Some real progress!

Wow - it has been an exhausting weekend!  Last week, we finally got the pool completely finished!  It took three days to fill with water, and we got quite a few laughs watching poor Murphy trying to figure the whole thing out.  We're pretty sure she was convinced that she was getting the world's awesomest water dish ever. We all spent a ton of time out in the pool this weekend, which was especially refreshing since it hit about 115  degrees.  Here in Arizona, it's pretty common at this point in the summer for pool water to get up to 90-95 degrees, and our new pool is no different.  But, being that it's still 20 degrees cooler than the air, a cannonball still gets the job done!

Theoretically, after the pool was finished, there's a long list of yard work that needs to be done.  Yeah, that didn't get done this weekend.  (See above reference to scorching hot temperatures outside).  I did, however, manage to get some quilting done!  And, even better, I made some real progress on not just one, but TWO of my quarterly UFO projects!

Of course I had to hit up the LQS first to get myself inspired to work, right?

Why yes, that IS some Bungle Jungle hiding in there!

I got the rest of the blocks pieced for my Prairie Paisley Strip quilt, but it was a bit rough going.  The piecing itself was actually a breeze.  The snag came in when the circuit that powers my sewing studio blew out.  Twice.  I'm pretty sure it's something having to do with my iron, so I moved the iron to another room, and no more blow outs!  The only downside is that I have to schlep all the way to the other room to press out as I sew.  Ugh.  On the bright side, I got enough blocks out of the jelly roll that I can make two smallish quilts out of it - just need to get some yardage next.

Happy little stack o' blocks! Which doesn't even include... 

...these block!  Plus some randomly put together blocks from the scraps I had after cutting up the strip tubes.

I muddled through to finish all of those blocks, but then decided to move on to something that wouldn't require pressing - actual quilting!  I'm finally getting the Reunion Patchwork Chevron quilt done - yay!  In this kind of heat, even with A/C going, pin basting a full sized quilt is quite the chore, let me tell you.  I decided to do an all over meander, since there's no way I can manhandle this quilt and do anything that requires accuracy or precision.

I am now actively fearing quilting Swoon - which is 40% bigger.  Gah!  This is why I stick with baby quilts!  In any case, I got roughly half of it quilted before I started to overheat underneath the quilt and had to call it a day.

Too hot to quilt? Back to the pool!