Last Week's Chain of Events

Last Thursday afternoon, I was minding my own business at work, when the phone range - it was the DH. He was letting me know he was driving to the Emergency Room. 

WHAT??!!! 

(Okay, don't worry - he's fine.)

But he was having significant pain in his lower abdomen and the clinic doctor wanted him at the ER to find out what the problem was, so he decided to drive himself. When I told him I'd meet him there, he was concerned I was leaving work early. ARGH! After several hours, a few tests  and some meds, we discovered he had a kidney stone. We finally got home after midnight, exhausted but glad to have a diagnosis. I slept dozed on couch, to keep an eye on him until morning. 

Not the best night's sleep, lead me to working from home Friday morning for a few hours until I could no longer keep my eyes open. And since DH was still having some pain, luckily not as severe, Saturday was  ended up being a low-key, stay at home, look - it's snowing and really, really cold day, spent stitching. Chain stitching the last 12 alternate blocks, getting the layout of the blocks decided and finally stitching the top!  

It feels good to have a quilt top finished this early in the year.  I need to find the right backing and get this layered and quilted quick. Can't wait to see it finished, as I believe the quilting will make it really pop and then I can finally reveal it in full color.

Sunday dawned sunny but cold! I had been waffling back & forth as to whether or not to head out to the first tack sale of the year. It was an hour an a half away, with temps close to zero.  I had just decided,  'what the heck, I'll go' when I noticed Odie shaking his head & rubbing his face.  I called him over and saw this.

And just like that, I was going absolutely nowhere!  Somehow, Odie managed to get bit by a spider. A couple of Benadryl and a good, long nap with Mommy watching over him like a hawk and he was almost back to normal. All in all, and interesting chain of events - most of which I don't want to repeat anytime soon. 

Something Else Arrived Back Home

Apparently, last week was a homecoming week for my traveling quilts.  Not only did 'Fly Away Home' return home but so did my Cherrywood Van Gogh Challenge quilt.

The quilt traveled with me to Switzerland as a work in progress and then had many trips as part of the Dutch Gallery of traveling finalists. New York, Minnesota, Illinois, the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, Kentucky and last April - The Australasian Quilt Convention, held at the Royal Exhibition Building, Carlton Gardens, Melbourne, Australia.

While it was there, fellow quilt blogger Vireya stopped by the Van Gogh exhibit to see my quilt in person and sent me some pictures.

 I had sent her an email giving her express permission to touch my quilt. Apparently, it worked because she sent me this picture.

"Hi, Vireya!"

And now, my cow quilt is back home, hanging in the Studio. 

Certainly, not as glamorous as some places it has hung, but it's home - right where it belongs. 

Flying Home!

You guys, I am so EXCITED!!!

My "Fly Away Home" quilt is flying home this week!!

 

As part of the 2017 NQM New Quilt from Old Favorites: Flying Geese contest, this quilt has been gone since November 20016.  It had an exciting adventure as part of many special exhibits, published in a book and traveled to several states. But now, it's coming back home. 

I missed this quilt and  realized that it is due, in part, to it being the last quilt I made with Drake as my Studio Dog.

 I even have a few pictures of him photo bombing the initial photo session for the contest submission.  I cherish these pictures!

Odie is coming along as a Studio Dog, but he's not quite there yet. Just last week, we had to have another discussion about NOT snitching fabric pieces. Though in his defense, DH also found a few pieces up in the kitchen and we think the cats may have had something to do with those. Odie has some big pawprints to fill.

In the meantime, I'll just spend some time enjoying having Fly Away Home back home!

Snowy Saturday Sewing

This past Saturday found me hunkered down in the Studio, stitching, stitching, stitching... with a little bit of laundry and house chores, thrown in for good measure. That way I don't feel guilty about taking the whole day to myself.  

The DH asked if I wanted to go grocery shopping in the middle of the afternoon. Ummm, no! Turns out it's good he went because we had planned our delayed Anniversary dinner for this Saturday. He came back from the store reporting the roads were terrible, as the snow (we got 4 inches total) was falling and blowing all over. Needless to say, I was more than happy to agree to yet another postponement for our date night. 

The minute DH headed out to shop, I sprang into action!  He is currently under a doctor's restriction - no lifting, pulling or pushing more than  15 lbs.  Hopefully, the issue will be resolved soon (minor day surgery may be involved) so he's not quite so grumpy. In the meantime, the totes of Christmas decorations, wrapping paper, etc. needed to get out of the office and back up to the attic for another year. We have the pull down ladder and normally work as a team getting things up & down.  I was determined to get it done before he got home.  It definitely was a workout!  I added that to my checked-off chore list and headed back down for more stitching!

My reward for diligence was the completion of the last of the 41 focus blocks of the new quilt project! 

There were a few challenges, requiring some unsewing and resewing.

And somehow, when I wasn't paying attention, I grabbed a cutoff 2-patch unit and stitched it in place.

So not going to work! It's things like this that make me laugh. That unit was a full 1/4 inch shy of 2 inches. 

 It's getting closer to figuring out the layout for this project. Where I'm going to be able to layout all the blocks to get the color progression color is a mystery right now. The Michigan House floor would be really handy right about now!  It's not something I can plan on paper. The DH's king size bed may be commandeered for the layout - don't tell him!

New Quilt Underway!

While working on the mini mystery project, I wanted to get something else under my needle, to keep the quilting going.  A few weeks ago, when moving the stash in the new cabinets and organizing the Studio, in general, I came across a project box. 

It contained yardage and 10 inch pre-cut squares waiting to be designed and stitched into a long overdue special project. The pre-cut squares came in a range of shades and tones of one hue and needed some refining. I started the process by piling it all over the sewing table, along with 1 piece of yardage that would be my constant fabric in all the blocks.

Some of the tones were entirely too muted and fell way to close to another color to be included in this quilt - shown in the upper left corner.  Viewing the collection in black & white, it shows a lot of medium values, one or two brighter, slightly lighter values and a few dark values. The constant fabric is between medium and dark.  The other constant fabric is truly light and will provide all the needed contrast. 

Edited down, the fabrics give me a nice, if somewhat tight range of color values.

The design was quick, a few mathematical calculations, a sketch and the sewing commenced. I need 81 blocks in total, 41 focus blocks and 40 alternate blocks. So far, I'm up to 26 and 12 blocks respectively. The actual layout of the blocks will be fun to play with and the quilting will be very straight forward.  

One quick word on pre-cuts. I normally don't buy them. If I do, it's usually jelly rolls or strips, not the squares. And the below picture shows you why. I needed to prewash the fabric because of the color and even though, they were handled with care, this is what I ended up with.  

Yes, this will definitely change the amount of fabric the square will yield. ARGH! The blocks for the new quilt will continue to stack up while I ponder the final layout of the mini mystery.

Mystery Quilt - My Mini Progress

Bonnie Hunter revealed the final Good Fortune mystery quilt clue - the how to put all the units together and add a few borders part of the process - on Friday, January 4th. I am quite certain sewing machine around the globe were stitching full out quilters forged ahead to see their version of this beautiful quilt come to life under their needles!

This quilter - not so much. Friday was a work day and the last day of the fiscal year. Sometimes, you can't ignore the work pile and stitch instead, no matter how bad you want to. Add to the fact it was the last day I was working from home during our workspace remodel project. Today, we were all back in the office - from working at home, to extended holiday goers, to travelers from abroad. That meant I needed to be in the office early in order to unpack my desk, unpack the boss' office and help those on the extended team troubleshoot various issue.

Once the work was done on Friday however, I gathered all my tiny little bits and pieces, threaded up Wild Cherry and set to work. 

I'm not done yet. This is as far as I sewed and haven't even pressed the blocks. 288 tiny pieces joined together.  While I love the way BH Good Fortune quilt lays out, I may play with the bits I have to see what else I like. Check out the many, many, many other quilters versions of this mystery quilt Good Fortune HERE.

In between, I've been sewing on another project which I will introduce in my next blog post. It's a bit different.

And finally, a HUGE THANK YOU to Bonnie for this fun mystery which jumpstarted me to get back to quilting. And THANKS to Vireya, for her encouragement to get on with it already. And to those who visit my blog - thanks for following or just stopping by. Happy Stitching to All!

Kicking Off 2019!!

Kicking off 2019 with warm wishes for a happy & prosperous New Year to All!

Reflection is always part of the rolling into a brand new year, along reorganization and letting go (READ: Massive purging!) of anything that doesn't work in my life. 

Frankly, not blogging isn't working for me anymore. I drifted away from posting last year because I didn't think I had anything to say.  In truth, the opposite was true. I had a lot of things to say, lots of jumbled, contradictory thoughts & feelings that I didn't want to face or order into any kind of cohesive statements. This blog is for me, about my life  - the good, the bad not so good and the OMG ugly. 

Writing things that fall into any of the above categories is REAL life, my life. Writing things down, okay typing things out, helps create order from a swirl of chaotic thoughts and feeling, and makes you see thing in a different light, from a new perspective.  Avoidance is NOT working for me and not blogging was just another form of avoidance. 

I'm also working on purging the physical things that are cluttering up my space. I had fallen off that wagon last year, too.  I blamed it on being too busy, when in reality I was being lazy and avoiding dealing with it. Things just continue to multiply when you aren't ruthless about them. The breed in dark corners, in the back of closets and drawers. 

I don't need more stuff! 

Well, not counting Christmas presents, of course. But DH & I handled that a little differently for 2018, which I will share in another post. 

And as a few new things find their way in, even more needs to find it's way into the hands of someone who needs it more than I do. Less stuff = more time to enjoy doing, not caring for, cleaning around, storing, reorganizing things. 

Hoping for a very successful 2019 in avoiding Avoidance.  That will make next year's reflection a whole lot prettier!