Coming Up for Air

I've had a busy month, but now I can finally breathe again.  On the furry feline front I've had to deal with Mimi's passing and Felix's diabetes. He is doing well, but he really hates to have his blood tested.  Hopefully we will soon work out the right amount of insulin to keep his diabetes under control.  I hate to see him unhappy.

On the quilting front I finished my 'Garden of Hope' quilt and it is now at the LAQ.  It should be done by the third week of March.  That gives me time to bind it before our quilt show on the first weekend of April.  This quilt top almost didn't get finished.  I only had a couple of rows to still sew together.  Most of the blocks were done, so that was really no problem. I had to go out and buy some backing fabric because I didn't have enough.  That was no problem either.  I was even able to add a few fat quarters to my stash.  LOL

But pressing the finished top almost drove me to pull my hair out!  It was very wrinkled and because I made most of it while I was a patient at a rehab hospital some years ago, I did not have an iron to press each block as I finished it.  Many of the blocks needed some help from a spritz of water.  I guess I used too much water because some of the red fabrics bled into the lighter backgrounds.  I wanted to cry.  But then I decided all was not lost.  I took the damaged blocks out and remade them.  It took me a whole day to remake and sew them back into the quilt top.  I don't know why that happened because I always wash my fabrics with a colour catcher as soon as I get them home.  But maybe a lot of the fabrics in thisquilt were from before the time of colour catchers.  I plan to wash the blocks and see if I can restore them to their original beauty.  Then I will make them into blocks for a project (Soy Amado) that Little Island Quilting is doing for children in a home in Mexico City. I have several other orphan blocks that I can donate.

I was also asked to do a demonstration of English Paper Piecing at our Guild meeting on Monday evening. That meant finding finished quilts and partly finished quilts to help teach the technique.  It was a fantastic experience.  My fellow quilters were very interested and some of them went away with a pattern sheet to create their own hexies.  I took my camera so that I could take a photo, but I never got to use it.  There just wasn't enough time.  The demonstrations were done in a round robin fashion.  That only gave me about 12-15 minutes with each group.  I did see someone come over with a camera, so there probably will be a photo at some point.  I hope to be able to post it later.

100 more hexies to sew together

The weather here is still cold and white.  We have had the most 'severe cold weather warnings' of any year since these records have been kept - about 28 days since the beginning of the year.  Today's high temp is -10C, (14F) but it will feel like -20C, (-4F).  The snow has not melted either and there are still huge piles of it at the sides of our driveway.  It rained a bit this past weekend, creating large puddles everywhere that froze into huge patches of ice.  Hospitals in our area are reporting an average of 4 slip and fall accidents per hour.  So I am staying indoors and waiting patiently impatiently for spring to arrive.

Now I am off to work on some of my current projects, mostly charity quilts.  It is a pleasure to have some time to work on those. I also went to the library and got some books to read.  Life is good.