Taking a Break.....

You might have noticed that I've been away for a while. I was sick, then on the couch depressed.

I made a decision a last month that I was going to need to move back to California. My employer, who I worked 30 years for made a decision to stop all but catastrophic health coverage for retirees who lived "out of area". I'm one of them, and the coverage provides for no routine health care and costs me out of pocket nearly $400 a month for the privilege (*note sarcasm here*) on no routine medical coverage. If I move back to California, I can rejoin the HMO I belonged to and everything other than minimal copays is covered. So, I must move.















What I'm leaving........the beautiful in every season Blue Ridge Mountains. A quiet country road where the only traffic that passes my house is the family who live at the end of the road, the local farmer whose access to the pasture below my place is just down the road a bit, the mailman, and in the winter the snowplow.

Wild turkeys parade down the broken yellow line sometimes, cows moo, and there is a coyote who has moved into the woods on the other side of the pasture. People here wave even if they have never seen you before and most folks don't bother to lock their cars when they go to town or their house until bedtime.

I can't afford to stay here without health insurance and the move will be expensive. I will most likely become an apartment dweller, housing is expensive. I've been grieving and I've been angry, and now I'm just on the front edge of acceptance.

There's a lot to do to get ready to make this move......so I am going to take a break from blogging, from quilting, and get to work. Look for me sometime in June. I'll be checking in on my blogging buddies from time to time and will look forward to see what you all are working on.

Abrazos y Hasta Luego Amigas.

Wednesday with the Quilty Girls...

NOT!!!!

I looked out the window at 3:00am and there was a faint dusting of snow just along the road...and none on the car or the mailbox. It was windy, and there was so little snow I figured what was there had probably blown there from Ashe County. LOL

I got up at 8:30 and saw this.

No Wednesday at the Quilt Shop for me. The snowplow hasn't passed...the wind is still blowing to beat the band and it looks like a fine day to stay inside.

I haven't been sewing. I'm in a mid-winter slump despite my full-spectrum lightbulbs and I know that this too shall pass.

Thank God for Netflix!

Weekend at the Movies.....

Mira Nair, director, known for "Vanity Fair" and "Monsoon Wedding" presents this study of a couple who emigrate from Northern India. Their relationship with this new country, with each other, and with their american-born children explore the questions that come up in those relationships. I enjoyed this film immensely, and really enjoyed the special features which were rich with excerpts from seminars that the director presented in film school about the making of this film. I learned a lot about film-making; things I had not ever considered before, and appreciate how generous she was in sharing that insider information. I had seen Vanity Fair before, and will put Monsoon Wedding on my Netflix Que.

The Night Listener creeped me out. This is not the first drama that Robin Williams has been in that has done so. But I think it will be the last. I was totally unsettled by it, and halfway through found myself thinking, "why am I wasting my time on this?".

But, I persisted. Wish I could say that I found some redeeming value in it, but I think I was just too lazy to get up off the couch and turn it off before it finished. Is it that I fear I will have judged it too hastily, or that it will at the last moment save itself? I dunno.


I don't know where I heard about this one, but I put it on my Netflix Que and was happy when I saw that it was on it's way. A Chinese film, that was thoroughly enjoyable despite the sad circumstances of the woman in the title ~ it stretched credibility a little. How could a man who had become lovers with a woman 3 different times over the course of their lives not remember her each time he meets her? Despite that leap of credibility I still enjoyed it. I like Chinese films and have come to know certain directors and can count on their films to not disappoint. This director, though, was new to me.


Okay, I wasn't expecting a heavy film but was prepared to be happy just to be in the company of this ensemble. It did have some lessons....not delivered in a heavy-handed way, just presented for consideration. I liked it. C'mon, it had Morgan Freeman in it! Need I say more?


I don't remember the first Elizabeth movie with Cate Blanchett, so I will have to order it. I will remember this one, though. I enjoyed it so much and the special features were every bit as entertaining because they were lush with how the sets, costumes, and art direction were major players in this film. It was lush and made me curious to know more about the Elizabethan era....now that's saying something. I loved it.

As you can guess, I got very little accomplished this weekend. But I had a great time and the weather ~ cold, wet, and foggy lent themselves to spending the weekend entertained thusly. No guilt here. (well except for The Night Listener, that is...) LOL

Tomorrow I'm off to Greensboro for a visit to the periodontist. Will be gone most of the day.

See ya layta!

What's Happening?

Before I get into where I'm at in the process with the series of Mexican frames quilts, Recuerdos I, II, and III ~ I will make a confession.

I hate to throw away the selvages I trim off of yardage.

I know they must be good for something and I have found some ways to use them, but trust me when I say that I have more than I will ever use. Still, I tie them to the left end of the shelf high on the wall in my studio and like how they cheerfully await whatever mission I assign to them. When the heat comes on, the forced air from the heat register causes them to shimmy and dance and it seems that they are reminding me that they are at my service. LOL


Recuerdos 1, the first of the Mexican frames quilts is back
from the long-arm quilter and I couldn't be happier with the results.

She did a really fine job of it. I am just about ready to sew the binding onto the front and get busy finishing it.

(That's the binding for 3 quilts hanging off the right end of the shelf....waiting for the tops to be quilted)

I like to prepare the binding at the same time as I sew on the borders. That way when I have it layered, quilted and nearly done...I can immediately get the binding sewn on and get it finished. I have a lot of quilts ready to go in my head, but have few actual UFO's and I think the reason is that I keep the momentum going til I cross the finish line.

Parts for Recuerdos III are on the design wall. The border fabric has been chosen, but the top has a ways to go until it is ready.

The top for Recuerdos II is finished. When III is finished, I will send them both to the long-armer.



I couldn't find exactly what I wanted to use for backing for II and III, so I found some 300 thread count cotton flat sheets that I thought would work fine. I have to trim off the finished edges and hems, and they will be good to go. They are a good quality cotton, with a slight sheen ~ one in a nice gold color and the other in an olive green. Both will work with the fabrics in the quilt top.

Each of the sheets cost $10 and that is much cheaper than I would have had to pay for yardage. I've heard some stories that sheets are hard on the machine needle, so I will be curious to see how it works.

Mas tarde!

Little footnote...

One of my quilty girlfriendz dropped me a note yesterday to say that "a clean house is a sign of a sick mind".

Bless her heart, she was hoping to get that note to me before I started cleaning house...LOL, but alas I was already engaged.

There is something satisfying about looking around and seeing a clean house. The smell of furniture polish, and the absence of dust is an amazing antidote for whatever ails you. After I finished cleaning, I took a shower, put on some clean clothes and a dab of my good perfume and sat in the living room and just enjoyed the view. My house felt like home again, and I felt better. Sick mind or not.

Things You Notice

It's funny, that when you are immobile you notice stuff. Dust bunnies, layers of dust on the furniture, corners of the floor taken over by crumbs and whatever, and the general shabbiness of a house that is in serious need of cleaning. That stuff is generally invisible when I'm busy doing other stuff, but this past week I've been sort of held captive by the couch.


Ugh....I can in most instances ignore the need to break out the vacuum and mop, but I'm unable to ignore this. I feel a little better today and any other time that would signal that it's time to get back in the studio and working on those 2 quilts that are still in parts. But, not today.

I'm going to put on my shirtwaist dress and pearls just like Beaver Cleaver's mom, and clean house. I don't think I'll get it all done today, but I'm going to make a dent in it.

Layta!

Sniff, Snort, Blow, Sneeze, Cough....and repeat

However, even waking up with a cold beats the alternative...........




Later, gator!