Curses, foiled again. BUT—-

Well. I guess it’s good that having children has trained me (in the trenches) how to be flexible. Because if not, I’d be totally freaking out this week. And last week, too, technically.

As anyone who knows me well knows, I’m trying to finish a two-year quilt project within the next 11 days, so that it can be entered in a quilt show. I’m a good distance from being done with this quilt, so it was more of a kick-in-the-pants thing for me — I’ve been pussyfooting around on the quilt because it intimidates me to go completely off on my own like this, because I’ve only ever done other people’s basic designs before.

The Rhapsody in Blue quilt (well, except for the star, which was from this book) is completely my own design. I drafted the flying geese myself, I came up with the idea to embellish with metallic threads and trapunto to enhance aspects of the quilt that I didn’t feel showed up well enough, it was my idea to do bobbin work with metallic cording after lots of quilting with metallic threads…

So every new step has presented a new and untraveled path for me. Scary stuff. And each time, I had already invested hours and hours in the preceding steps, so the “oh, man, what if I RUIN it?!” thoughts pervade. And every time, I’ve had to ignore them and plunder ahead. And every time, I’ve been very happy with the results, even if they’re not exactly what I have imagined.

When I layered the quilt for trapunto and got that part done a couple weeks ago, I saw the quilt upside-down for the first time. Upside-down is now right-side-up, and I found tons of new inspiration and energy and will to complete it by the deadline. I’ve worked and worked and worked on it.

And then Alice got sick, which took me away from it a lot. I did get to work some last weekend, which was great. But my nieces and sister-in-law were here, so I spent a lot of my would-otherwise-be-quilting time hanging out with them. And then Helen got sick this week.

Tomorrow morning, even if Helen has a fever again, I’m hoping her grandparents (the usual Friday morning babysitters) will come over here. I plan on locking myself in the sewing room, leaving the computer off, and WORKING for three solid, unbroken hours.

And last night, after realizing just how tedious the bobbinwork step is, and just how much quilting I have left to do on the rest of this quilt (nevermind the binding, hanging sleeve, and label), I started to panic. I may be SO close but not-quite-finished by the deadline. And that just kills me. πŸ™ Unless….

And I realized: I can do bobbinwork AFTER all that other stuff (except for the label and hanging sleeve, but those go on pretty quickly). SO. I’m going to do the REST of the quilting, do the finishing, and THEN do the bobbinwork until I run out of time. It may not be completely done by MY definition, but it should be ready to turn in for the quilt show by September 5th.

I was much calmer going to sleep last night, because I came up with a reasonable solution. It won’t be EASY to finish it in time, but by damn, I’m going to finish it. And it may not win awards because of the thread tension issues I’ve been having, but it will definitely get some attention because of how visually interesting it is turning out to be.

I cannot wait to share photos of the finished product for you. It has come a LONG way since last time you saw it.

Obsession

It’s keeping me awake.

I went to sleep last night thinking about it.

I caught myself dreaming about it.

I worked on it this morning while Alice napped, while I waited for the shower.

I’ve been wanting to work on it all day.

And the girls will be home in an hour.

Where does the time go?

And tonight, I have water aerobics at 8. Maybe we’ll get a thunderstorm and I can work on it.

It’s looking great, though. I’ll share photos when it gets a little further along… I LOVE it when I get on a creative binge like this. It’s enthralling. πŸ™‚

Favorite Things This Weekend

Alice woke up fever-free and happy this morning. For the first time since Wednesday. I’ve missed our happy little baby, so this was welcomed, of course.

Alice is learning how to kiss. Now, if you say, “Alice, give me a kiss!” she’ll toddle over, lean in, cut her eyes off to one side, and slobber open-mouthed all over your face. I love it. It’s so sweet!

Alice really likes to sit in my lap. If I’m sitting on the floor, she’ll frequently bring over a book, turn around, and back into my lap. Precious.

We took the bunkbeds apart yesterday, and so Helen’s in a regular bed again (though significantly higher up than before, since she’s got a box spring and mattress on the lower frame of the bunkbeds)… She can feel “cold air” on her face at night, and this makes her happy. She woke us up at 5:10 this morning, but I took her back downstairs, went through the bedtime routine again, and put Logic on the bed with her to protect her. She slept for another 90 minutes or so. πŸ™‚

The cousins all wore their matching dresses to church this morning, and Helen was a perfect angel. She told me before we left: “I’m going to be such a good girl! I’m going to be VERY quiet.” And she was.

Alice lets me put barrettes in her hair. And she’s beginning to understand things like “hair,” because if I mention her hair, she grabs her hair. Still working on “nose” and “belly,” though.

My niece is learning how to knit, and she’s been working on a scarf this week, with a thick boucle yarn. She dropped a stitch, but then continued to knit for several rows. I dug down into the scarf and recovered the stitch, thus securing my status as Coolest Aunt Ever.

Alice is wearing Baby Gap flared jeans with a white T-shirt right now, and she’s so cute it would rip your heart out.

I got to scrapbook with my sister-in-law on Saturday night. Last night and today I’ve been uploading photos so that I can finish Alice’s baby book and get caught up in our 2005 family album again.

Free-motion quilting on the Rhapsody in Blue quilt has begun, which means that Pandora’s box has officially been opened…

The local yarn store is having an “emergency 60% off sale” tomorrow through Thursday because a shipment of yarn came in Friday and they don’t have any space for it. So I’m going to go check out the sale bin, since I’ll be spending some time convalescing in about a month.

Life is good. πŸ™‚

Critical Yellow

On Wednesday, one of my mom’s best friends called me to ask if she could go shopping in my mom’s fabric stash (Mom’s in Colorado at the moment). Turns out Judy (Judy McC. from Fantasy, for all you locals) is this close to finishing a quilt for the quilt show, and she ran out of a critical yellow fabric. She and Claire and Ann are all out hunting for this fabric, and none of the local stores have any more of it.

My mom has done several yellow quilts (three, I think — Mom is about yellow the way I am about orange), so Judy knows that Mom’s Yellow Stash is substantial. So we made an appointment to meet at Mom’s at 9:30 yesterday morning, and she showed me the fabric.

“Oh, I have THAT. I have at least a half-yard of it.”

We checked Mom’s stash quickly, even though I knew Mom didn’t have it — it’s a relatively new fabric, and Mom’s last yellow quilt was finished last summer. So I know she hasn’t bought any more yellow in a while. Then we drove the half-mile in our matching Subaru Outbacks back over to my house (I didn’t walk because I had just showered after walking 3.5 miles yesterday morning), and I got her a full yard of the Critical Yellow fabric. She was so happy — PLENTY for her to work with, and no need to scrimp because she definitely wouldn’t be running out of it now.

I had this fabric because it was perfect for the edging on the Christmas Stockings that I haven’t finished yet. Judy was worried about taking my “perfect” yellow, but I don’t mind at all — since I haven’t gotten to that point in the stockings yet, I’m quite certain I can find another yellow that will be equally perfect.

And I got to make someone’s day. On her birthday, no less. It was a good day. I’m going to call her today to see if she finished her project. πŸ™‚