Hospital time

There is nothing like time spent in the hospital, right?

I was on a business trip this week.  I kept getting texts about how sick Rob was.  I started to worry when Sydney asked the neighbor to come over and help.  Then, I talked to Rob and told him he needed to go to the hospital. 

He finally went. 

And, they admitted him with severe dehydration, loss of kidney function, and a bacterial infection. 

When I told my boss (God love him), he said "go home.  call and change your flight, don't worry about the extra cost." 

So, I changed my flight and came home early.  Got home about 11 and stopped at the hospital on my way home.  Apparently they don't let you sleep at the hospital, so it was no big deal to get there that late. 

They let him out yesterday, about 24 hours after he was admitted. 

He's weak.  And he hurts from multiple hours of being sick.  But, he's on the mend.  He'd be feeling better if he hadn't called me Nurse Ratched.  Maybe I'd give him something to relieve his bloating. 

Just kidding.  He's on multiple antibiotics and pain meds.  And, he's weak. 

Anyway, it's all bland food and rice and juice for a few days for him.  And, subsequently for us. 

Gonna brag on me for a second.  My cooking has fit the bill, getting everything going again, with a minimum of discomfort.  (SCORE!)

And, as much as I could, I sewed my stress away.  I've made arcs.  Remember I mentioned making a red double wedding ring quilt with neutral rings? 

I started. 

I found a pattern.  I really wanted a pattern that made circular rings.  Some of the patterns get kind of square and I didn't want that.  I made the paper arcs out of freezer paper instead of regular white paper.  That method is so easy, using needle punching to make my copies.  I made 8 copies of the arc pattern (honestly, it took longer to cut the paper than to make the copies).  4 arcs make a full ring.  I've made 40 arcs so far.  I can make 8 arcs in just under an hour.  It's going to take a lot of arcs to make a queen sized quilt.  It takes 80 to make the quilt in the pattern.  And, it's only 56x56.  I'm going to need at least 36 rings, 20 more than the pattern, so that's at least 160 arcs, likely closer to 200.  But, I'm not going to worry about that right now.  This is a long term piecing project that can be used as a leader/ender if I get distracted by something else shiny.

I wanted a scrappy look in my neutrals.  I have lots of neutrals and browns.  I store them in three stacks; light, med, dark.  I took about a third of my lights and about a third of my mediums, cut one strip off the end, subcut into squares (2.5x2.5), and that made 40 arcs.  So, I'm really not worried about having enough fabric variety.  Where the rings come together (shown above as large red incomplete squares) will be dark browns.  The red in the picture isn't the right one.  The right one will be darker, more of a cranberry color.  I'll need to acquire and wash that.  But, I'm figuring I've got plenty of time there. 

I realize that working on this project is my stress release.  I have a whole quilt that I quilted while Syd was recovering from knee surgery, so I know this game and I am very receptive to it.  It's a great way for me to burn off some energy and relax while Rob recovers.  And, it feeds my soul.

I also finished the little bonus quilt.  I took it on the trip, and I mostly got the binding sewn on, but I finished at the hospital. 

I am particularly proud of that narrow binding. 

I will definitely be using the single fold binding method on the rest of my small quilts.  It finished at a true quarter inch. 

Everybody have a great weekend!  Keep quilting! 

Lane