back to working

and almost two weeks again between blog posts -- well, life may eventually settle into something that resembles normal again -- I hope!

at the end of my last post I was talking about the new great grandson that will be joining our family in June

because that child's mom had a specific request for a baby quilt, I needed to get to it right away!

the DH and I made a trip to the local quilt shop and went hunting for fabric for this project and found some great batiks to use, including one with giraffe like squares printed all over it that will be used for the back and binding of this piece

these have all been washed and are ready to go now

I already had one giraffe stamp to use for this project, but just one is not enough variety (at least not in my mind), so I needed to do something about that

for one thing, I want to be able to do at least one block that has giraffes with their necks crossed, but this stamp, the neck is too upright for that to work

so I have drawings for two giraffes that are leaning forward more -- similar poses, but not quite alike so I can do the crossed-neck block

and I decided that a giraffe that is reaching to the ground is so interesting that I wanted a stamp like that too

now that the drawings are done, I can start cutting the stamps

progress is being made on this project

the sky applique is done and I've started on the ground

but I'm struggling with the atmospheric perspective

I'm trying to decide which one is better

I can think about it while I keep working on the bottom

progress here too -- now working on rows that are 208 stitches per row -- this will take a while!

...while you're making other plans

I barely know where to begin

again, it's been over two weeks since I got out here to do a post

partly because I'm still dealing with getting a handle on my own health issues

but in the last week because I'm trying to find words to say what I need to say

perhaps just throwing it out there is the best approach

this week my dad will be moved to hospice -- after years of being on a proton pump inhibitor medication, his kidneys are failing -- and along the way he had to deal with the cancer that medication was supposed to help him avoid

this is the part of the program where I just want to yell and scream and throw a general tantrum about how things are not fair

but the more adult, rational side of me knows we were not promised fair

and I'm still trying to process that

I'm trying to get to the studio to work on art or at least making something  whenever I can because it is what keeps me from going off the deep end

 the DH was the beneficiary of the first of that sewing

I had cut out three pair of the custom designed scrubs that I make him before Christmas, only to be side tracked into other things and did not get them finished then

they are all done now, and waiting for warmer weather to arrive so he can wear them

Mr Cute is the proud owner of a Ninja Turtle hat that matches the mittens that I made him for Christmas -- yet another project that didn't get done in time!

about six years ago I made my daughter a grey cardigan sweater that she has now worn out

she volunteered to provide the yarn, so I'm knitting her a replacement --- here is where it's a good thing that I hung on to the pattern and my notes for the custom changes that got made

it's hard to tell from this photo exactly what's going on here, but take my word for it that you are looking at the sky of a new piece I'm working on

think dust bowl

I have figured out what I'm going to do with the background of the truck, but I haven't drawn the pattern yet --- all in good time

and along with the bad news this week, we got some good news ---- our youngest grand daughter tells us there is a great grandson in our near future --- I've already started thinking about another quilt