Gratitude

We are in between two big storms.  One blew in last night and knocked out power to the north and south of us.  So far here it has just been the lights flickering now and then.  I am grateful.  The BIG storm is actually a typhoon headed in our direction and is supposed to hit this area sometime tomorrow.  (For those of you who wonder - hurricanes originate in the Atlantic and typhoons originate in the Pacific, but are the same thing).  In between we are treated to lots and lots and lots of rain.

Snoqualmie October 13 and 14, 2016

This is Snoqualmie Falls.  The first picture was taken yesterday and the one on the right was taken today.  Like I said, lots of rain.

I spend my weekdays driving kids to the bus or to school and then picking them up in the afternoon.  I don't always drive to the bus stop but when it's raining I feel like I should.  Between morning drop-off and afternoon pickup I have time to myself.  That hasn't happened since last October when my daughter and grandchildren moved in with me, but this year my grandson is in Kindergarten and that's all day in Renton.

So what do I do with my spare time?  I've been sewing.  I made some quilted bags, some baby burp pads and I have been sewing quilts.  Quilting was never my thing - I was intimidated by the tiny stitches my mom used to put into hand-quilted whole cloth quilts and the rest of the process (buy fabric, cut it into small pieces then sew it back together) just seemed beyond me.  I could buy a blanket for less than what it cost to make a quilt.  However after Neal died I began slowly learning more about the process and was invited to join a sewing group with friends from church.  They met twice a month at someone's house but since we all sat around her dining room table, I was limited to small projects like quilted bags because we were seated so closely together.

I did make a few other quilts - a pink and purple butterfly quilt for my granddaughter's bed when they moved to the farmhouse and she had a larger bed.  I made a dinosaur flannel quilt top for my grandson that my daughter quilted.  When they moved here I made a twin size quilt black, gray and hot pink for the granddaughter's smaller bed and my daughter made a stars and galaxies quilt for my grandson.

Last winter I decided to use some of the fabric I had on hand to make a new quilt for my bed.  The last time I made a quilt for myself was in 1984 when I took a class and made a lone star quilt in shades of blue.  My mom and my sister quilted it.  I know I made mistakes because my sister told me that I should have used a print on the back of the quilt instead of a solid color, and I suspect I bought poly cotton fabric, not knowing that wasn't a good idea.  But I liked that quilt and used it on my bed for a long time.  The new quilt top was finished last spring and my daughter wants to hand quilt it for me as soon as she gets through with two other projects.

Last spring my neighbor across the street invited me to go with her to Lynden Washington near the Canadian border to stay in a lovely timeshare and sew all week.  It was wonderful to get away!  I learned so much about the process and how to be more accurate, and I loved some of the quilt tops she was making.  

That was last spring.  Since then I have become more creative and have completed several beautiful quilts which will be presents for family members.  I also saw a picture of a Celtic quilt that I loved but the accompanying article was about machine quilting.  I sat  down with the picture and figured out how it was made, counted and recounted the number of blocks and decided to try it.  I made a sample block to make sure I was doing it right, and then I began.  The quilt is lovely but my neighbor and I have determined that it needs a small border around the outside to frame it.  I mentioned that we are having a horrible storm and I haven't wanted to go to the quilt shop in the next town south of me to look for batik fabric to become the border.  Today I decided to put some things away and found purple batik in exactly the color I needed.  I don't remember using that fabric for anything else, but I suspect it might have been part of a quilted tote bag.  At any rate, there is enough to make the border and I don't have to go shopping for more fabric.  I really do prefer to stay safely at home, so I am grateful to have found that purple fabric today.

Now, if the power will just stay on over the weekend I will be very grateful.

Note - I just realized I need to take more pictures of finished quilts in order to have some kind of record of my progress.