A humbling post

I decided to do one of those photo collections I see on other blogs of the projects I have completed this year.

Wow. And this doesn't include dozens of smaller projects - an unfinished table runner, lots of towels, and bags - I didn't even include my mini messenger bag that was pretty time consuming. I'm not sure whether to be impressed, or embarrassed. I work nearly full-time and have a young daughter. I think if I'm going to be honest with myself, what this reflects is misplaced priorities.

I've never been much of one to make New Year's resolutions, recognizing that it's usually just setting yourself up for failure, but nevertheless, I do resolve that next year will be very different from this. I will relegate my sewing to the position it belongs, that of a hobby. A hobby that fills my FREE time, not stealing time from other obligations.

The past few days have found us quite removed from life as normal. I have gotten a first in over 2 years week off work, and my husband is using the last of his vacation days as my daughter recovers from having her tonsils removed. Despite her pain, it's been very nice to take a break from life. To just snuggle on the couch for hours watching movies and have daytime naps. We're smelling the roses, so to speak, and we need to remember to do that after she recovers as well.

Tetris, anyone?

I knew when I started quilting that my step-daughter would be someone I would make a quilt for, but it seemed to take forever to get a good idea. I saw a Tetris quilt (not for the first time, ironically) and knew that to be the one. She worked through college testing Tetris on cell phones. She and her husband are still in the gaming industry.

Aside from her, virtually no one in my family is a gamer. I would try to explain this quilt to them, but would just get blank squares. And questions like "why so much gray" or "sure is colorful." Oh well.

This is the back, just using whatever size strips of color I had left, plus some snow and the gray, which is coal.

I used a tutorial from quiltergeek. I was determined to have every Tetris shape whole, so as to make the design more readily apparent, and of course the only way to do that was to include at least one square of gray on each line, otherwise the line would go away. So it's basically the worst played game of Tetris ever.

I don't remember all the names for the solids - sorry. The finished size is 84" x 92", and of course I used warm & natural batting. I quilted on each side of the seam, plus one line down the middle of each block. It's pretty heavily quilted - I tend to prefer that.

It was a very fun quilt to make.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone. I did get my Christmas project done and will probably post pictures on Christmas evening. I'm so excited to finally share it!

I have 2 gifts left to wrap and then I am completely done with all Christmas preparations. I got an earlier start than usual this year, and stayed on task better than usual. Even when I do get an early start, I usually end up fighting the crowds on the 23rd for those last few things that I've procrastinated about. I'm looking forward to a much more relaxing holiday as a result.

Now if I could just get this house clean...

In the meantime, my husband's birthday is today and I'm just telling you it's no fun having a birthday a couple of days before Christmas. I can't count the number of years I've forgotten until the last minute & had to steal out one of his Christmas gifts for a birthday gift. His cousin called me yesterday saying we never did anything for his birthday and could we do something this year. So, with 2 days notice, I'm planning a small birthday party for him. It's a good thing is very favorite food in the world is hamburgers - I'm not sure I could do much else on such short notice. It's also pretty amazing that everyone we want to be there is free for the evening. Including a very dear to him old friend that he hasn't been in touch with lately. He doesn't know anything about the party yet, but I'm not sure I can manage keeping the whole thing under wraps - how do I hide 5 pounds of ground beef with all the trimmings, and keep him from noticing my preparations when there's no one available to get him out of the house? So I'm sure I'll tell him, but I'm keeping the old friend a secret. I'm looking forward to the look on his face when he sees him again.

I'm trying not to let recent events dampen our celebrations, but I have to admit to having my mind on that more than Christmas lately. I tend to internalize my thoughts & feelings somewhat, but even if I did want to voice them, there seem to be no words. What do you say? That it's unbearably sad? That it's scary? While true, those words are so incredibly inadequate. I wonder if that's why the gun control debate has taken center stage so quickly. It's so much easier to think about and talk about that. I just keep reminding myself that I'm not doing that community any good by not enjoying my own celebrations. In fact, enjoying my daughter more is probably the best thing I can do. That and pray for those families. They will certainly need God's grace to achieve any semblance of normality, really at any point in the future. I imagine the loss will be as great in 5 years as it is now.