Eight is Great

Good morning, my friends. We had a little bit of excitement here this morning. Mike saw a single lightning flash followed by a boom that sounded as if someone had set off a bomb outside. It was just that single "cracken-boomer," followed by a short downpour. It scared Smitty right out of his comfy chair. That seemed to satisfy the thunder gods. The rain has stopped now, and things are back to normal. Ya gotta wonder what got into the weather just then. Even Smitty has resumed his sleeping position, but on my desk now. I gave him a quilt to calm his kitty nerves.

Okay, so I got an earlier start on my quilt sandwiches yesterday. As I go, the quilts are getting smaller, and so yesterday's bunch wasn't as exhausting as the first day. It's been a bit of a treasure hunt as I uncover some of these old projects. I started with the Scrappy Plus quilt.

And then moved on to Grandpa's Bridges.

I'll bet you forgot all about the "Seasons" quilt.

And this late-to-the-party "Gumballs" quilt. This is my newest WIP. It'll be the last to be quilted of all of the quilts I'm sandwiching in this round. Sorry, Gumballs. It's nothing personal.

It was nearly 4:00 p.m. by the time I finished those four. I've given up thinking I'll be able to accomplish anything else as long as I'm working my way through the pile. Nevertheless, I was gratified to see the Merry, Merry Snowmen draped over my quilting machine, waiting for its turn to go under my needle.

And I'm happy to say that despite all the movement of my left arm in this process, I've had virtually no shoulder pain. There's no denying the PT is working. I'm very happy about that. The one movement that still causes me grief is reaching behind my back, but even that has improved. 

So, I'll make it my mission to get four more done today. If I don't wear myself out on those, possibly I can fit in one more. It would be nice to start the last day (tomorrow) with just four to go. There are a few things to do in the kitchen to get ready for tonight's dinner. Also, I have a denuded orange in my refrigerator. I took off all the zest for another recipe, and now it sits there in a zip-lock bag looking all sad and naked. Maybe I'll put it out of its misery by baking an Orange Upside-Down Cake for Two today. Despite the quilt sandwiches, I should have time for that.

It's time for my slow-stitching. I'm getting close to finishing the current piece, and so I'll need to ready the next one soon. Certainly, I don't want a stitching emergency right in the middle of my sandwiching effort. As I'm writing, I'm thinking I'm probably being overly optimistic with all these non-sandwiching tasks. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? Okay...venturing off now.