I have been Alisoned. There was a padded envelope in my mailbox yesterday, with an alpaca scarf in it. I had it out of the envelope and around my neck before I even got a glimpse of the stitch pattern, and it kept me going for the rest of the day. I don't even know how to start to describe how good that scarf is still making me feel. I've suddenly got a security blanket. Which is good, because I'm starting to get scared.

I had my fingers buried in the edge of it while I took the phone call from the nurse who told me they'd found some abnormalities in Leif's bloodwork and I'd have to wait for the letter from the doctor to find out what they were. If I hadn't have been driving, I might've been able to demand more details, but I don't talk and drive and was honestly too horrfied to come up with any decent questions. I don't even know what they were testing for, except lead. He doesn't have any of that.

The littlest ones settled down early tonight, so I've had more time than usual to play.

I used to love sewing, but haven't done much of it in recent years. My old sewing machine was stuck where I couldn't get at it and now that I've got a fancy new machine, I'm scared to death of it. We aren't the best of friends, not yet at least. Something went badly wrong with it before the holidays and I had to take it in for a checkup. It's been back since shortly before Christmas, but I didn't have the time or nerve to play with it before today. I only plugged it in today because the warranty period on the repairs (that wasn't really a repair because they couldn't find anything wrong) is running out fast.

It works just fine!



Alex and I got a bag of fabric scraps for Christmas and I'd pulled together a bunch of colors that I thought would work for this little Dresden Plate quilt. I thought I'd cut and stitch a few of the 80 little wedges, but I wound up making all four of the plates and only stopped then because the muslin I need for the background is out in the sewing room and I've already braved the dark and cold once tonight.

I'm loving this project. I got sick of using the rotary cutter to do such little strips and decided to trace around my little cardboard template with a ball point pen instead. Some of the fabric I used (most of it, probably) isn't the greatest quality, but I'm trying to make a car seat quilt, not an heirloom. Mostly what I'm doing is playing around and enjoying myself.