
Remember this project? It is a one-block quilt called American Pie, an older pattern by Miss Rosie's Quilt Company that lends itself beautifully to scrap busting. I picked it up at the beginning of the pandemic, thinking it would be a fun project to occupy me for a few weeks while we sheltered in place. What a laugh. First of all, I got distracted by other shinier projects, and second, we are now five months into self-isolating at home and I haven't made much progress. At least all the units are complete!
The block units are super simple: larger colored squares with background squares sewn on two opposing corners. I have made hundreds of them and now need to press out the units and construct the blocks.

Once the units are pressed, you need to pick out two pairs and sew them together as shown above. The pressing is tricky in order to keep the seams opposing (so they lay nice and flat). I need to study those directions a bit more closely, just saying.
So, here is the first block. I like it. The quilt is going to be very scrappy, with all the fabrics coming out of my Civil War Reproductions leftovers bins. I have fond memories of many of these fabrics from other projects. I do love a quilt that uses fabric up!
I hope you all had a nice weekend. I went to visit my dad, and we had some extremely weird weather. He lives two and a half hours away from me in the San Francisco Bay Area, which is known for its pretty mild weather. In the 60 years I have lived in California, I only recall one time, back in the early 80s, when we had a thunderstorm with lightning in the Bay Area. Last night it started up around 3:30 AM. At least that is when I woke up to strange flickering light outside my window. And a loud rumbling noise a few seconds later.
It went on for hours. Along with occasional cloud bursts of torrential rain. Any of you familiar with the weather around San Francisco can attest to the fact that It.Does.Not.Rain. in the summer. At. All. Ever. The rainy season is November through April (with the rare rain in late October or early May). So this was very strange. Around 6:00 I dozed off again, only to be awakened around 7:00 by a bright flash of light and a colossal crash of thunder. I was so startled I actually cried out. I leaped out of bed and there was another flash of light and an immediate deafening BOOM of thunder. And the power went out. I think an electrical sub-station near us must have taken a direct hit.

You wouldn't believe the buzz happening on social media in our area. Everyone is showing their photos of lightning bolts and the sky lighting up as if it were daytime. This sort of weather just does not happen there. My home is in the Sierra Foothills, so I do get thunderstorms (which greatly distress Ozzie), but it is unheard of to have that sort of thing 130 miles away in the Bay Area.
What's going on in our world this year?? Locusts next?