possibilities

I bought this sticker at the Dollar Tree a few months back, carefully tucked it under the maps we keep in the van so it wouldn't get squished on the way home, then forgot I had it. It surfaced a few times, usually at the beginning of a long day of errands.

Yesterday, I decided that I should get it up on the wall while I'm still capable of climbing up onto chairs.



When I bought it, I liked the saying but thought it was a pale imitation of the one I really want but haven't been able to find.

Be a Joyful Mother of Children

That's the one I want! I saw it as a vinyl wall decal in a craft mall on one of our first trips down to Utah, sort of knew I wanted it, but didn't grasp how much I wanted it until later. I've been playing with this idea for years now and could just find and order one online, but there's not really a good place in our house to put it (too much panelling and wallpaper that I have no plans of removing, not ever.) I've got white walls in the sewing room, but I think they've got too much spiky fake plaster texture on them....

What I really need to do is make myself a Word Play quilt with that quote on it! Not this week, though. This week I really am dwelling in possibilities, wavering between the optimistic (in a couple of months maybe Alex and I will finally get to use that frisbee we bought last summer, right before the stupid accident.... I'll stop hurting for the first time in a year... ) and the downright morbid (I really am getting my affairs in order and won't wake up from the anesthesia...)

Why is it that they could cut me open and rummage around in my insides to get a baby out while I was awake, but they have to put me completely under to do knee surgery?

I've got a day and half left, then my sewing room is off limits until I-don't-know-when. Ugh. I'm still trying to guess at what I might want to use down here before I'm able to climb stairs again. I'm guessing I'll be sewing (still with the left foot) long before I'm climbing.

I've got a bunch of pieces cut for my Circles in Squares quilt...a bunch of pieces cut for my Texas Braid...two quilts pinned and ready to quilt, but no real urge to work on either...and something new!



I've been wanting to make a Drunkard's Path forever. This particular Drunkard's Path since I bought this book of classic quilt patterns. The block in the pattern is the exact size the smaller AccuQuilt die makes, so I don't even have to do any adjusting...

And then there's the fabric. I bought an eight or nine yard bolt of it on clearance his week, thinking it might make a good backing for my Texas Braid. Of the three bolts I bought, it was the one I almost put back because it wasn't quite as exciting as the other two I had in my arms.

I'm not sure if the idea of using it for a two color quilt hit me in the store or later, but I got to thinking how it would work with some tea dyed muslin ....and I would've sworn, at until I just double checked, that the fabric in the pattern was a green floral...

What I didn't realize until I was piecing my test block last night is how similar this fabric is to the red floral I used for the setting blocks of Strawberry Fields, the stuff I wished I had more of.

I'd usually cut fabric for a project like this as I needed it to piece the blocks, just in case I lose interest halfway through, but I'll hopefully be cutting the rest tonight. And maybe the rest of the pieces I'll need for that Texas Braid.

Right now, I'm resting my knee and drooling over Quilt Festival posts.

So far, my absolute favorite is the phenomenal quilting on this quilt at Tamarack Shack. I'm not a huge batik fan, but I love the way they look in this quilt. And the texture that quilting adds -- it makes me think of pressed tin ceilings.

And take a look at Mother of Pearl -- that center block is paper pieced with 165 pieces of fabric!

And I've been following links from those links, getting all inspired by things like
Soup Bowl Wall Storage Nooks. These wold be great in the boys' room for little toys, but I just know they'd use them as handholds for climbing the walls. And I've thrown out enough shattered plastic bowls already. But I may try it for Alex's closet, or my sewing room.

A mini book shelf quilt. just because I've been wanting a big one for years and this one is soooo cute.