Sit back and rest

This was a weekend to rest.  Friday was kind of frantic as I tried to catch up on things and...okay, maybe I should be a little ashamed, but there was this research project and the first person to submit was going to set the standards for the rest of the responses.  And, I wanted to be "it", so I turned a million and a half rows of data into a chart the size of the notecard and might have been just the least bit manic as I did it.  So, I expected to jump out of bed on Saturday at a run and get a ton of stuff done. 

But my  body had another idea.

I did get up and make three samples out of quarter yards of fabric.  I went to my box of fabrics I'm not going to quilt with and pulled my batting scraps and I cut quarters and seamed batting and cut it all down to fat quarter size and then pin basted three of them together.  Just that fast.  And, then I sat down and started quilting the first one, following the lessons in Wendy Sheppard's Stitching Pathways book.  She has the best teaching method.  She starts a line drawing and then adds a few inches of quilting, then adds a few more inches, then a page that incorporates that and goes out even further.  What I did was follow her line drawing out as far as she went, and then take that even further to fill a shape. 

I wasn't completely happy with the swirl in the upper left corner, so I devoted a whole practice piece to that one.  I use that a LOT, so I wanted to really focus on it. 

And, then I kept going.  I divided one quarter yard into quarters and then filled them. 
 

 

I even got a little adventurous and added my own twists to things.  It was fun. 

 

Sitting down was where I went wrong.  When I stood up, I realized just how tired I was.  So, I spent most of the weekend curled up on the sofa under a quilt.  I just happened to be picking the quilting out of that quilt while I was enjoying its warmth. 

 

I have about 80% of the quilting picked out of this.  Many hours of pulling thread until my hands ached.  So many mistakes.  This is such early work.  But, the top is well constructed and the blocks are square and true, and as I got the chance to focus on block after block and really look at the fabric choices, I developed even more of an appreciation for this one.  Now, I just need to find a nice autumn fabric to use on the borders because this time, I plan to add the borders before I quilt it.  I've quilted many large quilts since this one was abandoned, so don't need to worry so much about the extra bulk a border would add.  This is getting that swirly pattern that I did over the whole sample, but first, I'm going to pick something small to practice that some more on. 

Yesterday's big activity was cooking.  I'm so mean.  On Sunday, I cook dinners for the week, so there's all this really good food, but it's all partial meals that still need a veg and a starch.  And, I won't let my family eat any of it.  Rob had to go out for lunch yesterday, while I was cooking four dinners for this week.  And, then he helped with the dishes.  And, I still wouldn't let him have so much as a bowl of stew for dinner.

Mean cook.

Everybody have a great Monday.  I'm feeling better, but it's still  taking a few minutes to get everything going in the same direction in the mornings.  I wake up pretty stuffed up, but that clears up after a coffee and I'm ready to face my day. 

Lane