Thursday, March 13, 2014

Good intentions

Last night, before I went to bed, I vowed I'd go right to the sewing room and finish the comfort quilt after breakfast. I figured it was a good substitute since quilt club was canceled due to the snow, blizzard and our speakers' inability to fly in.

And this blog may seem familiar as I wrote about distraction on Nov. 4, 2011. I found it in my ramblings today.

So, this morning I decided to check my email first and received one from Ulla who is working on publishing Opa's memoirs and history about us Weinberg's. She had several questions about my uncle and so what did I do? I tried to looked them up, which took quite some time, and then wrote an answer. While looking them up I got carried away and was reading my Germany blog entries. It has distracted me all morning; not that it was unpleasant. Actually it was fun. But this is why I don't accomplish my goals in a timely fashion. Now it's 3 PM and I'm going to work on it now. With luck, I'll get the hang of this machine quilting thing. I do straight lines very well, but I sure need practice on curvy stuff. I'm practicing on a comfort (gift to charity) quilt.

Friday, March 7, 2014

Quilting & UFO's

I was in my sewing room and saw ... not a relaxing place to work, but a mess! So I decided to finish a few things and put others away. As I'm doing this I noticed how dark the basement room is so this spring (if spring ever gets here) I plan on painting the room, one wall at a time. So the UFO's must get done! (UFO's = UnFinished Objects) But what happens? I hear about a class or someone has an occasion and I feel compelled to construct something ... or is it what I'd rather do than what needs to be done?

I did get 3 things done. Can't show one of them because it hasn't been gifted, yet. The other 2 are because Janet Root offered a Mystery Wall Hanging workshop that sounded appealing. Janet told us what values and size fabrics to bring from light to dark. I brought 3 separate piles. It's SO difficult to choose when you haven't seen a sample, but I love the challenge. This is my finished class piece.

Chuck & I liked the outcome, but when we were in Tucson last winter I found some quilt shops and felt obligated to support them. I found some AZ fabrics, but didn't take to Janet's class exactly the correct fabrics with me in that pile to showcase it. So I made another one, almost the same, using those fabrics and ignoring all the other UFO's waiting to be done. Here is the result.

And these were requested gifts. Colleen's is made of Downton Abbey fabrics (they have a cat named Downton Tabby). Maggie requested some ruffles. And the one I made for Liz were to her specifications, too.

I also have a comfort quilt almost complete. The quilt for our bed is going very slowly. It took me a long time to figure out why. When I started it, 3 - 4 years ago (Chuck says he'll be dead before it gets done), I decided to hand quilt it as it has wonderful open spaces for that and I LOVE hand quilting. Make that "loved". I have arthritis in my fingers that are now making hand quilting uncomfortable. So this WILL be done in 2014. I will finish hand quilting this section and then switch to machine quilting the border. The poor quilt on our bed is getting thread bare and needs a permanent rest.
I think it will be worth the wait

Now that I know the problem, I'll take a mild pain reliever before I hand quilt. I've also figured out that the quilting is not as visible with busy printed fabrics so machine quilting works fine. The comfort quilt is where I'll practice some "fancy" machine quilting. Then when I do another quilted project that calls for decorative quilting, I won't be quite so intimidated. I keep hearing ... practice, practice, practice. But first, making the sewing space a pleasant place to work.

Thursday, January 2, 2014

2014 Begins

This time it was our turn to host New Year's Eve. We have been getting together for over 40 years with our friends. Some have moved away and some are no longer with us, but we are still together. When our children come home we reminisce about all the good times together, but New Year's eve was just the adults.

We decided to get together in our homes because we lived close to each other and had small children and didn't want to travel far, but did want to celebrate together. It was before cell phones … come to think of it, we all have cell phones now, but most of us forget to turn them on and we do not have smart phones. The parties were easy and fun because we shared the food preparation. The hosts had to come up with some entertainment. Easy!

Now I'm 79 and I dreaded the upcoming party. Why? The entertainment! We love getting together, but we can't just sit around and look at each other until midnight. Finally I just took the bull by the horns. I got together a couple of activities (count all the nativity sets and snowmen I have) and another that I'll explain later. First we snacked on appetizers and talked, then the activities … oh, dear, it was only 10:15 … almost 2 hours yet to go, but as I'm pondering what to do next I noticed that everyone is engaged in conversation and enjoying each other. So I relaxed. Someone suggested we have our dessert before midnight. Perfect.

Because I was agonizing about the upcoming party, I realized how lazy or unmotivated I've become. And I've heard some of the others doing a little of the same kind of grumbling. It's seemed like such an effort. We do love getting together. I've known since Jan. 1, 2013 that it was my turn.

Then about the first week in Dec. I had a change in attitude and wondered why? I had (still have?) bursitis in my hip and for over a year have been hurting. Medicine and cortisone did not help so I've gone for extensive physical therapy. And it worked! I am pain free (hope it lasts), have energy and am happier. Pain takes a lot out of you I've come to realize.

I also realized I don't have any fulfilling goals. Yes I have a bucket list, but that's not the same, but it may be enough at this stage of my life. So I asked everyone to list some goals … and that got the discussion started. It wasn't easy because we have new challenges to deal with, but I think it helped. It did for me.

And that's what friends are for, to support each other. I forgot to take pictures of us, but here is a fairly recent one.


It isn't all of us, and Cheri (Frenz) & Jim Klyczek were our hosts (the 2 younger looking ones) at Niagara Community College Culinary Institute. Here are 2 other pictures taken the same day:


So what is my goal? I really hate to exercise, but must do it in order to stay healthy. Maplewood "Y" has a wonderful instructor for seniors and I'm going to try to go regularly. Anja is very attuned to our individual needs and helps us when we need it. I'll work on other goals. Good luck with yours.