Sunday's Showing and would-be Table Runners

AH! Monday, blessed Monday. And I need the rest. Yesterday was a total wipe-out day.

First, as always I did a total workout at the gym to make up a missed Saturday class and just because it's Sunday and DH is watching all the news shows on TV I have to get out of here.  Back home, ready for a shower and something to eat - never happened. 

Minutes after I got to the kitchen to start lunch the phone rang. The house showing service wanted a client showing at 2:30. Thank Gawd it was just 12:30 we had two hours to prep the house. Anyone who has ever sold a house knows where this is going. We jumped into warp speed, making beds, mopping floors, hiding bedding (don't ask) and heading out. Out meaning back to the gym; now I really needed a shower. By 3:00 I had made it to Southern Seasons and had just ordered lunch. Remind me later to tell you about their Salmon BLT.

What would I have been doing?  The last couple of weeks, as time permits, I have been heading to the men's shirt department of the Goodwill to find either small plaids and checks OR blue & white shirts. After working on the diamond-string piecing of the planned scrappy quilt (see last Tuesday's entry),  I had decided to begin another table runner .

WHY I am making runners this size is the question. A question for which I do not have a good answer. Yes, they do look good on the DR table don't they? 

See the tropical parrot and jungle leaf print made several years back to work with the green Depression-era glass wares I once collected. Those dishes have since gone to my sister and now I use the runner for house showings until the sale and then she will get the runner as well.

But that table is history once we sell this house, it is too big for the planning dining area in the new villa. I will miss the bright greens and stark black+white banding but since the green dishes are gone, why keep it? 

The Depression collection that I did keep are the Cobalt blue glasses and dishes and that's where the blue+white scheme began. Have blue and white runners for other relatives, why not one for me? With my new collection of blue-white shirts it was easy to jump into a blue-white combination for the next runner. Trouble is do I want just blue and white, or blue-white with a touch of pure green? Or blue-white with a touch of pure green and yellow? Or blue-white with some jade green, yellow and hot lime to add some jazz?  You see how this could evolve into yet another scrappy quilt. But 'scrappy' in the best possible way.

Whose table adornment this will become is as yet undetermined but I do hope to get some good photos before handing if off. Meantime the scrappy runner got a lot of attention this week.  I show you here the completed piecing and a candidate for the border/backing. This may or may not work, found this scrap of a dark print in blues/teal/rusts and thought I had enough for backing & border but then decided to use the leftover diamond-string units (four up of a 6x9, stitched over a starched dryer sheet), for a couple of travel pillows (just below).

Actually used 24 blocks (= six diamonds) of the made 32 blocks for the runner, leaving the "less" than perfect blocks (2 units of 4-up) to become throw pillows. And the dark-print fabric will become pillow-backing instead of runner-backing. That leaves me hunting for another backing for the runner.

And to the right you will find a picture of the "Sewing Matching" pillow that Kait Neely made for me in the TMQG's "Travel Pillow Swap" in June. Remind me to think twice about doing this again. I was happy to make a pillow for giveaway but when I got the swap pillow home I began to wonder: what will I do with it?

 

Kait has spent SO much time and detail making the pillow and I was tossing it on the guest room bed which will soon be history also as there is no guest room in the new villa. What to do?  I packed it back in a bag and took it to the July meeting and gave it back to Kait. But before that I did take pictures so I can remember what my former swap gift looked like. Still with me?

 

That still does not solve the problem of what size to make the blue-white-with color accents" runner-in-progress, do I want it for the small round table, or just long enough to take pictures and then pass it on to someone else? What do I know? Later.

 

Today is time for Monday afternoon ballroom at the Seymour Center and this month's dance is SALSA. To that end look what I found:  National Dance Day is July 30 (that's next Saturday!).

http://dance.blogs.fox.com/2011/07/07/three-routines-for-national-dance-day-2011/ 

 

And to celebrate Dance Day, Mary Murphy of Fox Network's "So You Think You Can Dance" has choreographed a "National Salsa." Who knew there was a National Dance Day? How come no one told me this before? Thanks to Susan Wartell of my Thursday dance class for the heads up.  

Murphy's dance is the 'beginner' version of three dances you will find on the site but forget the Intermediate and Advanced: the middle one is for aspiring pole dancers and the advanced dance looks more like hip-hop than Salsa. Where is Bobby Darren when you really need him? So DH and I have Salsa to practice before this afternoon's session.

 

And I need some hot tea.  later, bb