The Things That Fill My Days

I was surprised, when I wrote yesterday's post, to see that it had been almost a week since I posted anything here at GiraffeDreams. Life has kept me busy, and I'll talk randomly about what some of those things are and were.

About ten months ago I bought a John Flynn frame for machine quilting. It sat in the box for many months until I finally took it out and gave it its big debut.

It looks kind of cool, doesn't it? But I did not find it very cool to work with. To be honest, I found it to be very awkward, and my quilting on it was terrible. I know I haven't given it much of a try (two quilts, both of which I abandoned and finished my normal way directly on my machine.) One thing it did do for me is help me to realize than my own machine quilting is not as bad as I remembered. It's very basic and unfancy, but not too bad for an amateur. So I think I'll stick with that. I have been working on quilting tops, which I have a LOT of (especially since our vast production at Lake Tahoe. See blog post here.)

I have been very busy with church volunteerism lately. We collected school supplies for a local elementary school, and I put in hours of sorting and packing and organizing that stuff. We delivered it this week, Tuesday, and the school was very happy to receive our gifts. We'll be doing more work with this school in a new partnership that we're all very excited about.

Here are a couple of the quilts that I started on the JF frame and finished on my machine. As of this writing, I have another one being worked on (machine only - no awkward frame this time).

Not too long ago I went to see my mom, and also got to see my great-niece and great-nephew (two of the many). Yesterday, Friday, was g-nephew's 2nd birthday. They are growing up fast! G-niece was proudly holding the new puzzle she got at Grandma's bookstore.

This weekend I have been on the phone a lot, trying to figure out my mom's situation. She has been in a lot of pain due to flare ups of her Rheumatoid Arthritis. My niece and my mother and her doctor and I have been exchanging phone calls, and others have been included in text messages... the upshot is, Mom is doing slightly better now as her meds finally kicked in to help with the pain. She will go in next week to see the doctor. I was ready to drop everything and drive up to help her, if needed, but it looks like she's good for now. I plan to go back and visit in a few more days.

What else? I volunteered to take over half of the Power Point production at church (sharing with another volunteer). I had no idea what I was signing up for! It's fun, and I get to work with finding gorgeous photos, which is a love of mine, but it takes hours and hours of work to produce one Power Point for one church service! I really had no idea... I spent ALL DAY and into the evening on Thursday working on this week's PP. But, hey... come to a church service some time and see what beautiful pictures I choose! Bit of bragging here, but I do love trying to find just the right, perfect photo for each slide. Perhaps that explains the long hours I spend working on it.

This last week I also attended a gathering of our small group, Loose Threads. One of our members taught us about making collage quilts. It was a great day, and I look forward to getting back to my collage. It's still in the design stage, along with think about, ponder, re-work, re-design stage. It'll be a while before I get it done.

Below: S, our teacher for the day; S shows us her Kaffe quilt; C shows us some of the hand dying she has done

And if all of THAT isn't enough to keep me busy, I also have been taking food over to the food shelf, and maintaining the bulletin board on which we record the poundage that has been donated and up-coming food drives and other events.

Whew! I'm wearing myself out just talking about all this stuff. It is one reason why I have not had much time to read lately. Cram in a couple work shifts per week, and my time is gone!

Happy, full days, everyone!