the kids to an aquarium while it was raining, and I was surprised at how many sea creatures they could identify thanks to the cartoon Octonauts.

DS the Younger and DDIL came here, packed up all their stuff both here and in storage, got their dogs, and they are now officially moved to Texas! I'll miss having them local, but I enjoyed living in Texas when DH was in the Army, and I bet they will too.

In the sewing room, I got all those pre-cut scraps put away, then started sewing the next deadline quilt. I had heard of a ruler on an online quilting group, bought it on a whim, and it's really perfect for this quilt.

I'm making a medallion quilt, with a panel as the center. I wanted star borders, one with 5" blocks, one with 10" blocks. To make variable stars I'd have to cut some really odd sizes, so I grabbed one of the quilt books that I've used a bunch.

My favorite thing about this book, is that every star has cutting directions in multiple sizes. I found a variety of stars to choose from in the sizes I needed.

This book uses multiple sew and flip corners in the construction of the stars. That's where this new ruler comes in so handy. Normally, I enjoy drawing diagonal lines for sew and flip corners, but I'm in a hurry on this quilt, so I'd rather not spend my time drawing lines.

Using this ruler allows you to avoid drawing lines on your squares, and instead, you trim first, then sew with your normal 1/4" seam.

I was using a 1.5" square on top of a rectangle, to get a knocked off corner. I lined up the ruler on my square...

...and used my rotary cutter to trim off the section I didn't need.

Everything lined up just fine, and it was faster than drawing lines. I used the same ruler later on during the construction of the star, and pretty soon, I had my first star done.

I ended up getting 7 of these blocks done today, which was my goal for today. There will be 14 different stars in this quilt, 7 each of some, only 3 each of others. I'm hoping to get the stars completed in a timely manner, so I can start assembling the quilt soon. It will be a twin sized quilt, and I only have six weeks before it needs to be in the mail!

All my supplies came today for the two weighted blankets I am making. I'll have to get those cut out. One of them needs to be finished ASAP, the other can wait a bit.

DH and I have started on a gluten-free diet for six months. Gluten is a trigger for DD#2, and I told her I'd try it since it helped her. None of us are celiacs, but I've heard multiple people say that going gluten-free helped them with chronic pain, so we're trying it. I know it can take 3 or 4 months to notice a difference, so I figured six months was a really fair trial. If neither of us notice a difference, we'll be back on gluten by Thanksgiving, but if we feel better, it will be worth it to stay gluten-free. Right now, cooking is taking up more time than usual because of the diet change, but I'm sure I'll get used to cooking gluten-free, and it will get easier.

Tonight's dinner was a chilled "pasta" salad, but instead of using pasta, I used quinoa. Since DD#2 has had wheat issues for years, I've tried several gluten-free pastas, and all I've tried get gummy when refrigerated, so I knew it wouldn't be good for a cold salad. There is a new corn pasta out, that is supposed to be the best of the gluten-free pastas, but I can't eat corn, so I won't even try that one. The quinoa was good choice, and I really enjoyed it. The grain held up well to the vinaigrette I used, and was a nice texture with the vegetables and chicken I had added.