Ooopsie!

"Prepare yourself for a change of events in your personal life"

That's what the Chinese fortune cookie told me at dinner a week ago last Saturday.  An hour later DH, The Kid and I were playing miniature golf.  We were on the 3rd hole, I was winning (by one stroke), and I somehow missed my step going up a small but steep hill on the course.  I managed to get all the way across  the carpeted area and then take a face plant on the concrete edging. Ow!

The damage total was one pair of completely smashed glasses, a minor sprain of my right hand/wrist and a severe sprain (Level 3, they tell me) of my left ankle/foot. Oh yes, I got a cut on the bridge of my nose from my glasses, scraped my forehead and nose, and got a good size scrape on my upper lip as well.  And I'm very upset with myself for doing this too.

I am starting to heal now.  Still have an ankle brace and hand brace on and am still on crutches.  But the swelling is going down and my face is almost back to normal.  So I don't look so scary anymore.  *grin*  Next week I start physical therapy on the ankle/foot.

The worst part is that I still can't mange going up the stairs, so I'm living downstairs and sleeping on the living room couch.  Which also means I can't get to the sewing room!  I was "this close" to having two quilts ready to go to my long-armer. (Hi, Shari!)  Double Rats!  I could sew OK if I could get there, but no fabric cutting yet.  So, no quilts off to be quilted yet, no more work on the quilts on the design wall and I'm not getting my 9 patches done for Barb's swap that I signed up for. *sigh*  I know I'll get there eventually, I just hope I have something done in time for the quilt show in early October.

Can you tell I'm at the whining stage of recovery?  I've been enjoying being the lady of leisure and reading my Kindle (I love it!  And library books too!), but now I'm getting a little bored and antsy.  I have a quilt that I'm embellishing with buttons.  Tried that today, but am having trouble getting the button to stay put until I get enough stitches in to hold it in place while sitting in the chair with my foot elevated on a big pile of cushions.   And the cats want to "help" too.  So, more Kindle reading for awhile, I guess.

Stupid fortune cookie!

Less Stalling, More Doing

Yes, I've actually managed to complete something!  One done, one to top status.

"Lemonade"
21 in. by 25 1/4 in.

I finally got my challenge quilt done, and in time for the reveal picnic too!   Makes me wonder why I stall so much when I have to scramble to be done in time.  Read more about this project here and here.

The Potter came up with the name for this, and I love it!  You know the saying . . . "when life hands you lemons . . ."  Perfect fit, isn't it?  I'm really happy with this - it finished up much better than I thought it would in the beginning.  I don't even see the Ugly Fabric (lemons) anymore!

I dipped into my scrap bin for all the fabrics for this quilt.  I went way back in time for some of these fabrics.  I guess I now know why I'm saving all those old fabrics.  "Old" being a relative term - most of these are from the 90's, so technically not that old.  They are slowly getting used up.  Good thing too, because I'm getting tired of some of these fabrics.  And some I still love and enjoy.  But I'm not really into that antique-y look anymore.  I crave bright happy colors and fabrics now.

Of course, I only have to look at the back of this quilt to see the lemons.  I had to include them in all their ugly glory, just so I can remember which ones they are.  The scraps of the lemons went in the trash.  Nobody wanted them!  And the other fabric?  I used up a half yard of some unloved fabric in my stash plus a little extra of another.  You can see the quilting I did better on the back too.  I used white thread in the light parts of the log cabins and a dark blue thread in the dark parts.  I wanted to emphasize the zigzag design of the log cabin blocks.

I ended up making 99 half square triangles because I had no idea how many I needed for the borders.  The first ones I made weren't even close to being enough.  So I cut and sewed and cut and sewed until I had over 10 feet of half square triangles!  Yikes!  It was a staggering amount, to my mind, especially for such a small little quiltlet.

Dunkel wanted you to be able to judge the size of the quilt quickly.  Also, it didn't have enough cat hair on it.  Maybe not the most flattering shot of him?

I did manage to get a shot of his "better side".  He hates the camera.

"Leftover Lemons"
14 3/4 inches square

Remember the wrong size blocks I had?  (See my previous post)  Well, I came up with something to do with them.  And I couldn't just toss the rest of those HST's!  So I got creative for the borders, because I absolutely was not going to make even one more HST.  I really like this too.  Now to get it quilted and bound, which may be awhile.

both "lemon" quilts together

I almost like the border on the smaller one better than the border on the larger one.  And it would have been less work too.  I need to remember this!

Today I'm making and attaching labels to a few quilts that will go to the county fair tomorrow.  My labels aren't fancy or elaborate in any way.  I subscribe to the theory "finished is better than perfect".  If I waited until things were perfect, they'd never get done.  You'll notice that does not rule out doing it at the last possible moment.  *ahem*