"Tired always came after Sick"

How do I begin? Well, the stress of the last week trying to prepare for Grammie's open house took it's toll in the form of "airplane/travel head cold". Monday morning I felt like total you-know-what. But I had to get the things I needed to get done out of the way, like mowing, and laundry, and a doctor's appt. Doctor's appt leads to further test being needed. Yay. More to think about.

On Tuesday, still feeling bad, I learned of the death of a good friend, Amrita Sunita Board Dowd. Oh, how can I even explain this? Rita had her lovely son Daschel on April 3rd, and something was still not right. After tests, Rita had a very rare and aggressive cancer. She passed with family and friends Monday May 11th. Rita always made me laugh and I will really miss her.

Today, it's all hitting me at once. I'm tired and sick, and really down in the dumps. I miss Grammie and Rita, the cats are not getting along, and my "big" quilt is slipping away into UFO project status, and it needs to be hung May 22nd, but I don't know if I will have time to finish it... Too much for me to think about now. I have to focus on getting well and then the quilt.

Back to back injury- time to crochet!

Ha ha....sorry for the pun, though I'm not really laughing. Yesterday proved to be a stressful morning, and my back seized up after being OK for a couple of weeks. My allergies seem to be in overdrive today, and I am very stuffed up. I'm exhausted from stress, injury, and antihistamines.

In times like these, I crochet. I think this is one of the first kind of fiber arts I did. I was taught to crochet by a nun named Laverne who lived on my block. I grew up in Calumet Park, IL. This nun brought all of us kids on Ada St into her home almost daily and let us do crafts, color, and otherwise keep us off the streets. She taught me how to crochet, just one stitch, the single crochet. Laverne passed away not too long after teaching me, and my grandmother would not let us go to her funeral. I eventually taught myself the rest of the stitches, years later. I have never made a large crochet project, but plenty of small things.

When I am laid up like this, I usually crochet because it's easy and I can do it and watch TV at the same time. The past couple of weeks before getting back into the sewing room I made lots of washcloths from cotton yarn I got on sale at Michaels. Now I'm thinking of making some socks...

Walking in Memphis

By the time you read this, I'll be in Memphis TN for the comic book industry job I have. Be there through Sunday. Missing my brother's birthday and my sister's candle party...

My back is not fully recovered so no sewing has happened in the studio. Lots of reading and crocheting, but little sewing. The ideas are building up, and the big IQA show in Chicago is looming with all kinds of ideas and classes to take and money to spend there...

I am teaching my Fiber Art Divas group how to make the Yo Yo Flowers (sorry for those of you still waiting on the pattern). I'll let you know how it goes. This is just coming off of teaching it as a half hour demo at the Riverwalk Quilt Guild's Gathering show.

I have a project to take with me on the plane, but we'll see how much gets done. I may just nap instead.

In the meantime, I submitted one of my sad February quilts for a "ghost for a ghost" project over on Astulabee's Blog and Flickr page. Go check it out!

Someone's masterpiece

Of all of the items in the bag of "cutter" quilts scraps I got, none were as sad as this one.
This is one half of two hand pieced applique bows and flowers bouquets that remained. I imagine this quilt was a bed sized piece with lots of this motif repeated throughout.
What's even more shocking is the tiny tiny crosshatch quilting around the bow.
This was someone's masterpiece. Hand appliqued and quilted. Now it's all cut up.
This turned out to be a good theme for this month, as the trip to NYC and a horrible horrible head cold sidelined a lot of quilting for me this month.
March also looks full, with another work trip, my guild's quilt show, and much more. Exciting!

On the mend

It's rotten to be sick, and this cold really knocked me for a loop. I was so drained, I thought sewing this weekend would be impossible.

Luckily, I felt ok enough to sew a bit today, so I got a couple of things done.

I also found a few minutes to scan everything I have done lately for your viewing pleasure.

These monsters were so freaking cute to do. I can definitely see patterns for these in the future.

These ATCs are for trades I'm involved in over at ATCSforAll.com.

Lastly these are November's theme, fall leaves. Anotehr topic suggested by the DH. Those perfect leaves are silk leaves bought from a craft store.

You know you're old when...

Getting a cold seems to sap the life out of you... I have a major cold and it's really doing a number on me. I had the flu this year also. I never used to get sick when I worked in an office, and now that I work from home I get sick all the time! The worst part about being sick right now is that I had lots of things planned for this weekend and now I know I won't get much of them done because I feel so awful.

I have a lot of updates coming, and a lot of projects planned before the year is out. I hope i can get to them in time. I know you will love the October themed weekly quilts when I get time to scan and upload them, they are really really cute.

I can remember when I would get a cold and be over it in 2 days. Now, not so much...