Using Down Time

For the past two weeks I have been under the weather with back issues that are the result of wear and tear. No injury; just wear and tear. Nonetheless I have been out of kilter and disinterested in doing the things that ordinarily ring my chimes and float my boat and all those other clichés. Combining with that is a cat which was in a fight and had to be taken care of in a special way. Daisy was wearing an Elizabethan Collar, otherwise known as the Cone of Shame to prevent her from pulling at stitches in her side. She was in a fight, no doubt on the losing side, and during her convalescence, I would take her to my sewing room, remove the collar and let her eat and groom in peace. That takes a long time. Cats wash themselves from stem to stern after eating and it took her about thirty minutes, twice a day, to keep her coat perfectly clean. During that time, I worked on piecing blocks for my next quilt.

I love the Missouri Star Quilt Company site. The videos are quite well done and last season when I was presenting programs at our Guild, I chose to demonstrate the Disappearing Hourglass block. I now have ten blocks done, using a layer cake in Richmond Reds. I had used some of the set to piece one of those 'three yard quilts' and with the remaining pieces, there was sufficient to start this bonus quilt. I may need to add another red or a cream with red accents for the border. That should not be too difficult to find and there is no rush anyway. At the next quilt show I may be lucky enough to find that a vendor has brought along just that fabric for me to purchase. In the meantime, I will continue making the DHG Blocks and after twenty are done, I will lay them out and take a peek to see how they will do together. I plan to hand quilt this project in spite of there being a lot of seams in this block.  That will be sometime in the fall, not summer. Now that Daisy's stitches are out, I am not confined to my studio twice a day so the construction  may slow down. Or not. I can't say that the quilt is going to be one of my favorites but busy hands are happy hands and even if the blocks find their way into a holding pattern, it will be done eventually.