Twisted pole table runner

Finally, a little quilting again.  Hubby and I have been flat on our backs in bed for 9 full days with bronchitis. The weather played along, cold, wet and windy and made staying in bed worth it. The bad part is that with bronchitis, you don’t have body aches, a stuffed head, or any other flu symptoms, but you just don’t have enough oxygen to do the smallest thing.  Not to mention the constant coughing and feeling of drowning in your own phlegm. 

I had 5 quilts waiting to be done and couldn’t do anything about it.  Yesterday, we both felt better, and I decided to give every sheet, blanket, throw, and any cover a decent wash to try to get rid of the germs.  I also needed to cook a proper meal.  I was able to cook a huge pot of chicken soup.  This was done in increments when the oxygen allowed me, and we ate chicken soup until I could no longer stomach it!

With my energy levels up, I took everything to the washing machine, but one dog had to go to the veterinarian.  After loading the third batch, we quickly took her, just to return to a flooded kitchen floor.  Our 38-year-old top loader decided she had had enough.  Turns out the bottom started rusting, the water leaked and dripped onto electrical wires, which tripped the electricity in the house.

With half of the washing done, we had to shop for a new machine.  Now, 38 years ago, with my old machine, life was easy.  You only selected small-medium or large load, hot or cold water and washing time.  OH, dear, no more.  Nowadays, everything is computerised; one can even work the machine from one's cellular phone.  How and why?  Who would load the laundry?  It weighs the fabric, you select the type, and then the machine does its thing. Select water level, decide on time to wash, decide how many times to rinse and spin and when I selected bedding for 2 large fleece blankets, it took almost 2 hours.  No can do!  Luckily, the salesman explained well, the machine did not come with an instruction manual (one can EASILY download it, he explained to the pensioners!!).  Once the machine has decided what and how long to do whatever, you are fortunately still allowed to manually adjust it.  In future, doing bedding will definitely be set for a shorter time.

I received the 5 quilts over 2 days, just as the bronchitis started, I warned the makers I am not doing well, but before being forced to stay in bed, I got to finish one runner.  The maker said she used her scraps and didn’t need custom quilting, so again I was grateful for a quick finish.  Less to feel guilty about.

I have not even opened any of the other quilts, but so much has been neglected while sick that I have plenty of catching up to do.

Blocks in blue

 I used last Friday and the weekend to cook for the freezer.  I struggle with quilts awaiting to be done, yet I still have to cook meals too.  I have a husband, as skinny as a broomstick, who believes in 3 meals a day (two containing meat if bacon and eggs are not served as breakfast) and snacking in between, with cookies as his favourite.  As is, I already cook chicken and rice for our elderly dogs once a week, I boil veggies for the chickens, and I still have to prepare our normal meals.  At this stage, I refuse to bake cookies.  Hubby shares these with the dogs and chickens, donating my hard-baked attempt to animals.  If he needs cookies, he can buy them himself.

To get back to my story, when I have quilts awaiting, I need to prioritise what to do first.  I hate working on a quilt; having to walk back and forth to check on food, and I would hate my work to reek of onions or garlic once done.  If I get going on a quilt first, meals will end up somewhat shabby, nothing special, just something to serve to make me feel better.  If I choose cooking first, the quilt is loaded late in the day, so I may not make the best motif design choices, so it waits for the next day.

Having frozen veggies, cooked meat or full meals in the freezer makes my decision-making life easier.  Enough about my cooking rituals.

This quilt maker’s daughter-in-law lives abroad and was gifted the blue fabric.  She really could not get herself to like the fabric, but, feeling guilty, decided to make something of it.  When done, her own daughter came to visit and loved it.  It would be perfect for a couch in her house, so Mom got motivated to finish it.

Once done and having it over at my place for a while, she ended up not disliking the fabric all that much anymore, but already gifted it, so her daughter will get the “not so ugly” quilt after all.

Bargello heart table runner

This was the third of the quilts I dropped off from the ‘out of town’ quilter.  Because of all the different fabric colours in the bargello wave, I knew full custom quilting would not show up much.  I spoke to the maker, and we decided to use a combination of edge-to-edge bargello with simple straight lines in the background.

I had this quilt loaded on the frame during Easter, and so badly wanted to start on Monday, but at 18:30 on Sunday evening, the electricity in large parts of our city went out due to a fault.  Monday, therefore, was hell, sitting around unable to do anything.  By lunch, the electricity was back on, but with my tummy full (eating was most of what I did during this time), I was simply too lazy and unmotivated to start.  The quilt had to stand over until Tuesday.

Kaffet Fasset squares

Another quilt with squares to be used as a tablecloth, so no batting in this one, only flannel in the middle.  This is my customer preferring large-scale meandering. After doing all the tedious straight lines in the previous quilt, I welcomed something light and loose.

Postage stamp quilt

Somewhere along the line, I forgot to keep my blog updated. This led me to decide not to share quilts on Facebook, but rather to have them written about on my blog.

This quilt came to me via a local quilt teacher who presented a class in a town some 200 kilometres from us.  The teacher would return the next week, and I had to finish the quilt before then.  The quilt maker only requested diagonal lines over the centre of the quilt and left the choice of what to do on the border to me.

The border had massive waves, and the best I could do was quilt it to death so the sides would lie as flat as possible.  The maker seemed satisfied after seeing a photo I sent her.