My new favorite pattern

In the "It's mine, you can't have it" category, we have my recently finished lattice quilt.

The quilting was simple, and only took an evening. Just straight lines echoing the seams of the patterned fabric, which is Petal by Tanya Wheelan. The "white" in the top is Kona Snow.

I just love the little way a square forms at the intersection, framing the points where the different fabrics meet.

For the back, I just used some fabrics I had on hand, mostly solids, but I found a red gingham and threw some of that in too.

The colors in the back are darker than the colors in the top, but they blend well.

I don't remember the name of the blue, or the light neutral, but the dark neutral is stone, and as you can see, I've used it for the binding as well. I think it frames all the lighter fabrics beautifully.

This quilt finished at 49" x 64", which is perfect for an extra quilt on my side of the bed only. It would also make a great quilt for the couch, but this dog is only allowed supervised visits with quilts:

Somewhere along the way, she developed quite a taste for them and we've been unable to break her of it.

I'm linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts for her Finish it Friday series. I love those project bags she's putting together - I may need to make some of those myself.

My seriously bad day

It started Friday night, actually. I was walking across my den towards my sewing machine when I heard a loud pop in my left knee and felts lots & lots of pain. I did some google research on knee pops followed by intense pain and determined I had sprained it and I just needed to rest it a while. So I took the weekend off from laundry and just sat around all day Saturday. My husband bought me this:

And probably this in connection with all the rest made everything all better. Maybe a little weak feeling, but virtually pain free. So Sunday was back to life as usual. I had to run to Joann's for thread, I needed to pick up some things from the grocery store, I did some cooking, went back downstairs to sew some more - typical day. I felt so good, in fact, that I made the decision not to wear the brace to sleep. A decision I immediately regretted when I rolled over in bed last night. There was no pop this time, but there was the same sudden onset of pain, only worse. I couldn't put the first bit of weight on my leg. I literally couldn't walk.

So I get up this morning & it's a tiny bit better - I can walk in tiny steps if my knee is bent almost 90 degrees - are you picturing that? All hunched over, grabbing walls for support, shuffling along?

It was right after I got to the couch that I heard it... You know how you're supposed to change the batteries in your smoke detectors when the time changes? And if you don't, it lets out a loud beep every 30 seconds to annoy the crap out of you until you do? That's what I heard. I can barely make it to the bathroom, climbing on a chair to change a battery in a smoke detector is out of the question. So I just get to hear it - all. day. long. My husband is on overtime. Won't get home until around 6:30. I can't guarantee my sanity by then.

But let's make it more interesting. Let's add a tiny dog that is scared of the beep and even after 6 hours, just will not become desensitized:

The shaking and the whining and the getting under my feet. Wow.

While I regret all the activity yesterday that probably allowed a recurrence of the sprain to happen, I'm very glad this was one of the things I chose to do:

Cream of broccoli soup. Folks, this is some of the best soup you'll ever taste. I took a basic recipe from The Pioneer Woman, but I used half chicken stock & half milk, and I only had less than a cup of cheese. I mean, if you have to be stuck at home, unable to even walk well, this is the food you want to have.

So, lest the most attractive picture I leave you with be a bowl of green soup, I'll show you what I did while I rested all day Saturday:

This is a twin sized quilt made out of Paris Flea Market fabrics that I decided to hand quilt. I hesitated for the longest, because I was so sure I'd regret taking on a hand quilting project of this size, but I haven't regretted it for a moment. In fact, I'm pretty sure it is now necessary for me to have a hand quilting project going at all times. I'm nearing the end of this one, and I just love the way it looks. Hand quilting adds something that just can't be replicated with a machine.

I hope you're having a less annoying day than I am, but I doubt your lunch is as good:)

We had a homemade Christmas

I just didn't photograph it well. We had pillows, and pillow cases, and table runners, and hot pads, and even some ornaments. Some of them were quite pretty, but we have no evidence of that, do we? What can I say, something had to give in the hectic frenzy that is Christmas.

I did make another table runner after Christmas, though, and since I'm listing it in my shop, I did get some pictures:

Simple patchwork, but sometimes that's best.

Hope you're off to a great start to the new year!

I'm linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts for her Finish it Friday.