Waiting for the Robitussin to Kick In

So, the hubs brought back some 'crud' from Roanoke which, according to the doctor he saw is viral, so it's a suffer through it for a week and a half, cough your brains out at night, sound like that lady in the anti-smoking commercial kind of illness for which there is no cure. I'm on Day 3, so I've got at least another 5 to suffer through, if the hubs is any kind of indication. Happy, happy, joy, joy.

Unlike men, who must take to bed when they are sick, unless there is a golf match or a softball game, in which case they are well enough to participate, as long as they come home and moan and fall directly onto the couch unable to unload the dishwasher or assist with the daily feedings, women must continue to function. That means errands, cleaning, cooking, and attending theater performances you purchased tickets for 5 months in advance. At my worst, I was sitting in the front row for a performance of "One Night With Janis Joplin".

For the rest of the weekend, I pretty much played catch up on the Jingle BOM quilt. I was behind 3 pieced blocks, so it was definitely an incentive when the designer put pieced block 4 up on her site. And of course, shortly after that I realized I had missed applique block 4, putting me even farther behind --sigh.

 

My experience with HSTs is pretty much limited to using Thangles, and I think I could count the flying geese I've made on one hand, so these fairly common blocks were pretty challenging to me.

 

Especially when the cutting directions for a lot of the pieces called for 3/8" cuts. This taught me that one really needs to use a clearly gridded ruler lest you start cutting 2/8".

 

And then you wind up with a block that won't measure what it's supposed to, after you've spent hours wrestling with that triangular border (they are not geese), so you find yourself wielding a bottle of Mary Ellen's Best Press and trying to iron/block it to the proper size.

 

So once you finish the last one that was uploaded on Friday, you evaluate your OCD tendencies and CAREFULLY cut new 3/8" pieces and remake that damn third block.

 

 

What a difference accurate cutting makes.

 

And while we're touting accuracy, on Day 1 of the evil throat crud, in between naps, and checking in at work (though I phoned in sick), I began Block 1 of the Aiming for Accuracy quilt project.

 

 

It's not much,. but hey, it's done the day after the instructions were posted. Let's hope I can keep up with that pace.

 

I've covered up the Bernina and plan to spend any free time this week on handwork. What are your plans? Those of you in the Southwest and the West are surely taking advantage of the air conditioning to put in some quality time with your sewing machines, yes?