I don't know if any of you have had this experience, but did you ever notice that everything in your life happens all at once? What is up with that? I really wish the angel of good fortune would show up and start sprinkling everyone with fairy dust...

And I really love the new job I got in January, but I have to tell you it is kicking my butt. I go from one meeting to another answering questions and finding more tasks that I need to do. With all the mortgage trauma, I mostly sat around for the last couple of years in my old job. Since my niche is development and operational excellence, there was really nothing going on. Now my job is challenging (and I love it!) but I come home completely exhausted. Mostly I sit on the porch with a drink and watch the birds in the evenings.

So there's not a lot of brainpower in the evenings just lately. Even for quilting. My main project is the kite and there is no way my poor tired brain is up to dealing with him on a daily basis. There are a couple of more or less mindless projects I have picked up just to keep my hands busy while my brain idles. I tried the log cabin version of the blocks like the one in my uncle's scrap quilt and have put a couple of those together:


And I am working on another one of the Good Housekeeping Heirloom Stockings:


Also, I just realized tonight that my pinwheel blocks are still sitting on the table (minus the borders!) and it is almost the end of the month. Guess it's a good thing this long weekend is coming up so I can get them done and into the mail!

Hope you all have a long quilting weekend planned!

Another Wing...

Coming along.... not sure if I like that center section. I may have to tear it apart and change a couple of the grays in there....

Kite update

Nothing to say today except that my arm is one giant cramp...

A Lazy Day

I've been a complete slug today. I guess I must be really worn out- I got up by 7 (which would be late for me) and sat down in front of the window. I had a drink and watched the birds for about an hour, then decided to go back to bed. And slept a couple more hours.

I finally got up and went to work- I stuffed all the scraps back in the laundry basket and re-arranged all the fabrics to work on my bird. It is beautiful here today- my table where I hand sew is right in front of the window. All of the first round of baby birds are learning to get around now. It is really funny to watch them follow their momma bird around and flop around like they are starving. They are being taught how to get a drink out of my pond- I feel like a lifeguard just waiting for someone to fall in the water. Caleb sits with his chin in the window, but eventually they flop around so much that he has to jump up and go outside to check them. Even the slowest baby bird can get away, the distance is just too far from the door for him to reach. But he goes out and sniffs all the places that the birds were. There have been at least 3 window collisions today, hopefully no one will break their neck. Sure hope these little guys learn to steer soon.

It is sunny and 75 degrees here today. I have to say, this is the longest "Spring" that we have had in Texas since I moved here. It's almost like being back home. I guess any day now we will jump up to about 90 and stay that way for the summer. When I got home, the new flowers I put in are all in bloom. Caleb ran over the white foxglove I put in but here is a shot of the one that is survived the Moose Express:

Well, Mom and I have been MIA for a while.... We got some really bad news last week. Mom's only brother was diagnosed with cancer. As it turns out it is the really aggressive Non-Small Cell kind. And he has already had Emphysema for a while now. So the family decided to go visit him right away and went to North Carolina this past weekend. Mom and Dad drove down from Indianapolis and picked brother and I up from the airport on the way.

Turns out that when I get stressed out I REALLY need something to do. The first couple of days that I found out I spent digging in the garden. Which is a great way to exhaust yourself but is also quite painful. Then I suddenly decided that my Uncle Gary needed a quilt. He was still in the hospital at that time and I thought I would give him something cheerful and comforting all at the same time. So for three or four days last week, I spent all hours getting my scrap quilt put together. My great friend Karen managed to quilt it for me on her long-arm with no time and no notice. (Bless her!) Mom kept telling me I didn't need to do it (she knew I was staying up all night!) but I was determined. I picked up the quilt from Karen on Thursday after work and bound it with a zigzag stitch that night. So it was packed for my flight Friday morning.

Saturday we went to visit, but I still had a couple of little things to finish on the quilt so it stayed behind. Oh, and he was home by now- they have a hospital bed set up in the middle of the living room. The couches are on either side of the bed so it is set up in a circle for everyone to talk. Due to his radiation treatments, the house temp was about 65 degrees. Brrr. Due to the meds he was on, he would wake every hour or two all night so everyone was very tired when we got there. This had been going on for a couple of days, I guess.

Mom and her brother are Navy brats so there was a lot of talk about all the places that they had lived when they were young. Just for the record, you can learn a lot sitting around listening to the "adults" talk about the "good old days". First of all, you have to understand that this side of the family is full of pranksters and "tall tales" are a completely common event. You have to be skeptical when any of the relatives start telling stories- 9 times out of 10 they are trying to hook you into some far-fetched tale. So one of the stories I heard this weekend was that Mom's grandfather, Garrett Cruzan, apparently held the record for the biggest bass fish from Lake Jacksonville, IL for many years.... it was a family joke for a long, long time. If I told you that this fish was related to the frog in Mark Twain's "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" would you get the joke? The fish was loaded down with buckshot....

So Sunday we went back and the conversation started up again. Mom started talking about all sorts of stuff and got around to mentioning quilting and the blogs. (Nice segue way, Mom!) So at a lull in the conversation, I pulled out my quilt and gave it to him. I told him that it was made up of all scraps of my other quilts and told him about some of the different pieces that were in it. He had been laying on the bed with no covers, but as soon as he got that quilt he pulled it right up under his chin. I think he was so overwhelmed by the gift he could hardly tell me thank you enough. But for the rest of our visit he was completely wrapped up in that quilt...

So I got my scrap quilt done a little earlier than planned. I'm still sad about the circumstances, but it also makes me feel good that I was able to give him a little comfort and let him know how much I love him.