This morning, I'm barely awake. I couldn't get to sleep last night, and it was well after 2:00 a.m. before I finally gave up the ghost. Probably I spent too much time reading on my iPad. Sometimes the bright screen bothers me if I stay at it too long. It fills my ordinarily dim bulb of a brain with the light of a hundred thousand thoughts that keep swirling around like leaves in the wind. I thought about all sorts of things, but none of them bored me into slumber. It's going to be a long day. There's grocery shopping on my list of to-do's. All I can say is people better behave themselves, or someone is likely to get beaned with a butternut squash...my weapon of choice.
While I sat writing yesterday's post, snow was falling outside. I didn't see it until I stood up to walk away. It snowed for several hours, and we got a little bit of accumulation. It was too warm, though, and it was mostly melted away by late afternoon. Here's how the melting snow looks on our new metal roof:
It didn't change my plans to make barbecue sauce. I'm happy to announce the plums I froze back in September have fulfilled their life's ambition to become barbecue sauce. My yield was 8 half-pints, plus a little bonus in the refrigerator.
While that was processing, I headed into the sewing room to pull scraps for this little take along project from Lake Girl Quilts. You can find the
free tutorial for this little cutie right here.
I pulled a bunch of scraps from among my dark blues and creams. Also, I selected something for the quilt back and cut two strips for the binding. There's also a small piece of scrap batting packed up in its take-along pouch. Here's what I picked. Um, excuse me...
Okay...there we go. I'll use the one at the top right for the quilt back. The strips on the right are for the binding.
It's hard to see in this picture, but the fabric for the quilt back is a sparkly wintery design. Those are the cut-off edges from the quilt back of my Show Globes quilt.
You might remember when Sadie helped me finish off this quilt binding. She was catching snowflakes on her tongue while I worked. Actually not...she was just hamming it up for the camera.
I didn't need as many scraps for this one. I'll use the one at the top in the middle for the quilt back, and I found a scrap quilt binding in my leftover bindings bag long enough to finish this off.
After selecting the fabrics for these two quilts, I really wanted to get started on them! I'll wait, though. It makes me kind of excited to do some sewing when we get where we're going, though.
It must be my week for fun mail. I received this little package in yesterday's mail from my friend Sue. Sue always gets me funny socks for Christmas...or else rabbit slippers because she can't tell a rabbit from a cat. (That last bit of snark was purely for her benefit.) Anyway, I always text a pig to Sue as a good morning message. So, this year's socks included some pigs wearing tuxedos. Too cute. Thank you, Sue. (You don't suppose she mistook the pigs for cats, do you?)
Okay, and so it was time to bite the bullet and get started quilting the Tiny Tuesday quilt. I'm using a YLI "Natural" colored thread both top and bottom.
This is a 40 weight thread and it performs well in my machine.
I still wasn't positive about what I wanted to do, but it's going okay, so I'll just keep on keeping on. I'm making big terry twists in the tiny blocks.
If I plan it right, I can make the terry twists end up at the upper right corner, where I can head off and make a flower in the open areas between the blocks.
I was only just 3/4 of the way across the first row, when I needed to stop. We had to take Mike's truck in for service, and we dropped it off to spend the night at the dealership. We'll probably have to head back today or tomorrow to pick it up again.
Today, I'm getting my monthly pedicure. Hopefully, I'll be able to stay awake for the entire procedure. Then I'm headed off to the grocery store for a short shopping trip...just enough to get us through the weekend. After that, I'll probably take a nap, and then get back to my quilting. Now that I'm started, I'm feeling confident I can finish it up before we leave.
6 comments:
Oh, insomnia! Ah, well, I know a good cure for it... Get plenty of sleep. ~ W. C. Fields.
The snowy roof photo looks amazing, very arty indeed. It's always good to organize a take away project or two when planning a trip, I've just ironed on two camping transfers (the same design) so that I can stitch a couple of place mats for the caravan table.
You'll no doubt notice I'm behind in commenting again (or then again, maybe you won't!). Finally decided rather than stressing over it I might as well just start here.
I'm with you in the sleepless nights - I often see 2 am (at least) and then I'm awake between 6 and 7. Re the bright screen on your iPad - can you turn it down? I have on my tablet and I get up when I can't sleep and play solitaire. The dimmer lighting doesn't bother me.
And - that pattern on your roof should be printed onto fabric!!!
Barbara, I'm offering my "trick" for falling asleep, especially when my brain goes into spin cycle. I think only about my breathing, counting each inhale and exhale. one through ten, then starting over. It sounds overly simple, and it isn't a perfect solution, but if I'm persistent it truly works. When I catch myself thinking about anything else, including how many times I've reached ten, I start counting again. Give it a try next time.
I dislike nights of sleep like that. Hope the shopping went okay, without squashing anyone. Those socks are too cute. The kitties are even cuter!
Sadie is a beautiful cat, even when she is being extraordinarily "helpful".
I've adjusted my iPad to white text on black background and dim the brightness waaay down when I read at night. It seems to help. I've gotten so used to it that black on white hurts my eyes now!
I learn so much from reading your blog. Thank you so much for continuing to spend time on it.
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