Friday, April 17, 2015

All Marked, Ready To Quilt

I can guarantee is that my newest Christmas quilt will be complete by this Christmas. I finished marking the top a few minutes ago. Tomorrow I will start layering and basting. That always takes a while. Squatting tailor style doesn't suit old folks well and this week I have been suffering from a pinched nerve in my upper back. I have a very bad upper spine, skull down to mid-back, including having had discectomy and fusion on four levels in my neck several years ago. Although thoracic disc ruptures are remarkably rare I am lucky enough to have two ruptured thoracic discs at levels 2 and 3. I have been eating ibuprofen as if it were jelly beans so the next thing to go will undoubtedly be my stomach. Of course no one in her right mind would want to have a thoracic disc repair. They crack open the ribs as for open heart surgery and it is simply a hideous process and recovery. Luckily all I have is the serious pain, not any numbness or tingling yet.

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Funny That

About ten years ago a fellow who wanted to start an online column about triathlons and triathletes contacted me to ask me if I would help write a training column for the swimming portion. I said yes and wrote a few columns for his site but haven't thought much about it in the intervening years. A couple of days ago I happened to come across my first column online somewhere and was I surprised. In the last year alone that one column has gotten more than a thousand views with comments from readers that are embarrassingly fulsome in praise. There are far more hits on that bit of writing than on anything this blog will ever produce. Funny that.

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Applique Corner Complete

As I wrote in the previous entry, I changed my plan for the quilt corner from the Christmas card to one of my own design but inspired by the card. I retained the central image of the dove but made three circles of holly and ivy to represent both the old carol and the trinity. I think it worked out well.

I was afraid the bird would end up looking like a seagull but it does look like a dove. Now just stick that idea on the touching feathered stars and add copious quilting and you will see the finished quilt in your mind's eye before I finish it.

Saturday, April 4, 2015

All Four Stars Completed

Although the process reminded me why I prefer applique over piecing, I finished all four feathered stars and joined them to make the center section.

I drew out my corner design as well. The center is obviously symmetrical but there will be an applique design in only one corner with a fancy feather quilted border on the remaining section of the border. Although I started off thinking of using the Christmas card design, what I drew evolved into a white dove sitting on a mixed branch of holly and ivy with some small berries. So this will be a Christmas design but not the usual type of Christmas design.