I need to write a pattern.

But first, I need to send supplies for the next teaching trip.

But first, I need to find out how many students and how big the lecture crowd will be.

But first, I need to get the laundry started.

But first, I need to bring the dirty clothes downstairs.

But first, I need to get the coffee started.

You get the drift. Pretty soon forty-five minutes have passed and I’m still dinking around on Facebook, trying to figure out which “first” on the list will get me going. Eventually I come to my senses and just pick one item and get going. Oddly enough, it’s usually making the coffee. Hmm. Maybe I should set up the coffee maker in the evening to greet me with fresh coffee first thing in the morning. But first I need to, well, there’s always something.

So, I’m writing this silly blog post to get things moving again. (Pun intended.) And even though I have many things to tell you that I really should have already told you, today I’m telling you that I’m currently in Huntington Beach, CA. I’ll be doing my lecture in a couple hours (but first I need to dry my hair and put on my face). Here’s hoping this little “relaxitive” will be just the thing to help me stop trying to write the perfect blog, and just write.

But no matter which way I attacked it, I wasn’t pleased. Too pat, too familiar, too boring. Yikes. Who will want to make a quilt that I don’t even want to be bothered to make?

So, I thought, maybe what this quilt needs is a pieced center focal block. Something stretched, more oval than square, an idea I’ve thought about exploring in the past. Still thinking about the spiky New York Beauty, I decided to stretch out a simple Lone Star block. Cool, huh?

It turned out to be ridiculously complicated! Not only were the pieced diamonds different shapes and angles for the horizonal and the vertical, they were also mirror images! Yikes, how would I ever write this?

Of course the first thing I did was design cheats, templates to make cutting the strip sets easier. That worked great. And I figured out that I could cut the weird setting triangles from one rectangle, clever that, eh?

All went well until it was time to sew the final seams. Nothing, I mean nothing, lines up! All of the seams meet at weird angles. I’ve tried sewing it from a dozen different directions and it always ends up looking like a transporter accident. But I’m not done with this block yet. With a little more tweaking, it may yet end up as the center of the winter quilt project.

Still with me? Great!

I have a file full of applique shapes that I like but haven’t used yet, intermediate steps that ended up very different by the end of a project. I’ve had these on the mind lately because I’ve always though they looked like mums to me, and fall is all about the mums here in the north.

So, even with the background design still vague in my head, I dove into creating the applique shapes. They are big and bold and oh-so-cheerful!

Back to the background now, these babies need a place to live. I was thinking that I’d like to use some subtle piecing, to make the background interesting, but not a main character.  It’s an idea that I’ve been playing with for some time. I had an idea percolating when I saw one of Ricky Tim’s work in progress quilts posted on Facebook. He used seminol piecing in his border, which is basically a series of squares on point. (Friend him, and you can see it too, it’s a smashing quilt!)

And that was it. I knew just what to do. The pieced squares idea I was messing about with suddenly jumped on point and, ta-dah, it’s a background.

I’ve pressed the seams towards the lighter squares (which means the darker fabric is my background, right Sneaky Piecing Tricks graduates?) to make them jump forwards against the darker fabric. Yes, that’s my toe in the lower right. And then just started dealing out the applique shapes until I liked what I saw.

So here it is, at it now stands. The flowers are just laying in place, not stitched down. I need to decrease the size of that middle border by a couple of inches, maybe (or leave it as room for quilting?). And maybe shift some of the colors around a bit. It may end up landscape instead of portrait (wide instead of tall). And, most importantly, I want to do some hand (!!!) embroidery to the applique before it’s stitched down to the background.

I’ve had a terrible bee in my bonnet about embroidery lately. I learned to embroider before kindergarten and put it aside when quilting took over my life. But now that the Wash Away Applique Sheets make it easy to embellish my appliques, I can think of nothing else. It’s time to blow the dust off my boxes of floss and get stitching!

Still with me? Terrific!

I’ve found a terrific fabric line called Shades by Clothworks. It’s brand new, so we won’t have to worry about running out. We will be offering kits, which will probably run about $40. I’m going to need about two weeks to finish up the quilt and pattern (I’m out the door tomorrow to Dansville, NY for three days of classes and a Friday night lecture), so let’s look for the new project to start September 1st.

And, as usual, I need a name for the quilt. I’m thinking something with Harlequin, because of the diamond shapes. And of course, we have mums and the blue bonnets to consider. Leave a comment with a suggestion, and if I use your idea, I’ll send you a free package of Wash Away Applique Sheets!

I think he has my eyes. He looks more like his daddy every day. It’s such a gift, isn’t it, how grandchildren spark our memories? A fleeting expression, a word, a touch and I am right back, twenty-five years ago, when Nathan was three.

I loved those days, when the boys were young. I loved the way they revealed themselves to me, glimpses of their character, their talents and strengths. I always felt that it was my job to help them find their best selves, not try to mold them into my expectations.

Having grandchildren is the best antidote for any bits of empty nest syndrome I might have suffered.

Alex and mommy Amanda open birthday gifts. Honestly, we couldn’t have asked for a better mom to our grandchildren. She and Nate make excellent babies!

 Amanda made the adorable Buzz Lightyear cake. This year it’s all about Toy Story.

In addition to the guest of honor, we had baby Nicole doing her best to upstage the star of the day.

Here’s our little redheaded girl. Her big blue eyes are a wonder to this family of squinty-eyed boys. (That comes from their dad’s side. Really.) Just over three months and she’s sitting up like a champ.

This is Amanda’s sister, Jessica. You can plainly see where that red hair came from.

Here’s our little scene-stealer with her other grandparents. I think she looks a lot like her grandpa John. Amanda has a special relationship with her dad, it always touches me to see it.

We had a lovely day for the party. For a few special hours our home was filled with laughter and joy and entirely too much food.

I’m assuming that folks in the south run from air conditioning to air conditioning the way we northerners run towards the warmth in the dead of winter. Perhaps I’ll even sweat off a few pounds while I’m there (one can hope). Oh, wait, I forgot, I’m going to the civilized south, I mean perspire.

One way or another, I’m really looking forward to my time in Ole Miss. Just last month I was in St. Cloud, MN, in a classroom that overlooked the Mississippi River. This week I’ll be closer to the mouth of the river than ever before. Someday I’d like to see the beginning and the end of the Mississippi. The river has always been a life metaphor for me. It starts out so small, and grows to be strong. While it may wander a bit in the middle it supports life and provides for others. Those who fail to take it seriously end in ruin. And then it finishes in grand style, pouring all it has left into the sea. We could all hope to do so well.

The last things to go in my suitcase are my evening diversions. I must admit that I shudder in horror at the thought of having nothing to do. That’s not to say that I’m incapable of doing nothing (shut up Karen), and after a good day of teaching, sometimes nothing is about all I have left. So I’ve tossed in enough yarn to make two pairs of socks. And I’ve tossed in a piece that I’ve appliqued, along with embroidery floss and beads. And I have three books on my ipod. Hmm, maybe I’d better toss in another skein of yarn, or pull the fabric for another small applique project.

Once the excitement of spring planting is past, we settle into the boring but gratifying task of maintaining the garden. I think it might be my ADHD, but I really like putting things in order. Mindless tasks, like pulling weeds, are perfect for settling my dizzy brain, giving ideas a chance to form and settle. But weeding the garden is a pretty boring topic for a blog post.

I’ve been working on virtual quilts for Northcott. It’s really kind of cool getting jpg files of fabric before it’s even printed. I use Corel Draw to cut it into pieces and assemble those pieces into a quilt, perfectly to scale. But I can’t show the designs to you until the fabric is printed and arriving in stores. More boring blog stuff.

I’ve also been working away at a series of three articles for Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine. Now that is way exciting for me. I’ve always thought that QN was one of the very best quilting magazines out there, all grown up, if you will. I’m so honored to have this opportunity. But I can’t show you the projects until the magazines come out. Boring.

So, all of this is a long way of saying that, yes, I’m still alive. Yes, I’m still working on stuff. But for now it’s blissfully boring.

In my own defense, I chose the tootsie roll because the package said it was a fat-free food! While I refuse to be on a diet, I am trying to make less stupid food choices. Since I had hardly slept a wink (a common problem for me, especially when traveling) I just wanted a little energy boost to carry me through the rest of the workshop. I got one, only it wasn’t the sugar high I had hope for, but a rush of adrenalin as I retrieved the crown.

I have terrible teeth, terrible. Even though I brush and floss carefully, my teeth break, usually at the most inopportune times. I’m sure it has something to do with having no real dental care until I was a teenager, and my habit of clenching my teeth when I’m stressed. Over the years I’ve had nearly all of my teeth replaced with crowns. Sometimes I wonder what all that gold is worth.

Of course it couldn’t be a simple matter of just gluing the crown back in place. No, I broke it well and good. Only a root canal could repair the damage, so off to a specialist I went.

This guy was a real character, snowy white hair cropped short to his head, genial face. But, oh my, the fuss he made! Muttering good naturedly under his breath, almost talking to himself, he listed all the stumbling blocks to a good outcome. He did pause to admit (with a wink) that he is, indeed, very good at what he does, and isn’t that lucky for me.  In the end, all the harrumphing and complaining about how challenging it would be took longer than the proceedure.

Listening to the doctor and his helpers banter it was clear that they enjoyed their work. Their quiet confidence helped me to relax, and, believe it or not, I left the office smiling.  How I’ll feel when the anesthetic wears off remains to be seen.

The thing about a garden is that it’s never really done, and that’s a good thing. It’s all about the process, not the results. This is my rose garden, or at least the start of it. The concrete urn is new this year. I got it for a song. A corner of the base was broken off, a corner of the base that is hidden by the mulch, so they sold it to me at half price. Sold! It weighs a ton, but then that’s what we have boys for.

 The climbing roses are going great guns this year, their second in the garden. Looks like maybe by next year they will make it to the top of the trellis.

In the front garden, the lavender is just about to bloom. I love lavender. I love the fresh, clean scent. I love the bluish purply wands of color. I love the gray-green, spikey foliage. It seems to grow quite happily here, I have it in several places around the house.

My favorite lavender spot is in the garden along the path to the back door. It’s slightly overgrown its bed, gently brushing our legs as we return home, releasing its calming fragrance as a welcome.

Life is really pretty quiet around here, and I’m not complaining. I spend my days at the computer, designing virtual quilts to help advertise Northcott’s new fabric lines. Or puttering around the garden. Or doing everyday chores. Or just listening to the birds and savoring warm summer days. It’s good when life is slow, very good.

It’s been a long time in coming, but I’m finally in the home stretch, finishing my Now & Forever quilt. The top has been done for ages. It’s been layered and basted since January. Even the pattern is done, just waiting for a picture of the quilt for the cover. (I hope to have the pattern up on the web site by the weekend.) Life does have a way of coming between us and our quilting, even when quilting is our job.

I always start the quliting by stitching in the ditch around the applique, and usually around the blocks as well. It really helps them stand out against the background. It also helps to stabilize the quilt. I had a really hard time deciding on which quilting patterns to use. Even though I’m not a big fan of stippling, this quilt seemed to demand it. There’s just not a lot of room to develop a more complex pattern.

It would seem that I’ve once again quilted the snot out of it. (Technical term.) I didn’t mean to, but the more I quilted the more I wanted to quilt it.

It was fun using a variety of threads. For the flowers and pieced blocks I used variegated threads, 50 wt cotton, from Superior, Wonderfil and Aurafil. The background fill is poly from Floriani (beautiful stuff, looks like rayon, but with none of the problems of rayon).

My next job is to bind the quilt. I’m going to use the same gold print fabric used in the sashing. I’m listening to the latest book in J.D. Robb’s In Death series. Seems fitting to finish the quilt and the series together. After that? It’s time to write.

As I’m sure you’re tired of hearing, my automotive misadventure has kept me from my usual springtime garden clean up. With my right hand restricted to no use, light use and then careful use, the most I could manage was about forty-five minutes every few days. But last Friday the ortho doc proclaimed me healed. It will take some time yet to have full use or be pain-free, but the broken bone is healed.

So I went to the garden center. Most of my gardens are perennials, but we have planters, urns and hanging baskets that are filled with annuals.

I always wait until I’ve seen what wonders the horticulturists have produced for us before I decide on a color scheme. I love geraniums, they are so old fashioned and so freely blooming. They are usually the backbone of my plan.

After finding a yummy veriegated pink variety, I settled on pink with white and blue accents for the front planters.

As for the back, I decided to go with all white flowers in the planters. My roses are finally established and promise to keep us in color. The white theme in the planters will give a nice, fresh splash, and add a bit of sparkle for evening entertaining.

This is our front porch, off the kitchen. I have yet to dress it up for summer, but the rockers are out. The hanging baskets look a little spare now, but they will fill in quickly.

This is the view from the drive way. The garden is being over run by lily of the valley. The scent is heavenly now, but in another week I will be yanking it out, cursing myself for being so soft hearted about volunteers. Since we do this dance every spring, I’m not worried about pulling too many. Maybe this year I’ll toss some of them into the woods and see if they stick.

 And since I don’t have enough to do, I’ve managed to convince Kent that we need another shot at the garden at the edge of the field. Our first attempt, a vegetable garden, turned out to be a deer buffet.

This year, plan is to plant a cutting garden. Next July (2011), that expanse of yard between my rototilling son, Caleb, and the house will be filled with a tent for his wedding to Elaine. It’s a dream come true to host a wedding here, one I never expected, being the mother of sons. We’ll be putting extra effort into the gardens this year so they can provide the perfect backdrop for Caleb and Elaine’s wedding day.

Without a doubt, the hardest decision for me, when it comes to quilting, is settling on a background fill. I have my favorites and I argue with myself about falling back on tried and true. I want to use a fill that will compliment the quilt, and be interesting, but not more interesting than the applique and piecing. Scale is important too. Too big and loose will look like I got lazy and just wanted the darn thing done. Too small and tight will make the piece stiff and take freaking forever.

For a quilt with lots of curves, a linear design makes a nice counterpoint. Conversely, a geometric design is often complimented with a curvy quilting design. In the end, I used a peacock eye design, mostly because I had just taught a class in free motion quilting and was reminded of how fun this design is to stitch. So much for science.

The open corners on the borders are just begging for some sexy stitching. I decided to do some simple princess feathers, mostly because I could use the heart shape in the corner to change the direction of the feathers. It mirrors the heart shapes in the flower petals and the flutterby wings. Using a flexible ruler I marked just the spines. I used a pale peach rayon thread (by Sulky, I think, it’s been in my thread stash for a while). It seemed to me that the quilting needed a little more oomf to hold its own against the vibrant colors of the applique.

Simple curves on the pieced blocks, flowers and leaves completed the quilting.

All that remained was that lovely, peaceful task of turning the binding. I’m totally old school on this, stitching by hand. Because my hands are still healing, it took several hours to complete the binding. It made for a lovely morning, in my rocker on the front porch, listening to my latest addiction, the “In Death” series by J. D. Robb, aka Nora Roberts. (I’m working my way through the series, up to Born in Death.)

I couldn’t resist snapping a picture of my spiffy nails (installed at the local mall). Yep, I’ve definately reentered my sparkly phase.