Sunday Fun-day

Christmas music in the air and Tula Pink fabrics on the cutting table...what could be better?! I cut out some wide strips of Tula fabrics and some peppered cottons (from Pepper Cory) and set to work making a St.Louis 16 patch I saw on  the Scribbly Gum blog. The quilt uses fat quarters to make a quick, large lap size quilt, so I decided to go for it. I bought a pack of Tula fabrics on a recent shop visit to Ooltewah, TN, and chose those as well as a bunch of peppered cotton solids from the FQ wall at the  Cleveland shop. It didn't take long to cut the strips and make the blocks. After they were on the design wall, I thought they were a bit too simple and decided to add little triangles to the corners. I can never leave well enough alone!

                                                 

Here are the blocks. I did some more arranging and still wasn't satisfied.

I auditioned some Kaffe millifiore colors and settled on the cornflower blue one for the triangles. 

Subtle, but effective to knock down so much clunkiness in the blocks. Maybe I'll add a fun border, too. 

Everything is seat of the pants and fun. Design play is good for healing, don't you think?

Today, I will finish this top and cut a new one. My mind has already raced ahead and thought of what to do with the leftover FQ pieces...a many trips quilt from Bonnie Hunter's blog. 

Off to the races!!

S-l-o-w recovery

The home health representative came yesterday and chided me for doing way too much after my surgery. I think it gives a patient a false sense of security to send them home the same day of surgery with the instructions; don't bend, lift or twist (BLT). I thought I could do most everything I used to do, but quickly discovered it was painful and tiring. Plus, I had a weird side effect from the scopolamine patch I had behind my ear for nausea...my left pupil is larger than my right one. This is called anisocoria, and can be benign or a sign of a life threatening condition. I have no pain with it, and my eye is otherwise normal, so I ruled out life threatening. I just have to put up with  blurry vision on that side for a while.

I am taking it easy, not walking too much, not digging out pots and pans from low cupboards, not picking up anything over five pounds...you know the drill. What I am doing is sewing. Yesterday, I made this top. It's from a flannel layer cake and soft as kitten's fur. I think it needs soft flannel on the back, so I'll make a quick trip to the shop tomorrow to get some. That makes four tops to do when the new machine comes.

The pattern is called Stars Over Minoqua. I bought the booklet for it in Wisconsin the last time I was there. Minoqua is a lovely town in Wisconsin found on a peninsula in the middle of a lake way up north.

I look a bit startled, but because my eyes are so deep set, I have to open them wide to show the disparity in my pupils. This, too, shall pass.

Today, I plan to sew some easy 16 patches and make another top. Bright color and Christmas music will fill my day. What are you going to do?!