Time keeps on slippin'

Today is a pictureless post.  Not because I wanted it to be, but because there just wasn't time at home and google has become picture restrictive. 

Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin', into the future...

This is definitely one of those weeks when I just want to shout STOP THE MERRY GO ROUND, I'M GOING TO BE SICK. 

But, there are times when even that doesn't work and the merry just keeps going around, faster and faster and faster, and life laughs at you for daring to wish it would slow down a bit.

It's times like this that I like hand quilting.  Hand quilting requires slowing down and since I can't control any of the other stuff in life and make it slow down, I can slow down my quilting to something that's ever so slow and routine and relaxing.  And, I got another Dresden Plate block quilted in the process.  I have one more to put the stability quilting in and then the borders.  Nothing is going to be slower than all those long, straight lines to stabilize the borders.  Ideally, I'd like to sneak out of the house this weekend and spend some time with my quilt in my lap in the sun room, enjoying the warm January weather for the couple of days that it's going to be nice and warm.  Not sunny, but warm and drizzly days...best days to quilt, huh?

Tonight is Parent's night at the game.  Remember, I mentioned a couple weeks ago how nervous I was about both Rob and I escorting Sydney on the court.  Okay, so it's funny how something that felt so important then, seems so trivial now. 

Sydney won't be playing tonight.  She injured her knee in the last game she played.  She sat out for a while and then tried to practice and couldn't.  We went to the orthopedic doctor yesterday and next, we get an MRI.  In the 92 seconds that he could spare us to make his first impression, he said surgery twice and left Sydney weeping.  We'll let them do the MRI, because that process is already started.  But, we'll likely go elsewhere for any treatment.  I was not impressed with the doctor, the practice, or the staff except for his nurse practitioner, who was the only person that seemed to care that Sydney was young and afraid and in pain. 

Anyway, this likely ends this year of basketball.  And, track and field, which comes up in a month or so.  Oh, well.  As I said to Sydney, the end of this basketball season is about a quarter inch in the yardstick that measures a life.  But, until we get the diagnosis next week, I'm not going to make her quit the team, which means she's still there for practices and games.  So, we'll be there for parent night. 

A couple days ago, I mentioned that I was going to use freezer paper to make quilting templates to quilt some fish on a Linus quilt.  I got some questions, so I thought I'd update how that worked.  It wasn't too bad.  I cut a bunch of them and pressed them to the quilt front.  I sat with the bulk of the quilt in my lap and quilted away from me, down one side of the templates, planning to work the length of the quilt, and then work up the other side of the templates, pulling the quilt toward me.  On that first row, the paper was still really stiff and unfolding the quilt from my lap caused some of the freezer paper to let go.  I had to iron the paper back to the quilt before I could do the second side.  The next row of fish, the paper was softer and it worked better, but still, some of the points of the paper released; the fishes mouth and the points of the tail.  I started catching them with straight pins as I'd near them.  That worked okay.  I also found it was easier to put the quilt on my sewing table and pull it toward me than it was to fold it into my lap and quilt it away from me.  If you're planning to do this, don't iron down more templates than you absolutely have to at one time and be prepared to drop a pin in any points that come loose as you go.  I do plan to continue quilting this quilt with this marking method.  I've done three columns of fish and will likely to two more and then just quilt some waves to finish it out.

Be well, have a great Friday.  I plan to spend the weekend resting from this week.  I have had 4-6 meetings every day and there's no sign that it's going to ease up any time soon.  And, since neither Rob nor I ever had a sports injury, we're learning to work that part of the medical system, too.  I wish I was one of those people that could just go with the flow.  But, I'm not.  I still pretend that I can control the flow.  And, the Universe says "ha-ha-ha-ha-hahahaha"

Lane