what. a. week.

Hello there my quilty accountabilibuddies!

It has been quite the week.

Last Monday, I gave you a rather large list of quilts in progress with the expectation that I had FOUR WHOLE DAYS in a row to sew.  Of course household chores and whatnot, but in general, a free chunk of time.

I worked hard Monday.  I got the cassette done for the week.  I dug into the tiger parts and made progress.

But a little gooky tickle was felt in my throat around noon.  Ah, it's becoming spring, probably something in the air.  I'm not allergic to anything out there, but just so much of it in the air can cause troubles.  No worries.

Tuesday?

Nope.

It wasn't stuff in the air.

Well, it was, but of the viral nature.

In all my years running all sorts of lab tests, this is probably the fastest I've seen anything go positive.  Those of you who are familiar with this test know the liquid wicks its way up the test, hitting the "T" (your test) spot before the "C" (control).  The "T" was crazy blue before the liquid even made it to the "C".  In 30 seconds I knew I was positive, but I had 14 minutes and 30 seconds more to wait to have done the test correctly.

Thankfully, by Thursday I was feeling human again.  It was a rough two days, but thanks to the vaccine and lots of rest, the worst had passed.

I did NO. SEWING. for three of my four free days.

But then, due to all the ever-changing rules about this and my general desire to recover instead of make myself sick again, I did not go to work the following two days.  I was feeling well enough to sew some, so I regained two of my days, but at what cost?

Today I'm very tired, but probably because yesterday I drove across about 6 counties and back to get my dad a new-to-him lawn mower and that takes more energy than you think.  It was a surprise and he is very happy.  (So is my mom!)

Anyways, I did get some quilty sewing done on Friday and Saturday and a bit on Sunday.

So let's review the funner stuff, right?

1. Tiger quilt

Last week we had ears.  This week we got a muzzle!

It's truly awesome to flip the piece back when you're pressing and find THIS on your ironing board.

Then Saturday it felt really good to pull part #100 out of the bin.

With a total of 155 parts, this really felt like I could see the end, but there are a lot of pieces left!

Then I pulled part 155!  The bin is empty!

It seemed like such a small, insignificant piece, considering it was the END.  But I sewed it on, sewed all the sections together and hauled it downstairs to show the hubby.

He's holding it here (and not even complaining!), but before this, he made ME hold it up so he could take a photo and send it to a buddy!

It needs to be a bit larger (it's 60x75), but that will be easy.

And it turns out the part I thought was wrong last week is not wrong.  At least I didn't do it wrong.  That's what the pattern shows.

On to #2, the Sparrows quilt.

This was the start of my (mostly healthy) Friday:

Get into the sewing room and figure out the layout!  I can't believe it's to this point already.  It doesn't seem like I've been sewing birds for four weeks, but here is proof.  35 birds.  I didn't fuss too much with the layout, as scrappy defies any attempt at making it "better" and just started sewing.

Toby and Freddie found all this up and down exhausting.  They'd rather be EATING the birds.

(To be fair, I also found it exhausting and was glad to be sitting down for the majority of the work.  The floor layout had me almost needing a nap!)

The hubby, after holding up the tiger quilt, was coerced into holding up this top as well.

It's something like 80x82, so not the easiest to hold up, plus the wind had started a bit (it had been dead calm for two days), but it is clearly a top here, and that is all I care to prove.

I will need to get this one quilted sooner rather than later, but for now we're leaving it here.

#3 - Radical Cassettes

Before I knew I was sick (these are going out of chronological order, but instead in order of my assigned list from last week), Monday morning dawned and I was into the bin of fabric pieces for the next cassette.

Oh, no, wait, that was Freddie in the bin.

"Okay, mom, I'll get up so you can stop fishing under me like I'm a chicken and you're looking for eggs."

After Freddie moved his "help" to a less intrusive location, things went a lot faster.

Number three is done.  I'm getting better at the curves, but I always do after a hiatus.  Two more to go, then some more complicated than average top construction.  But I'm loving this!

#4 Woodland Wonderland

Yesterday, at long last, I was able to start on the house warming quilt for a friend.  Good timing since they moved in Saturday...

Four mushrooms and four stars!  Not bad considering my lawn mower adventure took up a good portion of my day.

I was all set to work on more of these today, but realized the cassette quilt along assignments are a Monday thing, so that will happen first.  Maybe.

#5 Tidal Crossing - ignored

#6 Blockstep

This quilt pattern is written in a manner that confused me.  Maybe it was the virus muddling my head.  But I did take time on Thursday, when I was feeling somewhat better, but didn't have much energy (I've eaten very little in the last week, having no appetite, but food does taste right), to figure out the in-between size I want.  I have notes, but nothing further.

#7-10 - also ignored  (A girl can only do so much even when she's healthy!)

But I've also added a #11.  

The last two years I've participated in Preeti and Bernie's Positivity Quilt Along.  They're doing it again this year and even though I have no idea what the pattern will be, I'm in.  Preeti writes very clear patterns and her schedule is never strenuous, so I can add another quilt.  (I can do whatever I want!)

During my illness, I've had a lot of kitty help.  When I was downstairs (windows open! it was a beautiful week), Toby wanted to be by me at all times.  He snuggled me a lot.  When the hubby was home, I stayed in my bedroom, but I was not alone...

On Friday I felt well enough to do some laundry and thought swapping out my winter bedding for summer was a good idea.  I took a LOT of breaks that day, but apparently I wasn't the only one exhausted from the effort of new bedding.  (Gabby is more of a housecat than she wants to believe.)

Also, Finn wanted to share with you the appropriate way to sleep in the poof...

...because all of his siblings end up with their butt inside and their head outside (see Toby above).  He got this pose in before the laundry adventure, as you can see my winter (purple) quilt on the bed, as well as the extra quilt and, in the background, the flannel sheets.

The hubby remains healthy.  He usually does not catch things from me, nor I him.  But the nice weather that allowed windows to be open a bunch while I was ill probably helped things.

Today I am tired.  More tired than I have been the last two days.  I was supposed to meet friends for lunch, but I was so tired that when I got to the grocery store today - not even shopping yet - I debated if I really needed those few things or if I could just go back home.  I stayed and shopped, but decided the remainder of my day will be peppered with rests and a nap.  No lunch out, sadly.  But I don't want to push myself and end up back in bed.  That was so annoying.

So there you have my week that feels like a month.

Happy quilting!

Katie

PS Gabby's vet visit was rescheduled.  Before I knew what I had, but I'm happy I made that choice.  No need sharing this virus any more than absolutely necessary.