Busy Body

It's been a busy couple of days, although I did have some time for sewing on Sunday. Yesterday I walked with my friend Sue. As I've told you many times, we most often walk the Fanno Creek Trail in Beaverton, Oregon. It's a wetlands area and within the past five years or so there has been quite a bit of conservation activity along the trail. Trees were planted, the creek banks were restored, paths were repaired, signage added...all sorts of things that I'm sure I've missed listing. The changes have been interesting to watch and invaluable to this resource. It is a haven for all sorts of wildlife. Sue and I even discovered a beaver dam along the creek. We often see interesting things along the trail, and yesterday we were treated to a bald eagle. It's the first time we've seen one at that location. It was going after a crows' nest and the crows were harassing it. There is so much to see if one remembers to keep one's eyes open. Sue is very good at spotting things like that.

After that, I drove down to Silverton (about an hour's drive) to pick up my quilt at the quilt show. Speaking of the quilt show, I wanted to tell you that a couple of you with sharp eyes directed me to a picture of my quilt posted on Martha Briese's blog, Quilt to the Edge. What a thrill to see my quilt posted on someone else's blog! Martha and I obviously visited the show at different times of the day because she was able to capture some of the quilts I missed because of the bright sunshine. (On the other hand, I note that some of her images have bright sunshine where mine did not. Funny thing about that!) Anyway, I was so happy to see that Martha was able to capture the full quilt of the shore bird that I liked so much. Now you can see the whole thing.

This quilt is called "Low Tide" by Helene Knott, who is a local quilter. She does amazing landscape quilts and beautiful quilting. I took a class from her once, and while I found the class frustratingly slow in pace, I did learn quite a bit. I would encourage you to click over to Martha's blog to see some of the quilts she has posted. She has some that I missed for one reason or another.

So after picking up my quilt, I decided to visit two fabric stores in the Salem area, Greenbaum's Quilted Forest and The Cotton Patch. (If you click on those links, you can read my review of those shops.) And would you believe that I didn't buy anything??? I had to make a quick stop at the grocery store on the way home, but I briefly considered stopping in at an Urgent Care clinic to see if I was sick. Just to be sure I hurried home to take my temperature and see if I had a fever. None, but I checked my blood pressure anyway just to make sure everything was ship shape. 

With all of that going on, I didn't do any sewing. A combination of things during the day had my right hand screaming in pain. I think it was the combination of rotary cutting, ironing, embroidery, and a day of driving all conspiring to give me a bad case of wrist-itis. It was killing me all evening, but it's fine this morning. Who knows what causes these schizophrenic bouts with intense pain?

As for Sunday, Matthew came by to work on his car with his dad. While they spent their time in the garage, I did the top-stitching for the latest two Yard Art Blocks:

The applique on this is large with lots of little nooks and crannies, and so it takes a surprisingly long time to accomplish. I'm reminded each time I do it why I don't work on this quilt very often. The completed quilt has ten sets of these two blocks.

Here's what I have so far. Um, hello? Excuse me. Pardon me. Can you see I'm trying to take a picture here?

Thank you. Now, here it is:

I've been working on this quilt since November of 2012. Little by little gets the job done eventually.

After that, I did the cutting for the Outback Sunset table runner.

When I first talked about making this table runner, I had in mind some different fabrics. A couple of them didn't seem right, and so I switched them out. This is what I ended up with:

I'm hoping to get started on the sewing today. It shouldn't take too long to put the top together, unless something tricky comes up that I'm not anticipating.

While Matthew was here on Sunday we started talking about quilts...I can't remember the context...and he made some wisecrack about adding electric lights to a quilt. As we were talking about it, we both realized that just possibly it could be done. There is a lot of amazing LED technology out there now that would require only a tiny battery. He had one thing in mind, and I had in mind to try lighting a quilted Christmas tree. We both agreed that it would be fun to try, and then we went about our business, and I didn't really give it another thought.

Then, as I was cleaning up for the day, I decided to peruse my bookshelf for another book for the February "Let's Book It" challenge. (You can click on the button in my right side bar if you're unfamiliar with the challenge.) I've committed to focusing on smaller quilts and scraps this year, and so I pulled this book off the shelf.

And when I flipped through the pages, I found this quilt!

It's a small wall-hanging, but I showed it to Matthew, and we both think we can actually get it done. It might take some figuring, but the components exist to do it the way Matthew and I are considering. Of course, years will pass before that comes to fruition, but wouldn't it be great fun to create something really unique with my baby boy? Oh yes, he's going to be 30 on his next birthday, but as you know, he'll always be my baby boy no matter how old he gets.

So today was supposed to be a workout day, but it's also a PT day, so that counts as my workout. And, by the way, I give my exercise commitment an "F" for last week, but this week is off to a pretty good start. My knee is feeling good enough that I'm considering not going to PT any more. I'll see my doctor on Thursday. The cortisone injection I had several weeks ago is continuing to work, and I'm hoping the results will be permanent. I still have knee pain, as I have for about 30 years, but it's the best it's been in months. I'm still hoping to have some time to do some sewing this morning before I need to go. 

Dinner is going to go into the crockpot this morning too...baby back ribs. I'll fry some cabbage as a side dish. Have you ever had fried cabbage? My mother used to make it. Just cut it into cole slaw like strips, add a bit of onion for flavor, and then stir fry it in some olive oil until it's wilted and soft. Season it with garlic salt, and yum. Even cabbage haters will like it this way.

As a reminder, the January NewFO Linky Party and Giveaway goes live this Friday. Are you ready?

And in case you missed it, I have a giveaway going on right now! Click right here for details.

So that's it for me. Have a terrific Tuesday!