Probably most families have their little pet phrases and things unique to their family's linguistic ancestry that allow them to communicate with one another, using words and phrases that outsiders do not understand. When I started dating Mike and inserting myself as a new family-member-to-be, I learned about a condition known as the "I Can't Help It Itis." (I've intentionally left out the requisite hyphens for ease of reading.) The I-Can't-Help-It-Itis occurs when a person is bored to the point of incapacity, which is what happened to me yesterday. Visually, it looks something like this:
My day started with a telephone conversation with an RN, asking me questions about things that were deemed essential knowledge for my upcoming too-embarrassing-to-talk-about medical procedure. In the course of our conversation, I gleaned all the ways I could die with or without the procedure, and so the outcome is rendered moot. One way or another, there is an expiration date in my future. I know...I'm just a ray of merry sunshine about this, but I'm in good company since we are all headed there. But this just lends itself to the explanation of the I-Can't-Help-It-Itis. I had it bad by the time we got home from the grocery store. And I should add that the grocery store is one of the venues in which you might catch this disease. Masks and vaccines will be of no help, so don't bother.
So, all of this to say that I could only do two things when we arrived back home: (1) eat lunch; and (2) take a nap. Even then, I had a hard time booting my lazy self off the couch to accomplish anything else. Enter my energetic little cat. She came in from outside and told me there was work to do.
It's a good thing because otherwise, the whole day might have been lost.
Possibly it was the idea of sandwiching a quilt that led to this bout of the I-Can't-Help-It-Itis. With my little cat in attendance, I could tackle the project.
It only took a few minutes, and then it was ready for quilting.
Sadie stayed nearby to be sure the symptoms had passed, and then headed back outside when she thought it was safe.
I had in mind to quilt this with just straight lines. It's a small quilt, and so I'm doing it on my domestic machine. As long as I had fancy stitches available to me, why not do something with those? And so I selected stitch #102 on my Bernina 750QE machine.
Just to be sure I would get what I wanted, I sewed a few stitches on a test piece. It's a little hard to see with the design in my scrap of fabric.
It looked pretty good to me, and so I committed a line to the Posies quilt. This is looking good so far.
Only one row has been done, and so I'll keep going with that this afternoon.
Also yesterday, the horse fabric I was awaiting arrived, and so I could make a back for the Blackwork Baskets quilt. I really love this fabric. I'm glad I could get more of it. Also, I purchased two yards, but received three yards. I'm not complaining.
Sometimes I like a fabric enough that it seems a shame to relegate it to just a quilt back. I'm happy to have enough of this to use it in another quilt at some point.
This morning I stitched up the next section of the Heartland Barns block. Now, I've moved my hoop up, and I'll continue on my way.
The warm weather we've been anticipating has come through. I'm going to get out and pull a bucket of weeds this morning. It looks like we'll be back to cold weather very soon, and so there isn't a minute to waste. It'll be good to get some yard clean-up going. The herb garden and the flower beds are a mess, and I have yet to put the sundial back on its pedestal. Here's a picture from last year when we placed it back outside on April 10th. It seems we're right on time. (Did you see what I did there?)
We bring it inside in winter, and then it can't be replaced until we have some sunshine to indicate the correct time. And so that will be on today's agenda too.
Okay, and with all this talk about time, it's probably time to get going. I'm still recovering from yesterday's bout of the I-Can't-Help-It-Itis, but some time outside will work wonders.
9 comments:
Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time; serenity, that nothing is. ~ Thomas Szasz
Sorry to hear about your bout with I-Can't-Help-It-Itis. My Rx for you is to get outside and spend time in your garden and/or go for a walk. If I lived closer to you, I'd love to go for a walk with you and take you out to a nice lunch. Certain procedures are never fun, but like your car, from time to time, "we" need to be serviced. Big hug.
Ah yes, I can relate. I have an appointment coming up and I am expecting tales of doom. That is the pessimist in me; other members of the family are not quite so disposed. I'm glad Sadie got you up and busy - cats are good like that. And spending time in the garden helped too, I'm sure. That horse fabric is going to be great with those baskets, and that little posey stitch is very cute!
I had a blah day yesterday, too. Must be something in the air? The cats were no help, one in fact encouraging me to stay in bed so she could get all the pets! But I also finally dragged myself up and around, though I have much less to show for my day than you do. I love the little flower stitches on your quilt - perfect! Here's to hoping today is better...so far, so good for me, though my tasks have been limited to housework and lunch, but soon I'll be sewing. (I had to suck up all the cat furs from the design floor before I could lay out not one, but two, quilts!)
I can relate to the can't-help-its. I get hit by them on a regular but fortunately not frequent basis. Walking Scamp always cured it, so now I need to think about new fur babies. I love the horse fabric.
I know the feeling well. I agree with those who prescribe the outdoors. But with your dear kitty by your side (We Don't Talk About Smitty) you should recover quickly. I got my news of doom a few months ago. It was upsetting but after a few weeks I started bouncing back. Life is short, that's why we eat dessert first!!
Thank you for this post.
I have a severe attack at the moment, it's good to know I'm not alone, even your commenters suffer.....
Love that daisy stitch, perfect choice.
At least you recovered enough to decide on a quilting direction for your floral quilt. Hopefully by now you are completely recovered from your "malady".
Hah - your 'itis' sounds a little like our 'galloping ick' which occurs far too often after we start what should be a very small project and surface days later wondering how we've ended up painting the entire house (to use an example).
I like the choice of the little flowers for quilting the posies quilt. Wish my machine had some of those pretty stitches.
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