Hexagons and Yoyos

When Mom, Linda Branock, died, I pretty much quit quilting. She had helped me get started on this, so now, almost 4 years after she died, I am working on the quilt she wanted to see me finish.

I have it laid out, and I am working to applique the blue hexagons onto the brown and lavender frame strips. I sit on the floor to stitch it. Yep, it is killing my body, but I don't want to lift it and have the edges to shift. I used spray baste (and pins), but you never know. 

It took me a minute to figure if I wanted the brown or the green frame (you can just see it at the sides of the blue hexagons), but I think the brown looks really good. Both the brown and green are from Mom's Lilac Hill collection of fabrics. (http://www.unitednotions.com/fcc_lilac_hill.pdf)

That was a lovely line of prints. (*sigh*)

 This is a close up of the hexagons (they still have their papers in). I was considering a faded text fabric, but when I put it on the design wall, it looked wrong. Maybe I'll use it in the borders. I have not decided about border fabric, but I laid some portions out (first photo) to see what might go.

AND here is the yoyo shawl I am calling finished. It has 966 yoyos. Don't ask how long it took me; all I can say is "years."

 Holler at me....I don't know if anyone still reads blogs. I do sometimes!

Big YO YOs (original post 9/26/2010)

I have been working on these really big yo-yos,

choosing borders,

I got the borders on (sorry, I'm saving it for later), and the free-motion paralysis set in, so I started a smaller project using the super giant yo-yos. This time in yellow.

Not too bad.

Today I am resting.  I was sick this morning, and thinking it was a reaction to Metronidazole (or a heart problem), so was heading out the door to the ER when I thought I'd try my asthma inhaler.  Well I'll be darned!  Much better.  I am new to this asthma thing.  I don't wheeze.  I cough.  But this morning it was all about headache, flushed skin, blurred vision, shortness of breathe and extreme fatigue. The antibiotic makes me feel icky, but not usually that icky, so

I will drink lots of good tea.

Which I keep in my Bubba Keg.

And Kitten will maintain her foreign-film watching pose most of the day.

One Month

Embrace beauty in all its textures and layers, in all its time: past, present and future.

I have been taking time to make adjustments, sob my guts out, and absorb the silence in my home. I stay busy, but in the non-busy time his absence is like grey fog seeping into my conscience. It happens less now than at first. 

One night I heard his car door slam shut like he was coming home from being out. When we're  asleep, do brains select random noises from the past to play back?

The love seat and coffee table from the living room are now in the bedroom where I can read in the evenings. The big screen TV is, and always has been, too close to my chaise.

I cut out a new quilt, but I haven't found the discipline to put it together. It is for a special friend who has helped me through all this, so I will work on it during Thimbles Summer Stitch (In). Pat, if you are reading this, this year it is a Summer STITCH, not Stitch In. We'll have fun either way. I will be there if I can get vacation time.

I'd like to secure these yo-yos to this hand-dyed background.

That would be good. 
AND look what I found in the process of spiffing up the sewing room.

 Two of Mom's patterns we occaisonally get asked about. The Dresden Hearts pattern was published in 1989, and the rug pattern in 1986!

Cleaning the sewing room is a start.

TV sewing

One thing I love about my job at the technical college is the diversity of students I get to meet and help.  The students who are originally from Africa are so kind, caring and generous.

One of those students gave me a package of this fabric.  It is very different from the cotton I am used to for quilting.  The package contained between 4 and 6 yards.  The fabric feels papery and is very shiny. I could see it would make a wonderful traditional African costume. But what would I do with it?

Yo-yo girlfriend!

(looks so different; doesn't it?)

I like the crispness the fabric gives the yo-yos.  I am putting them together with bright colors of embroidery floss.

Scooter (now 13 years old) likes when I am hand sewing (making yo-yos) in the bedroom.  It is cozy there and he can sleep.

I love a good yo yo!

I've only worked on this sporadically.  Someone asked me am I going to put a backing on it.

That would defeat my centering of certain little eye-candy gems on the backsides of the yo-yos.

To me, that was the fun part of searching my fabric stash and making the yo-yos.

I loved putting Missouri on the back of this one.

I kind of think of it as an "I Spy" project preserving little fabric treasures.

More Yo-Yos

So I bought this new distraction (large yo-yo maker), and found some fabric I didn't mind scrunching into circles.

At the end of Saturday night (Saturnight makes more sense to me), I had 25 yo-yos and no more of that fabric to scrunch.

I am thinking of using some perl cotton thread, but not sure how yet.  Kitten came to check it out.

Thought precedes action.

That's why I keep the little spools in a big pickle jar.

She has a short attention span though.

See? 

That missing collar is now back around her neck.  Cool! It matches the thread she was playing with. Wait a minute.  Hang on.  Is this Kitten all about being matchy-matchy?  She loves anything I do that is black and white, but not at all interested in beige.  Huh.  I smell a need for government-funded research. Or perhaps it's already been done.  I am off to Google.  

Yo-Yo Oh-No

I started this teenie-tiny yo-yo "thing" last night at Thimbles.  Trust me; the small size is good enough.  Extra small is a challenge.  Meaning: starting with yo-yos of any size could be a serious mistake for anyone on the OCD cusp, and working with the extra small size could just push you right over it.  WALK AWAY (save thousands in therapy)!

On to the happy place.  LOOK at my Dad's rhubarb plant:

And Mom's beautiful pink flower (sorry, I didn't catch the name of it; probably won't grow in my clay anyway).

And my son's dog Naga. I know, not as pretty as the other photos. Mom and Dad haven't seen Eron's dog, so I thought I would post the picture.  What do you think Mom?