My friend and co-worker of 10 years died today. I was going to visit him last week, but I didn't. I was afraid of being an emotional windowpane, afraid of being unable to mask my emotions while there, and afraid of doing more harm than good. "This week," I told myself, "I'll go see him this week."
I'm not going to make the same mistake with his wife, a talented and prolific quilter that I've known for just as long, albeit in a different context. I will go to see her, and hug her tightly, and if I wet her shoulder with my tears, so be it. Being strong is for the birds. I waited until I was strong enough to say goodbye to my friend, and I waited too long. I hope he was able to tell from my card how much he meant to me and how much I will miss him.
Goodbye, Russ. I'm happy that you are no longer in pain. I'll see you again on the other side.
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Birds, best friends, bindings...
On Friday morning, looking down the barrel of the weekend to come, I was unsure if I had the stamina to make it, but here it is Sunday night, and I am happy to report that I survived. Adam and Jason went to Atlanta for the Division 3 Men's Basketball Championship (yay, Amherst College, national champs!), so it was just me and Donald at home. I had to do something to make up for him being left behind with mom, right?
Friday night was stay at home and relax night to rest up for the weekend. My plan was to sew, sew, sew. But when I got to my sewing room, my machine didn't work! The needle wouldn't move, and there was an error message on the screen!
Mind you, my oven has not worked for TWO YEARS and I'm OK with that, but I went into a near panic when I couldn't sew. I took the machine apart, cleaned and oiled everything, and put it back together again. I don't know what the problem was, but I got it working again after about two hours. Whew! I made two April Block Lotto bird blocks just to be sure.
By then, it was too late to do much else, so I went to bed.
Saturday morning we led the Pledge of Allegiance at the MS Walk with the cub scouts, then walked a couple of miles with the other walkers. We ran errands, and then I hopped on the highway to travel the 150 miles roundtrip to Donald's best friend's house to pick him up for a sleepover. They've been friends since the infant room at daycare, so it was rough on both of them when Evan moved away two years ago. We try to still get them together a couple times a year. They are so cute together, picking up right where they left off, talking a mile a minute, and never getting into disagreements. Evan is welcome at my house anytime!
When we got back to town, we went to the First Annual Monacan Round Dance - native american drumming and singing and crafts and regalia - it was cool! Then, back home for a couple of hours in the spring sunshine before heading out to the Drive-In where I was volunteering for the evening.
Today was not the day of rest I had wanted. While Evan and Donald played all morning, I packed an enormous box for Goodwill (trying to clean and purge), and then treated myself to sewing on the binding on baby Ella's quilt. I'm only about a third of the way done sewing the back down, but I hope to finish tomorrow afternoon. Yay, I might even have something for Show and Tell at this month's Guild Meeting!
After Evan went home, it was off to lead a cub scout den meeting. Today, they earned their Marbles belt loop - I had forgotten how much fun it is to play marbles! Then a quick visit to a friend who was purging some fabric (I promise, I didn't bring home even a fraction of what I took to Goodwill!), and then dinner with my friend, Michelle, and her family. We have a standing invitation every two weeks, and I love going because not only is the food always amazing, but it is nice to spend time with another woman who is also surrounded by boys and men, an understanding ally in the friendly battle between estrogen and testoterone. Today, it was especially wonderful to go because I had to come home and do even more cleaning. Our house in on the market - since I have given notice at work, we MAY need to downsize. That saddens me because I love my house and because moving is such a pain, but the house hasn't been this neat since we moved in nine years ago! Anyway, there's someone coming to look at it tomorrow, so as much as I despise housework, it had to be done. Right now, I'm exhausted, but happy. And tomorrow, Adam and Jason will be home again.
A clean and full house, can't beat that!
Friday night was stay at home and relax night to rest up for the weekend. My plan was to sew, sew, sew. But when I got to my sewing room, my machine didn't work! The needle wouldn't move, and there was an error message on the screen!
Mind you, my oven has not worked for TWO YEARS and I'm OK with that, but I went into a near panic when I couldn't sew. I took the machine apart, cleaned and oiled everything, and put it back together again. I don't know what the problem was, but I got it working again after about two hours. Whew! I made two April Block Lotto bird blocks just to be sure.
Saturday morning we led the Pledge of Allegiance at the MS Walk with the cub scouts, then walked a couple of miles with the other walkers. We ran errands, and then I hopped on the highway to travel the 150 miles roundtrip to Donald's best friend's house to pick him up for a sleepover. They've been friends since the infant room at daycare, so it was rough on both of them when Evan moved away two years ago. We try to still get them together a couple times a year. They are so cute together, picking up right where they left off, talking a mile a minute, and never getting into disagreements. Evan is welcome at my house anytime!
When we got back to town, we went to the First Annual Monacan Round Dance - native american drumming and singing and crafts and regalia - it was cool! Then, back home for a couple of hours in the spring sunshine before heading out to the Drive-In where I was volunteering for the evening.
Today was not the day of rest I had wanted. While Evan and Donald played all morning, I packed an enormous box for Goodwill (trying to clean and purge), and then treated myself to sewing on the binding on baby Ella's quilt. I'm only about a third of the way done sewing the back down, but I hope to finish tomorrow afternoon. Yay, I might even have something for Show and Tell at this month's Guild Meeting!
 |
| I had just enough of this pink to make a binding. I love using up odd pieces of fabric! |
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| I'd been waiting for the right quilt to use this big busy print as a backing, and this is it! |
A clean and full house, can't beat that!
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Crazy
My co-workers have been besieged with a whole host of illnesses and misfortunes in the past year. It is frightening and emotionally exhausting and just sad. But times of trouble also tend to pull people together, and I've witnessed that over the past year, too, all of us pulling together to support one of our own. The latest is a retired professor who works with us in Admissions part time for part of the year, who just found out that he is riddled with cancer. From what I understand, he is not going to be pursuing treatment and he is deteriorating quickly.
When he is gone, we will have lost a gem. He is generous and funny, compassionate and brilliant, creative and dedicated, and one of the easiest people that I've ever had the pleasure to work with. I want to visit him, but I'm afraid of breaking down in his presence and doing more harm than good. I want to give him something, but what? I'm a lousy cook, and besides, my oven STILL doesn't work. His wife is a gifted and prolific quilter, so he certainly doesn't need a quilt. Hmmm....
I decided on a quilted card. Quilting is what I know, what I do in times of stress and trouble. Perhaps he doesn't need a quilt, but if I can just think of what I want to say, then a quilted card seems to be the best delivery for me.
I got some cardstock and some solid scraps, choose a decorative stitch, and made a crazy quilt block card. Now, if I can just think of what to say on the inside...
Much easier to write are the Hurricane Sandy Thank You Cards. More went out in the mail today, and I have nearly finished addressing them all. Whew! But so worth it!
When he is gone, we will have lost a gem. He is generous and funny, compassionate and brilliant, creative and dedicated, and one of the easiest people that I've ever had the pleasure to work with. I want to visit him, but I'm afraid of breaking down in his presence and doing more harm than good. I want to give him something, but what? I'm a lousy cook, and besides, my oven STILL doesn't work. His wife is a gifted and prolific quilter, so he certainly doesn't need a quilt. Hmmm....
I decided on a quilted card. Quilting is what I know, what I do in times of stress and trouble. Perhaps he doesn't need a quilt, but if I can just think of what I want to say, then a quilted card seems to be the best delivery for me.
I got some cardstock and some solid scraps, choose a decorative stitch, and made a crazy quilt block card. Now, if I can just think of what to say on the inside...
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Stitches and stamps
My co-worker's baby came 2 months early. Ella Clare is a cutie with LOTS of hair. Her APGAR scores were great, so the prognosis is good, but she'll be in NICU for a while yet. I've been wearing my fingers out trying to get her quilt ready to welcome her when she gets home, and I think I'm going to make it. I bet I have only one or two evenings left of quilting, and I hope to bind it this weekend. This was such a fun quilt to make - I feel certain I'll be making more with different color schemes. I love making baby quilts - they come together so quickly!
I've addressed and about 110 Hurricane Sandy Relief Quilt Thank You postcards - halfway there!
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Running in place
We spent the last few days in Pennsylvania with my mother-in-law. She is at home and doing OK. It was good to spend some time with her, chatting while watching her two favorite shows - NCIS and Fraiser. And by now, I think everyone knows what I do when I watch TV, right? QUILT! I worked on the rainbow rail fence quilt for hours upon hours. With all those straight lines, I figured it needed curves, so I popped it in the hoop and quilted concentric circles using the hoop and the length of my pinkie finger as a guide.
It was a good idea in theory, but my curves just weren't uniform enough for me, so then I spent hours upon hours taking all the stitches out. Man, I hate that! But now that I'm back home, I plan to do some freehand baptist fans using one of my half circle rulers as a guide to get me started on each fan. I love the way baptist fans look, so I'm happy about that, but I'm not happy about starting over - I feel like I've been running in place, doing all that work with nothing to show for it.
But the mail cheered me when I got home. My hubby says I single-handedly keep the postal service in business. I'll certainly be keeping them busy this week. Know what this is?
250 thank you post cards to send out to the folks who helped me out with the Hurricane Sandy Quilt project. If you are one of them, watch your mailbox for some love from me.
And an update on that project - I have one completed quilt and 5 being long-arm quilted right now, with a couple more still waiting for quilting. They'll get done eventually, but not until these babies get their quilts.
OK, off to address some postcards. Happy Easter, everyone!
It was a good idea in theory, but my curves just weren't uniform enough for me, so then I spent hours upon hours taking all the stitches out. Man, I hate that! But now that I'm back home, I plan to do some freehand baptist fans using one of my half circle rulers as a guide to get me started on each fan. I love the way baptist fans look, so I'm happy about that, but I'm not happy about starting over - I feel like I've been running in place, doing all that work with nothing to show for it.
But the mail cheered me when I got home. My hubby says I single-handedly keep the postal service in business. I'll certainly be keeping them busy this week. Know what this is?
250 thank you post cards to send out to the folks who helped me out with the Hurricane Sandy Quilt project. If you are one of them, watch your mailbox for some love from me.
And an update on that project - I have one completed quilt and 5 being long-arm quilted right now, with a couple more still waiting for quilting. They'll get done eventually, but not until these babies get their quilts.
OK, off to address some postcards. Happy Easter, everyone!
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Bonus!
Why do I always feel like I am disclosing on here what I DIDN'T get done? (sigh)
So, I didn't get the 2nd baby quilt top put together yet, although I did get all the Indian Hatchet blocks pieced.
I REALLY wish I had enough blue/gray fabric for one more block because this is one quilt I think I would really like to be square (8 x 8), but since I used every scrap of that fabric already, it will remain a rectangle (7 x 9). Or perhaps I make it 7 x 8...or maybe I move the "center" further down...we'll see once I start sewing it together.
And I am forcing myself to sew these blocks together before I tackle this tempting pile of BONUS TRIANGLES! There is a mini quilt in here just screaming to be made!
Enjoy your weekend, everybody!
So, I didn't get the 2nd baby quilt top put together yet, although I did get all the Indian Hatchet blocks pieced.
I REALLY wish I had enough blue/gray fabric for one more block because this is one quilt I think I would really like to be square (8 x 8), but since I used every scrap of that fabric already, it will remain a rectangle (7 x 9). Or perhaps I make it 7 x 8...or maybe I move the "center" further down...we'll see once I start sewing it together.
And I am forcing myself to sew these blocks together before I tackle this tempting pile of BONUS TRIANGLES! There is a mini quilt in here just screaming to be made!
Enjoy your weekend, everybody!
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!
Baby rainbow quilt #1 is pieced and ready for sandwiching and quilting. However, another pregnant friend was taken to the hospital this weekend, and will likely be staying there until her baby makes an appearance, whether it is 2 days from now or 2 weeks. I hope it is 2 weeks or more because she is only 32 weeks pregnant and that baby needs more time to develop before coming out to meet us. But when he/she arrives, I want to be sure there is a quilt waiting. So before working on rainbow quilt #2 for the other twin (the baby shower isn't until May 11), I started piecing a quilt for this other baby who seems to be in a hurry to get here.
I needed something quick and easy, as well as something scrappy and colorful, preferably something where I can use some of my pre-cut scrap squares. I absolutely LOVE this quilt by Andie Johnson, so I decided to make something similar. I've gotta say, though, her scraps are WAY MORE FUN than mine! Do we all feel that way about other people's scraps?
Here's what I've got so far - blocks aren't sewn together yet.
I have 37 more blocks to make, which will be super quick because I cut all the blue/gray fabric yesterday and the scrap tins are overflowing with pre-cut squares to sew onto the corners. It will be 7 blocks x 9 blocks, a rectangle, because I could only cut 63 squares out of the yardage I had. I used Bonnie Hunter's Smokey Mountain Stars tutorial to make the "Indian Hatchet" blocks. I hope to be able to finish piecing it today and get it sandwiched to hand quilt this weekend. Even though it is cold outside, the Drive-In is open again for the season, so we'll be there this weekend to see Wreck-It Ralph and Parental Guidance. Thanks to my handy little hands-free LED light, I can quilt while I watch the movie in the dark. It doesn't get much better than that!
I needed something quick and easy, as well as something scrappy and colorful, preferably something where I can use some of my pre-cut scrap squares. I absolutely LOVE this quilt by Andie Johnson, so I decided to make something similar. I've gotta say, though, her scraps are WAY MORE FUN than mine! Do we all feel that way about other people's scraps?
Here's what I've got so far - blocks aren't sewn together yet.
I have 37 more blocks to make, which will be super quick because I cut all the blue/gray fabric yesterday and the scrap tins are overflowing with pre-cut squares to sew onto the corners. It will be 7 blocks x 9 blocks, a rectangle, because I could only cut 63 squares out of the yardage I had. I used Bonnie Hunter's Smokey Mountain Stars tutorial to make the "Indian Hatchet" blocks. I hope to be able to finish piecing it today and get it sandwiched to hand quilt this weekend. Even though it is cold outside, the Drive-In is open again for the season, so we'll be there this weekend to see Wreck-It Ralph and Parental Guidance. Thanks to my handy little hands-free LED light, I can quilt while I watch the movie in the dark. It doesn't get much better than that!
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