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| Here are the quilts I will bring, all labeled and sorted. It's amazing how heavy this many quilts are! |
Still though, I'm feeling better, and getting my usual energy back, if slowly. I'm no longer in self-imposed quarantine, and was able to go to Urgent Care on Friday to get the stitches in my toe removed. That is healing nicely.
I'm still a bit congested, and I've got the humidifier going. I put it on my little cart (thank you Julie) so I can move it to whichever room I am in, which is pretty nice.
More normal energy means I have got my house back to rights after the painters left and that feels pretty good. I was also able to unpack my suitcase and put away all the extra stuff that traveling entails (extra meds, toiletries, water bottle, etc.) and got caught up with the laundry.
And I've handled all the bills and paperwork that piled up while I was gone and out of commission.
I've worked on the Sherbet quilt and have all the pieces sewn into rows, but I haven't sewn the rows together yet. My laptop is giving me grief about uploading photos again, and I'll deal with it later, so for now, no pics.
I've even pulled out the puzzle board and got started on another jigsaw puzzle.
So life is getting back to normal. YAY!
It is always nice to know how my readers think of me. Several offered their opinions, which are always good to consider.
However, I already have an iPhone, and do not want an Android anything. Moreover, I do not want a 15" anything. If I want to watch a movie, I'll do it on my TV using a streaming service. I'm spoiled like that.
What I want is everything on one platform, that's interchangeable, and all draws from my data which is in ONE place.
I have pulled the trigger and decided to move all my devices to Apple. They can share the same data and talk between each other nicely.
Today Dot told me : "Later this month, Apple will release a new model of the iPad Pro, so you might want to wait a bit to see what it’s like. The other iPads will likely be reduced in price at that time."
Oops. too late. However, shortly afterward I received an email from Apple:
So I will be getting a newer version of the one I ordered. Lucky me.
Well.
The other day when I was working on the hanging sleeve for the pink barn quilt, I decided to cut the binding for it at the same time. So I did that. And then I put it next to the quilt and OOPS! I goofed.
Fortunately I found the correct fabric, waiting somewhere safe. I'll be working on that this weekend.
And now, a Public Service Announcement:
Two weekends ago a colleague of mine celebrated the wedding of one of his daughters. Relatives and friends traveled from near and far for the event. It went off without a hitch. But four days later one of the guests called him. He and his wife tested positive for Covid. My colleague reached out to all in attendance, as well as the vendors.
Fully one third of the folks who attended tested positive. My friend has spent the last two weeks self isolating and checking in on his friends and relatives far and wide.
Just today I heard from another friend who was exposed recently. She's angry and I don't blame her.
This thing isn't going away, folks. Please get the newest vaccine, which is available to everyone older than 5. Your drugstore should have it. (I got mine that same weekend. No, I did not attend the wedding.) Protect yourself and those around you.
Every day is a risk. You win some, you lose some.
I've tested positive for Covid. I'm fully vaccinated (two shots) and boosted. Yes, it's a bummer, but so far, for me, it's nothing more than the usual flu with fatigue.
How I got it is (ultimately) unimportant. I'm not interested in a political discussion. This is simply my way of telling you that I'm going to be offline for a few days while I recover.
Oh - I didn't break a rib.
I pin it down all around the quilt before I start handsewing. Now I can relax and "watch" TV with Millie curled up beside me while I hand sew the binding,
In other, more sobering news, my state leads the US in recent cases per capita. I'm supposed to be hosting Christmas dinner at my house, and I am seriously considering asking my family members to have a negative Covid test result before they can spend the day in my home. This may not go over well.
If, when you look at your quilt, and you see stuff that bugs you, you should fix it. (You really should. DON'T fix it, and it will bug you every single time you look at the quilt for the rest of its existence.
Take these two green dragonflies, for instance. They are too much the same too close to each other, and they create a focal point on that block that I do not want to be there.
It was a simple fix, and now it looks better.
SOMETIMES you get ideas and you should act on them. Or at least try them out. With one of the background fabrics looking decidedly like outer space, when I noticed this scrap in my stash...
I thought I could fussy cut it to get a couple of the cute rockets and stars in a block.
Great block! Just what I was after.
Until I looked at in on the design wall when I stepped across the room. It was the biggest, brightest red orange thing on the wall, and my eye went RIGHT TO IT. (sigh)
I wanted the curious viewer to see it, but I didn't want to make the rockets "hit you over the head" obvious.
This is much better.
Regular readers know how much I like to fool my viewers. The light green center of the block on the right is one example. It clearly isn't white, or light blue, but there are enough light values in the quilt so the casual viewer might not notice it is green right away. I'm not quite convinced, but so far the presence of this light green in the quilt doesn't bother me.
But look again at the fabric surrounding the green in the block above. It isn't black, and it isn't dark blue. It is a purplish brownish color. I am going to put it in the quilt anyway. Purple is close to the dark blue and the blue black I am looking for in this quilt, and more importantly this fabric exhibits another one of those color rules you know, but probably never put into words. It is this: Value trumps color. If you get a fabric close enough to the chosen value of another fabric, it will look like it belongs there, and not disturb the eye.
If you were in one of my classes, you would have heard me say, (if you, for example, said, "I can't use this, the color doesn't match...") "Don't be so darned literal. Back up. If you can't tell the difference from six feet away, your viewer won't either." This is another example of how you can get your stash to work for you You do not need to have a room full of fabric to find the right one to use. You just have to look at your fabric creatively.
I was at Quilted Threads last summer, and while I was waiting in line (six feet apart, masked), I happened to look over to where a lady and her husband were holding a pile of blue fabrics and conversing over a pattern the lady clutched in her hands. From where I was standing, six feet away, the four bolts the man held in his arms looked like the same color. I had to look away and think of something else. WHAT I REALLY wanted to say was, "Are you planning to use all four of those dark blues in that one quilt? Because from here they all look alike, and I don't know what you're planning to do with them, but unless you separate them somehow, they are going to look like one big blob and you aren't going to like it." Of course I kept my mouth shut.
What was the difference in the two situations? In my example, I wanted to fool the viewer into thinking the two fabrics were the same color. In the second, there was nothing to distinguish the various fabrics apart from a distance, and you know I've said more than once that you want to avoid areas in your quilts where there are too many darks clumped together, because it will read like a dark blob.
I actually hadn't expected it to go as planned, but it did. I drove to the location (which was clearly marked) and presented my ID. A very nice young man in military fatigues (masked, of course) greeted me and confirmed my information and told me to get in line. He put a placard on my windshield. Another military person went through some details and said once the vaccine had been administered I would receive a card with my second appointment, "here, a month from today."
Now, you have to remember, I live in New England. It was sunny. slightly breezy and a mere 37 degrees. If you live in New England this was a gorgeous February day. But you're sitting in your car with the windows open, and you're going to present your (bare) arm. This wasn't in some big garage. This was out in the open. I wore a short sleeved shirt under under my winter coat. I was glad it was a nice day.
While I waited, I looked around. There were three "aisles" and it was clear the crew knew exactly what they were doing. It ran like clockwork.
When the First Responder came to give me my shot, I pulled up my sleeve, "No, I can take care of that," he said, and proceeded to give me shot I barely felt. Then he handed me a card showing which vaccine I received, its lot number and the date and time of my second vaccine. I waited the prescribed amount of time, and then drove home.
Later, at "work" several of my coworkers expressed jealousy and said they couldn't wait to get the shots themselves. This is a massive undertaking, At the current pace, the New York Times estimates it won't be until February 11 of 2022 that 90% of Americans will have had both shots, and mid-August before half the population would be at least partially vaccinated. (Assuming supplies of the vaccine are sufficient to meet the demand. This could change if more vaccines are authorized (let's hope so) and that children are eventually able to be vaccinated.)
It's all very humbling. The crew I watched worked ceaselessly. There are seven vaccine locations in my small state, which has a very specific order for who gets vaccinated when. The scale of all of this begins to hit home. Yesterday flags in the US were at half-staff for the 500,000 who have died of Covid 19. We aren't out of the woods yet. I'll be working from home for several more months. Yesterday I found out that the two big movie theater chains in my state will close permanently. We all want everything to go back to "normal," but I think it's going to be a very different "normal."
Clearly my head is all over the place about this. I know I'm not the only one.
