Evening Quilt Progress Update

Here's the progress I made in the quilt room this afternoon. Gosh, it felt good to be back in there creating again.

I thought I had a pretty definite pattern in mind for the whole design but as I worked and looked at the colors, I found new thoughts and ideas popping into my head. I guess that's why it's called "a work in progress." Need more length in the Flying Geese strips and probably one more strip set of them but I'm pleased at the speed with which it's going together.

And, no, the windshield repair guy neither called nor showed up. But I sure had a great day.

A Day Off and Itchy Fingers

Roy and I are taking a "day off" today. We were planning on recreating out and about . . . we have a favorite lake not too far from here (and close to a great place to stop for lunch!) where we planned to put in the canoe and do some leisurely paddling and sight-seeing. But, wouldn't ya know it, the guy who we've been waiting on to show up to fix a leaky windshield called yesterday saying he was going to be in our area today and might be able to stop at our place. Might? Not for sure, but might. Grmpf. That means we have to stick close to home all day hoping he will show up. Anybody out there want to make a bet?

So we decided to take our lemons and make lemonade. We'll still take a day off. It's just that we're spending it at home. We each get the day to do whatever we want for fun and enjoyment all day. Work type projects are off limits. Gotta admit, this is really, really hard for me to do. Guess it's because I'm the one who's mainly in charge of keeping the house and running the household. Every time I walk through a room, I see at least ten things that NEED to be done and it's hard to ignore. (A good set of horse blinders is helping.) But the best place to go to get away from all the "must-dos"? My quilt room, of course.

I mentioned in my last blog entry that I had purchased some fabric for my soon-to-be new fall shower curtain. Actually, I only bought the print that I plan on using as a border on either side of the Flying Geese strips and an ecru/beige piece that will be the background for the geese. This morning I spent a lot of time going through my stash picking out greens, blacks, oranges and golds that I'll use for the geese.

I know lots of quilters say that picking out the various fabrics for a project is their favorite part. Not me. Uh-uh. No, no, no. I think it's because I don't feel confident in my color expertise. (Okay, so I don't even HAVE any expertise in that aspect of quilting.) It takes me forever to make a selection that I'm happy with, and then . . . I still have my doubts. But it's done now, for better or worse, so let the fun part begin.

This afternoon I'll start cutting and piecing. My itchy quilting fingers are going to get some relief. Stay tuned for pictures of Flying Geese on my design wall.

A Year of Shower Curtains

A few years ago a friend was giving me a tour of her new house. In the bathroom, she showed me a quilted shower curtain she had made. How cool, I thought. The motif was a tall, beautiful pine tree with a moose standing at the bottom of it . . . what is called a landscape quilt. Very in sync with her lovely, log home in the North Woods.

I had always kept a plain white shower curtain on our shower stall because . . . well, it went with everything. But my Dear Daughter had given me a hard time more than once regarding said shower curtain, saying it looked too "institutional." Okay, now that I had the seed planted in my head, I would make a quilted shower curtain to replace my hum-drum white one.

The time of year happened to be summer so I picked fabrics with a "summertime" feel to them and went to it. Finished it lickety-split (I was on a mission) and hung it in the bathroom. Looked great, if I did say so myself.

(Sorry the picture isn't better; we've got a long, narrow bathroom and I couldn't get a shot of the curtain from the front.)

Decorating our house for the different holidays and seasons throughout the year has been something I've always done. So come that fall, as usual, I pulled out all my autumnal colored decorations (yes, I even do the bathroom), and put them out. Except . . . darn, but that quilted shower curtain just didn't look right now. So, you guessed it, I had to make one following a fall color scheme.

Well, this pattern followed me all through the year until it got back to time to put up my first curtain, the summer one. I now had five shower curtains; one for each of the four seasons and a special one for the Thanksgiving/Christmas holidays. Although each curtain is up for only part of the year, there is a south facing window at right angles to it and the sun, over the years, has taken its toll on each one. So now I'm to the place where it's time to start thinking of replacement curtains. My fall curtain seems to have suffered especially from the sun so a few weeks ago, I picked out fabric and decided on a Flying Geese theme for the new curtain. Now, I want in the worst way, to forget about all of the end-of-summer chores that must be done, shut myself in my quilt room, and work on my new shower curtain. Priorities, Mama Pea, priorities. (Yeah, but whose priorities?? Tee-hee.)

The End is Near

The world must be coming to an end. This is what I found yesterday afternoon shortly after lunch time. I have never . . . I mean NEVER . . . N-E-V-E-R . . . seen my husband lying down in a hammock. Admittedly, there have been occasions when we've spent recreational days on a beach somewhere when I have seen him stretch his body out on the sand to soak up some sunshine, but taking good, profitable, working, daytime hours on the homestead to lie in a hammock?? Although his moment of forgetting where he was or what he was doing yesterday lasted only 15 minutes, but maybe this means he's finally starting to feel like he's retired and has a little time for such lapses of leisure.

Lordy, lordy what IS this world coming to?

Attitude Adjustment

I haven't been sleeping well. I know what the problem is. Each day I push on "time sensitive" projects long into the evening, and don't give myself any wind-down time before bed. I wake around 2:30 or 3:30 a.m. for a potty stop. (I drink too much . . . water, fortunately.) Then when I get back into bed, I cannot fall asleep again. Because I'm a "morning" person and do my best work, mental or physical, during the first half of the day, sleeping-in always guarantees a bad day for me. After being awake for a good share of the night (well, it feels that way), dragging myself out of bed at a decent time these mornings, does not make for a happy, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Mama Pea.

So 'bout half an hour ago, I knew I had to make an attitude adjustment. "Get thyself out into thy garden," a voice in my head said. Ah, such a wise voice. It worked.

This is the clematis that won't die. Roy's very fond of clematis so for Father's Day two years ago, I bought this one for him. Dummy me. It was very much overgrown and terribly root bound in its little pot and wound a million times around a small, inadequate trellis. (Have I mentioned I don't know a lot about flowers?) But I did the best I could planting it along the seven foot high deer fence that separates our yard/garden from the woods beyond. Sad to say, the Chief in Charge of Weed Whipping (we will not name names here . . . but I'm sure glad it wasn't me) accidentally cut it down two years in a row. When it happened this spring, I was sure that was the end of this poor clematis.

Who says plants don't have feelings and know what's going on? After being whacked off at ground level, it sent out one spindly stem that headed straight up the fence, hit the top and tried to run for the safety of the woods beyond. All the bloom is on the other side of the fence where it's hoping it will be safe from the dreaded weed whip.

My double row of sunflowers has finally headed out. Who can't feel good when you look at these smiling faces? They probably won't mature enough for us to gather seeds from them but we're enjoying the sunny display they're giving every day now.

I'm so pleased with the way my morning glory trellis grew. Remember I said I had started seeds inside, much too early this spring, and couldn't transplant them? So I started over from scratch with seeds in the dirt around the trellis and, viola, scads of beautiful purple morning glories on lush vines. The ugly brownish pipe you see to the right of the trellis is the tower for our solar panels. We keep saying we have to paint it a natural green color. That would help a lot. Plus, I could plant a vining perennial to help camouflage it at least part of the year.

When on my attitude adjustment walk, I also started a list of changes to make so my days aren't so overly stuffed full of must-do tasks next summer. More hammock time (I've been in it once this year) really sounds like a good modification. I've even heard of some people who actually get in some quilting time in the summer months. Wow. What a goal to work toward. I think I'll sleep better tonight.

Making Time

My Scottish grandmother (and grandfather) raised seven children with no outside help and very little money. Each week day morning at 10 a.m. (undoubtedly with a good half day's work done by then), Grandma put the teapot on, placed a platter of cookies or some other homemade goodie on the table, and took time to sit and visit for a half hour or so with a neighbor or two and anyone else who dropped in. Grandma was always sure to grab her knitting before sitting down for this morning ritual. This time was important to her and not much got in the way of it.

Yesterday morning a good friend and I took a ride down the road to a coffee shop at the other end of our county to meet with two other gals for a couple of hours of handwork, camaraderie and conversation. We make this jaunt twice a month and it's something I always look forward to.

There are usually no more than four to six of us that gather around the big table in one of the coffee shop's small meeting rooms. Occasionally only two or three are able to make it of a particular Thursday morning. The conversation is casual and flows easily, most of the time we laugh a lot. Once in a while our talk is interspersed with a poignant sharing of personal feelings or a touching anecdote from an individual's life. Although there has never been an ultimatum issued, I think it's understood that what is said around the table stays around the table.

All the while we're visiting, each of us is doing one type of handwork or another. Hand quilting, embroidery, hardanger, doll making, applique work, knitting, tatting, it matters not what we choose to do. It's always something we enjoy but can rarely find adequate time to do.

These few hours of a Thursday morning a couple times a month certainly aren't the same as my grandma's daily time with her friends and handwork but continuing to make time now and then for reconnecting with friends, infrequent though it may be, is sometimes all we can manage in our jam-packed, too fast moving lives. For me, these times are calming and up-lifting, relaxing and stimulating, bonding and centering. And important.