DJ second group of yellowish blocks

My sister and I last week had to make the awful decision to put my mom (84) in a frail care facility.  Somehow we believed that between the 2 of us we'd be able to take care of her during her last days.  With her dementia deteriorating, loss of control over her bodily functions but still having a rather strong will of her own we realized that somewhere something is going to give.  So last week has been one of lengthy phone conversations between 4 children trying to reach some agreement and once at least 3 agreed the digging for the necessary paperwork started.  I found papers dating 1945 amongst my mom's stuff!!  And then in the end my soft hearted sister just couldn't do it and decided to give taking care of mom just one more try.

My hands were however not idle when I did get the odd break and after finishing the Twisted Log Cabin UFO, I dug up another in the form of Dear Jane.  Knowing that the French Open tennis will start on 27 May, I realized I needed hand work rather fast and this UFO is just that.

I do my Dear Jane in a TATW fashion and luckily marked every color sequence as a separate UFO otherwise it might just be too overwhelming.  So next up was the second yellowish set of 20 blocks.  I tried to do most using foundation piecing but anyone who already did this will realize some of these blocks simply cannot be done by machine alone.

With the blocks done I then quilt by hand before trimming them back to size and use the QAYG method to add the new blocks to the previous ones.  This quilting will be my hand work during the French Open. Tennis.

Finally!

Now this would be what fellow quilter Ninor calls a FFUFO - a finally finished UFO.  I have no idea when I started this.  I do know DH bought me the fabric one Christmas and I almost immediately designed the layout in EQ.  However I've upgraded my computer so many times and had no idea in which backup folder the original was but luckily printed a picture which actually yellowed inside a cupboard door in my sewing room.

I don't know why I didn't finish it right away either.  Could be the one block repeat that got to me or the fact that it was done using foundation piecing.  Whatever it is done!

I mostly make large quilts fit for double or queen sized beds and always have a problem taking photos of these.  I'll have to wait for enough family members to be at home, in the mood to hold the quilt and listen to there moans while trying to take a picture.

Today however while sewing the label on I looked through the front window and saw our front gate and there...... I had the perfect hanging space for any huge quilt I might want to photograph.  We surely must have the biggest gate for any standard household in our city but now I will put it to good use.  Here the full gate can be seen compared to the quilt measuring 2.20 x 2.20 meters.

Hand work prepared

We went to see a comedy at our local theater on Friday evening and you have to agree friend Karin cleans up really nicely if the occasion calls for it.

When we got home at 11 pm I had to start cooking corn as bait for our men's fishing trip the weekend and this kept me up until 02:30 while the mister slept like a baby to be ready for action the next day.  Does it now make sense why I get so excited when he does his own thing and leave me alone some days?

The men barely left Saturday morning or I shot out of bed like a bullet from a pistol and started joining binding strips for my Twisted Log Cabin.  Yip, the free motion quilting is done and my Grand Quilter is visiting the Machine Spa for the week to get rejuvenated.

The binding was sewn to one side but I am leaving the other side to be done by hand until a time that I am forced to sit in one spot.  I find it hard to sit still for very long but occasionally it is simply polite to sit with the family.  These times a little hand work always comes in handy.

Getting a little extra done

The mister came home unexpectedly one morning to fetch his golfing gear.  He had an invite to play in a charity golf day with snoek (fish) barbecue and wine tasting afterwards.  Even I would consider playing golf with that promise. In my life however, this meant..... no cooking!  O I do dislike the kitchen, no wait; I have a pretty kitchen, so I dislike cooking!  Whenever I don't have to cook it is as if the day just has so many more hours..... to quilt!

It turned out exactly what I did.  Usually I hardly ever quilt in the morning as the household routine takes up all my daytime hours.  So I only quilt late afternoon or in the evening.  I had a couple of errands to run but suddenly none of these seemed all that important anymore so they were simply moved to another day.

Before I had to take the parrot to bed for her afternoon nap I had half my Twisted Log Cabin done.  I didn't do quite as well the later afternoon as there was one mean game of tennis between Nadal and Verdasco going and I had a hard time tearing myself away from the television.

I only had a tiny section and the border to do when the mister finally got home with these goodies.  Now who wouldn't mind a day off with this as a reward?

Quilted Tote

My Twisted Log Cabin has moved to under the PFAFF Grand Quilter and will stay there for a while.

To fool myself into thinking that I do more than I really do, I found this tote bag tutorial over HERE and decided this could be a quick finish which it was.

I have more than enough bags as is and as fellow quilter Daléne said when she saw this (and my other UFO's) "it's like writing exam, you'll do anything else but study".  Very true words.

However..... it is the finish that counts isn't it?

Completed:  May 2012