On the Mend

Good morning, my friends. Well, I'm back after my "pilot episode" of this year's flu. Interestingly (to me, at least), I looked back at several years of posts to see how I'd reacted to these vaccines in the past. In 2025, we got both flu and COVID on the same day…no reaction…not even a sore arm. Then, I looked up my post about our vaccines from 2024, and I had a similar reaction to this year’s vaccine...fever, chills, and feeling generally ill. In 2023, just general malaise. I know the vaccines are reformulated year to year, but I’m surprised at how differently my body reacts to the changes.

Some folks have suggested getting the vaccines on different days. The problem I have with that is that I don't know which vaccine makes me sick...it could be both. If I get them on separate days, will I just get two days of sickness instead of the usual one day? Whatever...this year's bout is over, and I'm glad of it.

So, I wasn't 100% for the day, but I still managed to get everything done that I wanted to. I spent a little extra time on my slow-stitching in the morning.

Now I’ve moved my hoop to encompass the last of it. It’ll probably still be at least a couple of days, but these stitch up pretty fast.

There was one housekeeping chore to do. I worked it into my quilting schedule. There were four of these “spacers” to quilt. So I did two of them, and then a little housework, and then two more, and then a little more housework. This is my trick to convince myself that I’m really actually having fun while I’m cleaning. This is a little meander with a loop and a heart-shaped leaf. Pretty simple.

Next (maybe today), I’ll quilt the three vertical sashings. For this, I’m going to do what I call a “half-hearted” motif. It’s really just kind of a widely spaced feather. Here, I started with the left side of the heart, then moving up, the right side, and then back to the left. It’s pretty simple. I just got it started, and then left it needle down at that point. 

This is all the help I got from kitties today.

In fairness, they were ‘zhausted from their duty as medicinal cats the day before. And does anyone think I’d be feeling better today without their dedicated care?

Well, Sadie felt guilty enough that she joined me in the sewing room while I worked on October’s Inverted Star.

She helped me cut and sew the pieces I’d need for this Brown Star. When October’s color was announced, it was nothing more descriptive than “neutrals in dark or light.” Brown was my choice on the spur of the moment yesterday afternoon. Just now as I’ve been writing, I remembered the special significance of the Brown Star. You can read its significance at this very old blog post.

It still needs to be sewn together, and then I’ll make another one for November. There won’t be a new color for November, and so I’m thinking I’ll do mine in dark yellow/gold. I’ve already done a yellow star, but I think I can pull enough goldish-colored scraps to contrast with the original brighter yellow. 

Also on today’s agenda, I’m getting my monthly pedicure, which actually is about three weeks late at this point. My toes will thank me. As much as I like my pedicures, it’s still an interruption to my day, and it means driving somewhere. Not far, fortunately, but any time I have to drive farther than the end of my driveway, I feel terribly put-upon and inconvenienced. And all of that whining to say that I still think I’ll have plenty of time for sewing today. 

All right then. Onward. Watch out for spooks. The time grows nigh. But I can't end this post without wishing you a very happy National Cat Day.