charlie's quilt

Two quilts given in the past week, but we'll start with the first one...

Charlie's quilt.

A gal I work with, currently our assistant manager, has been dating a guy for a few years and they've been engaged for a portion of that.  She's gotten close with his family (she's that kind of person) and calls his dad "dad."

She came in to work one day just a couple of weeks ago trying to hold it together because "dad" was in the hospital, awaiting testing, after not getting out of bed for two days.  Things didn't look good, but until test results are in, it's best to not jump to conclusions.  (Easier said than done!)

A few days later, I saw this quilt while cruising around the interwebs, and it just screamed "Charlie!" but I was afraid it would be overstepping or wierd to make this guy a quilt.  I do know him a little (he's a customer at work), but still...

I decided if the urge didn't go away overnight, I'd consider it more the following day.  And check my stash - I might have to buy some stuff.

It didn't go away.

And I realized I'd made a quilt for another coworker's mom when she was diagnosed with something nasty, so it was settled.

To the stash!

Well.  I had plenty.

Some of the fabrics in there have been in the stash quite a while (I think that funky one on the bottom right is oldest), and some are kinda funky, but they'll all work, right?

To the cutting and sorting!

Each star has its own plate.  This helps me keep things straight and hopefully deters the cats from "helping."  Sometimes I forget I can do these, but when I do remember, it's great.

Having a few days in a row off and focusing on sewing (not allowing myself to look at nonsense online, in other words) allowed these to come together quickly.

Somewhere midway through the blocks I did some math and, let me warn you, don't do that.  You'll figure out how many pieces you have and it will seem so much harder than if you just keep sewing and don't play with numbers.

Before long I had the required 36 blocks and then it was time to figure out where they all needed to go.  With so many fabrics I knew it was going to be difficult to keep the same fabrics from being too close to each other, but I did try!

I had help, but Charlie has 13 cats (I think that's the number I've heard), so a little stray cat hair from my beasties isn't going to be noticed much, right?!  (I did use a lint roller.)

Then came the long seams and getting the blocks into a top, but I got it done.  Again, with help.  (You can't do much around here without it.)

Off to the quilt shop for a back!

(It's more orange than you see here.)

And then onto the longarm!

It looks a little brighter here, but proof of quilting, right?

After quilting, I sewed on the binding and let it rest a day (I quilted another quilt the following day), but I knew this needed to be done sooner rather than later, so it was first on the list of bindings to be done.

I was off work the week I finished this and didn't want to chance getting roped into working by taking this in, so it waited until I went back last Monday to go to my coworker so she could pass it along.

She was surprised and nearly cried.  Though she's been given three quilts to give to her grandkids, I don't think she expected this one.

(And then I realized we're in the middle of the hottest month of the year, so maybe this wasn't so great?  But I guess he's struggling with temperature regulation, so it's a good thing.)

He got it a week ago, but I haven't blogged since.

He's been using it.

She said I made him cry.  This tough-love, old farmer-type.  Huh.

He came home the Thursday before he got this, in hospice care.  He seems to be doing a little better than before, but they've reduced the morphine dosage significantly and that seems to be actually helping.  He's coherent enough to ask for more if he needs it.  And the family is praying for a miracle, but the news is not good.  I'm glad I got it done in time for him to use it, even if just for a little while.

I haven't touched my sewing in a week, but it's back to work and juggling all the other things and I'm still having trouble justifying new projects when I have so many tops that are unfinished.  And do I really need another quilt - finished or not?  (So making them for others is a nice excuse!)

But I have been reading:

Part memoir and part writing course, this book was good.

The first part is stories about his childhood and early adulthood - things he did as a kid, owning a drinking and substance abuse problem early in his adult life, etc. - and though some of the things are known, the stories were entertaining and interesting.

The second part is his views on writing.  Not a textbook kind of book, but definitely instructive.  I think it will change how I read books some - evaluating things differently now that I see them from a writer perspective.  But really the takeaway for me was  that writing can be done however you want.  There's no right way or wrong way.  Which is kinda the opposite of a lot of what else I've learned and seen.

And then he added a third part, as this book was in progress when he was hit by a car while walking on the road, and told that story in his own words.  I remember hearing about it, but didn't realize quite how gruesome things were.  I'm glad he's still here.

I'll be honest that I don't read a portion of his work because it is too scary and disturbing (why did my mother let me read "The Shining" while we were on vacation, staying in a hotel, at age 13?), but I have read some of the less scary stuff.

And then it was on to:

Somehow, somewhere, I thought this was about spelling bees.  It seemed like that couldn't be right, but maybe?

It's about bees.  The kind that make honey.

But it's also about a young girl who runs away from home because her father is abusive and she sees the unfairness of the world in the 1960's south and just DOES something.

The housekeeper who has cared for her since her mother died is dragged along in the process and it felt a little Huck Finn-ish here.  Maybe it was supposed to?

They end up at a farm where bees are kept by three kind sisters, who take them in, care for them, teach them about bees and don't ask too many questions for a bit.  They're the healing, caring place this girl needs to find herself and heal.

The three sisters were all very different and gave her different perspectives on herself, which I liked.  They made her reevaluate how she saw things, which is part of growing up, but is also something all of us humans need to remember to do from time to time.

I enjoyed this book very much.

I've moved on to another book already and it's another good one!

Time to go get busy doing other chores (and fighting with the cell phone company who sends my bills out to arrive just days before they're due (if not after) - currently on the phone with them and being told they send them out 10-13 days before they're due, but I can assure you none of my other bills show up this close to the due date. Maybe they're mailing them out more than 10-13 days before they're due because they NEVER arrive that close to the due date...so they want to enroll me in automated payment.  Um...NO!  The whole reason I have a paper bill come to me is because I don't trust you!  And you're not helping me to trust you by refusing to send me a bill in a timely manner)...

Sorry, mini rant.

We might be getting a new phone company.  Between this garbage and their incapable internet service...okay, I'll say it.  They're AT&T.  They've been around forever, but it seems they're coasting on that lately.

Okay, enough.  This is a happy blog!

Time to go do happy things!

Katie