Winding Down

We had a delicious dinner at my mother's house yesterday. I really like how her living room has artwork that represent all four seasons. My brother painted this fall scene, and my sister picked out a frame for it. The photo is from when she received it, not how it looks on the wall.

Two of the work projects I am involved in are winding down, and we are making sure that everyone understands all the close down procedures, and we don't forget anything. Don't worry, I have two more projects lined up ready to replace these two.


I had imagined sewing down a binding on a quilt during my free time at work, so that on my label, I could write that I had finished at such or such a job, like I did with my election day quilt. I am getting antsy that I don't have a quilted quilt to bind.

Instead, I have been making more Moondance blocks, and progress on those blocks, and therefore that quilt, is slow but steady. I took Quilt Pixie's enthusiasm for making pieced blocks, and lately have been working harder on perfecting my applique technique instead of merely chugging away to finish. The flower shapes look much more like the original cut out than they did before. And I have been trying to take Finn and Michele's Frugal Friday techniques to be satisfied that I am furthering the finishing up of something instead of making something brand new.

Picture in your mind

There are no pictures on this post. I'll have to paint some pictures in words for you to imagine.

I thought I should take some pictures of some pretty spring flowers to show you our spring. Except that when I thought about it, I didn't see any spring flowers. The next morning, I did see some signs of spring. It had just rained and all the worms were out on the sidewalk to avoid drowning. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me. Fortunately for you.

Then I went into the building. Imagine rows upon rows of tables. On each table are several flat panel monitors. All facing the front of the room. Each monitor comes with a computer that is on the floor, and a comfortable adjustable chair. Each station looks exactly the same, except some monitors might be positioned slightly differently than their neighbors. There are 300 people, all sitting in rows facing their screen. The only sound you hear are the clicks of the computer mouse. Maybe a little shuffling or cough n ow and then. A sniffle or two. If you close your eyes, you would probably think you are alone in the room. It is a tranquil environment until you hear a rip from someone pulling a tissue out of a tissue box. And an even more explosive sneeze. And another one. Nobody says "bless you" because they have had to put up with this sneezing and sniffling all day. Over and over again. As you zoom into my station, you can see that I have my own tissue box that almost empty. The trash can, which I confiscated, is half filled with tissues. My nose is red and my eyes are watering. Luckily I am sitting at the end of the table. In an effort to comfort my desk neighbor, I have told her not to worry about viruses, because what I am experiencing is an allergy to cats. Instead of feeling comforted, she is feeling guilty because she owns a cat. It is probably my sister's cats that did this to me, or technically, their dander, but probably more than half of the people in the room own cats too, so moving from my neighbor is not likely to help. Even if I would have had my camera with me, the photograph would likely have been blurry, so yet again, you are fortunate I didn't have my camera with me. And you definitely wouldn't have wanted to see the scene if it wasn't blurry.

I made a couple more applique blocks last week - you can think of the Moondance flowers I showed you earlier and picture them in other color combinations. Ahh much better. Seeing the stack of finished appliques getting bigger and bigger is very satisfying.

And yes, I feel better today, so hopefully the scene won't be repeated today. Although it is raining again...

National Quilt Day

Yesterday was National Quilt Day. I hope you had a great time making quilts.

I had to work. The office wasn't very busy though so I had some time to applique another Moondance block. Yes I'm getting paid while I quilt. How's that for being frugal, Michele? I'll be doing the leaves when I find / buy the green thread(s), and since some of the leaves will cross seams, some of them will have to wait until the seam is sewn.


Here's the finished ones so far. Those of you who are familiar with the Moondance quilt will notice that I am making the flowers bigger. The pattern calls for four flowers per block.

Today I have my first day off all year. I am hoping to find some time to quilt, but the housework is calling loudly.

Moondancing

Since I keep stealing fabric from the Moondance quilt, I thought I should take inventory and make some progress on it while it still had some fabric left. Last week's Friday Finish is another applique block from Moondance. There is no picture yet, because I took it to work with me, and left it there to work on, so you'll have to trust me. It's all good though because I managed to make two blocks, so I have this week's finish as well.

The picture is of some fabric my mother gave me recently. Back in the day, around the time when I was in home ec, or just afterwards, I made some clothes. I made a pair of jeans, a fancy dress, a couple of wonderful shirts, and a wrap around skirt. This is the wrap around skirt fabric. There's not enough fabric to make another wrap around skirt. And she didn't give me the pattern, but it looks to me like it would make a wonderful reusable grocery bag. It seems like it may be good for one of those Friday finishes.

Friday Block Party

Yes, I am quite aware that it isn't Friday but I am crashing the block party anyway. Wrong outfit, wrong block, wrong day, but I am crashing it anyway. Quilt Pixie has been hosting her Friday Block Party for several weeks now, and I have been eyeing it longingly. Wouldn't it be fun to join in and make a block a week?

I decided to go ahead and make a block. No big projects that will never be done considering my schedule. Surely I can spare a few minutes a day and come out with a block at the end of the week?

As luck would have it, my mother returned the bag of fabric that she purchased on Super Bowl Sunday. I'm not sure if it was meant for me, she might have told my brother to give me back my bag and forgotten that there were things still in there. I'm not asking any questions. The bag of fabric appears to be a kit for the book that I bought that same day. It is clear that it isn't the entire kit - there are duplicates of some block, and some block are missing entirely, but I figure I can start one. I randomly take out a roll of fabric that is bundled with a sticker that says block 10. Okay, decisions averted - I'm making block 10.

There isn't enough turquoise fabric to make the block - oops. No problem, I'll borrow from another block. Oops again, I manage to get too happy with the rotary cutter and need to remake one part of the block. None of the other blocks use this fabric. The amazing thing is that I was able to find scraps of fabric in my house that match wonderfully. When I ever get to finish Moondance, it won't have any fabric left, because I keep borrowing it for other projects.

It isn't perfect - I didn't think about those points having to match, and I'm not that motivated to make them all nice, but once I took the photo, it looks pretty good to me.

Celebrate!

I decided to wear my sparkly sweater today. Most people would reserve sparkly for parties and celebrations, but I just felt like wearing it today.

Then the first two blogs I read say I have plenty of reason to celebrate.

Tanya tells us that it is Girl's Day. Michele tells us that it is Women's History Month.

I checked my calendar I got from the Oriental Trading Company. Here are some other things you can celebrate:
National Craft Month
National Nutrition Month
National Women's History Month - yep Michele wasn't lying.
Red Cross Month
Umbrella Month
Hoops Month

And just for today, we get to celebrate National Anthem Day.

So Happy National Anthem Day! Shall we have a sing along?

P. S. Friday is Dentist's Day, in case you needed to plan ahead.

Rant Confusion

I waited for my packages forever, it seemed, and then I decided that I would have to continue about my business. A watched pot never boils. I went to get a haircut. There was a long wait. I showed her pictures, both of which were very similar to each other. We discussed it.

I thought she understood.

It doesn't look anything like the picture, but it doesn't look bad. It will just take some getting used to. Like maybe in five years, when it is time to get the next haircut! That's what I get for disobeying an order from Creepy Guy.

The customers who call in at work for the lady with the long brown hair are in for a shock. I keep thinking short and sassy, which hopefully doesn't mean it looks like a style from the 80s or 90s.

I bought a couple of shirts on clearance to celebrate the new me, and came home to get my packages. My jelly roll, which the site had said was on back order, did come in. Rant averted. Wait, one of the charm pack, which wasn't on back order as far as I can remember, apparently was back ordered and that order has been canceled. I could rant - after all I did carefully choose my purchases to maximize my shipping dollar. But now I don't have to pay for the charm pack, but it was an excellent price, and I did take the time to plan the order, so I'm not sure whether I should insist that they send me something else, or be happy that I saved some money.