Progress Report

I am moving along on my scrappy project, and have almost half of the blocks done.

Am loving the way all the different fabrics are working together in this quilt. Although I thought it would be making more of a dent in the stash by now. Seems to be common with scrap quilts--the more scraps you use, the more there seem to be in the bin. Have you ever found that to be the case?

Have invented a new word while working on this project.  Well, someone has probably used it before me, but anyways.  I have decided to call this "de-stashing". You know how there is "de-cluttering"? Well, now there is de-stashing. Getting rid of the stash. Some years back there was a popular bumper sticker, "She who dies with the most fabric wins".  Oh no, not me!  I've decided I would like to have all my fabric used up and sewed into quilts before I die. (morbid way of thinking, isn't it?) Kind of like a quilter's way of "getting her affairs in order??  I'll tell you, the more "estate sales" I see on eBay, selling off quilt blocks that were never assembled into quilts, quilt tops that were labored over--many of them completely hand-pieced--and never quilted, fabric that someone collected but never used, the more I would like to make sure my stuff never ends up like that.  I've already told the kids, after I'm gone I do NOT want to see my stuff up on eBay!  I mean it!

Have a great weekend. We may be in for some snow here in Jerusalem. But you never know for sure.  

SUN-day!

Another day of sun in my neck of the woods. What a relief after all the gloom of the past couple of weeks.

Of course the arrival of spring means a bit of spring cleaning is in order, and I have been happy to comply.  Every day I tackle another little corner of the house and de-clutter it. Last night I tackled the linen/toiletries closet and worked at it with a vengeance. There is something about really taking an honest look at what I have, and realizing I haven't used most of these things in years. After I throw/give/donate them away, I don't even miss them a bit. Can't even remember having had them. I guess that means I didn't need them in the first place.  This is a great feeling. 

Of course, the decluttering began with the fabric area, and that's what inspired the Scrappy Trips Around the World quilt. I've have some of these fabrics for 30 years, and chances are if I haven't used them by now, I never will. So I am putting them ALL into this quilt. It's going slowly, but that's all right. It feels good cutting them all up and including them in something.

Bee in my Bonnet

Some people just can't be satisfied with things the way they are. They have to constantly move the furniture around, buy new stuff, organize things just so. I don't think I'm like that.  Perfectionism is definitely not my thing! However, every once in a while I get a bug in my head that tells me I have to make a change somewhere. And here's the bug I got this week.

                               Original Hawaiian quilt block (on the right) 

                                    This block was made in a class I took last year at the retreat of the Israel Quilters Association. I wanted so badly to learn how to make a Hawaiian quilt block. The teacher started off by distributing big pieces of paper and showing us how to draw our own designs. Well, a draw-er I am not. But I plowed ahead and produced SOMETHING. It was not a SOMETHING that I liked. But there was no turning back. I learned the way to draw my design on the paper, cut it out, transfer the design to the fabric and cut that, baste the design on top of the background fabric, etc. etc.  But all the time I was not feeling happy. Over the course of the next few months I finished the applique work.  But I was still not happy, and didn't feel like sandwiching it and quilting. The block was crunched up in a shopping bag and left to linger.

Last week, I was cleaning up my fabric storage area and came upon the bag with the poor abandoned block inside. When I took it out, I finally understood why I never really liked it--it didn't look anything like a Hawaiian quilt design! So out came the seam ripper and out came all of the thousands of tiny little applique stitches. Borrowed a book of Hawaiian quilt patterns from my friend Sara, and started over, making the most elementary of all the patterns, the Breadfruit.

                                        It may not look like much, but NOW I'M HAPPY!

Signs of Spring

After a pretty gloomy week, the sun finally decided to come out.  Trees are flowering all over the place, and it feels like spring is on its way. Not that we have much of a winter here in Jerusalem. It's our rainy season, so December and January are cold and wet, but then by February things are already starting to perk up.

I'm feeling kind of perked-up too. My husband is feeling better, my jet-lag has resolved, and I spent two lovely days in Beitar this week quilting with friends.  Our grandson is getting married in 2 weeks, and (this is a MIRACLE) Menucha and I both found dresses to wear to the wedding. We have had a lot of miracles lately. 

Now if only a miracle would happen and the house would clean itself. Pretty please.

Making Progress

Am having a good time making these scrappy blocks. It's especially fun when the pattern starts to emerge.

And I'm so happy to finally be using up fabrics I really didn't like and that had been sitting in bins for years. You always read about people pointing to pieces in a quilt and saying, "That one there, that was from Aunt Bessie's apron. She wore it when she made her prize-winning apple pies. And that one over there, that was from Grandma's wedding dress when she got married during the Great Depression."  Every piece of fabric in the old quilt brings to mind a treasured memory.  Well, I am embarrassed to say I don't know where 90% of these fabrics CAME from! I recognize a couple of them from other quilts I had made years ago, but the majority of them--did I BUY THIS???  And why would I do that? I hope I'm not having a senior quilting moment.
 

Happy Feet?

Not Happy Feet, happy grandchildren! I brought back these two adorable penguin hats for my little grandsons, Ariel and Itamar. Don't they look cute?

And yes, it's 2:50 a.m. here in very rainy Jerusalem. I tried to beat the jet-lag, really I did. Went to bed at 10:00 tonight. But at 12:00 midnight, there I was, awake again. But not a total loss--I got another scrappy block pieced. I'm following Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Trips Around the World pattern. And I'm loving it. In her introduction to the pattern, she say that any fabrics will work for this quilt--anything goes! And you know what, I see she is right. This is really a great pattern for the middle of the night; I'm too tired to do anything more than pick up random strips of fabric--no fussy matchy-matchy for me!  I've got five blocks pieced already, and didn't even have to think about it.
Haven't decided what size this is going to be, so I guess I'll keep going until I run out of strips.

A Little Jet-Lagged

Arrived back in Israel on Monday evening, and have been hit with a minor case of jet-lag. What to do at 1:00 in the morning, when my body thinks it's daytime? Start something scrappy! I mean major scrappy. I've basically decided that this is the year I will USE IT ALL UP. If you have scraps from 3 decades of quilting, you know what a challenge that can be. But I feel that I'm up for it. The stash has taken on a life of its own, multiplying in the darkness of the fabric cabinet, to the point of embarrassment. So everything that's big enough to be cut into 2 1/2" strips is going into this one, and everything smaller will probably become part of a new Spiderweb. Haven't done that one in a while, but it's so fun, and even the littlest pieces of fabric will work.
Miss Menucha did very well on her own in my absence. Doesn't look like she starved. And the house wasn't the disaster I feared it would be. She's not really into cleaning the house, but as long as she cleaned the litter box it's fine with me. :)
It's good to be home. And eventually I'll settle back into the right time zone!

Heading Home!

To all  my dear friends who have been so supportive and encouraging to me during this hard time, I am happy to tell you that my husband's condition is starting to improve and I'm going to be heading home on Sunday. I would stay longer, and he definitely could use a bit more help, but I've left DD Menucha on her own for 3 weeks and she's starting to get lonely!

I want to thank all of you for your help getting through this.  You really made it possible, with your emails, comments, and warm wishes.

The other things that helped me through it:  My KINDLE, full of great books. My MP3 player, full of great audiobooks. My Dresden Plate quilt, which I worked on in the early morning hours when the worry wouldn't let me sleep, and which I finally managed to finish hand-quilting.  And my Amish Diamond in a Square quilt, which is what I'm hand-quilting now. That will keep me busy while I'm waiting in all those airports on Sunday.

If you look on the right side of my blog, you'll see I've put up a new little link.


I love love love string quilts. They have to be my favorites. I have never participated in a sew-along before, but I could really get excited about this one!

Getting Out of the House

Well, it wasn't much, but we did get out a bit today.  My husband has been so tired and having a hard recovery, but I felt we needed to get moving a little and see some other human beings (besides doctors and MRI technicians) for a change. So first we went to the Walmart and picked up my new eyeglasses (they look the same as the old ones, but with new lenses) and then we went to a new eatery here in town, Dougie's.  A regular steak-and-burger joint, but a little more upscale in the decor and really nice wait staff.  They just opened up a couple of weeks ago and so far they've been doing really well. 

My husband went for a burger with all the trimmings, and I took a chili dog.  The family vegetarian, ME, got a chili dog. You have to understand. My husband has for the most part lost his appetite, and I only went to this place because I knew that when he walked in and smelled the food he would perk up and eat a good supper. And if I got something to eat too, well, that would really help him.  So I made the ultimate sacrifice and ordered a chili dog. It was the moral imperative.

Ladies' Night Out

I've been taking care of my husband 24/7 since arriving here in Baltimore, so you can imagine how thrilled I was to learn that there would be a meeting of my old quilt group on Wednesday night.  I knew it would do me some good to get out for an hour or two.  Barbara picked me up, and we were off!  The meeting was at Nehama's house.  She is a great quilter.  Here she is with her beautiful basket quilt.  All batiks.  She made TWO of them for gifts for her brother who is getting married.  

 Nehama is also working on the Civil War Bride Quilt.  Her applique is fantastic, and I love her choice of fabrics.  Click on the photo to see the wonderful spotty batik she chose for the eggs in the nest!

 She's already done some work on the borders.

 Cute strawberries, with tiny beads sewn on for seeds.

 She sewed on a real piece of crocheted lace as the edging for the tablecloth.  If you look carefully at the picture, you can see the bandage on her finger.  Nehama had one of those rotary cutter accidents we are always terrified of.  Luckily, the ER doctor said that her finger-tip will grow back.  She says she is never going to use the rotary cutter again when she's over-tired. And she's buying one of those special gloves that prevent accidents of this sort.

 Yoheved is a wonderfully creative quilter.  All of her quilts have Biblical themes.  Here is her quilted depiction of Noah's ark. She found fantastic fabrics that looked just like rain. And a great water fabric that looks just like waves. She's been stitching the wave fabric in such a way that it will look 3-dimensional.  Then she's going to sew something white on the tops of the waves to resemble sea foam.

 On the far right of the quilt you can see a tiny rainbow, and Mount Ararat, where the ark came to rest.

I SEW much enjoyed my night out, and came home mentally refreshed.  If you have ever cared for a family member around the clock, you know how draining it can be, and how important it is to take a break from time to time. I'm so lucky I was able to spend some quality time last night with old friends. Also that I brought along my hand-quilting project with me from Israel. I spend some time working on it every day. I bought a Kindle from Amazon, and it's become a good companion. I can sit in doctors' offices and read to my heart's content while we wait for our turn. And I have downloaded some good audiobooks onto my trusty MP3, so I'm never bored.
My husband seems to be doing a bit better every day. His breathing is better, his pain seems to be diminishing a bit, and his thinking is generally clearer. Tomorrow we have an appointment with the thoracic surgeon, who will reevaluate the broken ribs and the amount of blood in my husband's lungs. We're hoping for good news!