Flying in Circles

I couldn't sleep Sunday night (possibly because Lizard couldn't sleep and was pacing the kitchen and dining room with his cane because he couldn't sleep either), and I was SO tempted to get up and make something for me. Not a quilt. Something I could wear for my short time in the office on Tuesday. I have four dresses and a pair of scrappy shorts cut out and ready to sew. But I keep telling myself I need to finish a quilt first.

So I did the next best thing. I'd bought more big plastic storage tubs at the home improvement store when I had to buy a toilet repair kit. The toilet got done... THANK HEAVENS!!! (That took me HOURS. I'd NEVER done any kind of plumbing before in my life.) I used the early morning hours to begin organizing the projects stashed beneath the longarm. Because there is room there that needs to be empty space once again.

Meanwhile, draped over the bar of the longarm are the five segments of Hawaiian Punch and the 3/4 done circular flying geese ring. Yes, I deserve a new dress for my birthday last week and for fixing the toilet so we didn't have to pee into a jar... But Hawaiian Punch is SO close to finish. Lots of handwork, I'm sure. But it is SO close. Wouldn't it be a better birthday present to get it ready so I can do the handwork (if that's what I decide to do vs. domestic sewing machine) this weekend???

I decided the handwork (if I decide to do it that way) would be more rewarding, so I remorsefully packed away all Lizard's quilt projects. I hope he will one day want to work on them again, but they are not something he wants to work on right now, and stuffed in cardboard boxes beneath the longarm is not the best place for them. Now they are in a clear bin in the basement. I'll be able to find them easily when (not if!!!) he is ready for them.

Lizard's coloring books and colored pencils are neatly stacked in another clear plastic bin, now in the basement, as opposed to just stacked on the floor beneath the longarm, gathering dust. I will have to clear a new space for Lizard to be able to use them; coloring is one of his favorite ways to combat Parkinson's tremors. His accessible laptop comandeered the space he'd been using for coloring so he can participate in weekly and monthly Parkinson's therapeutic Zoom calls (and the only social activity he gets these days). I will try to set up a desk for him to use for coloring before this weekend. If I set a goal, it's more likely to get done.

My cardmaking supplies are in another clear bin, also now in the basement. I'd brought my supplies home from work in March of 2020, back when we thought it would be only two weeks... I thought I'd have more time during those two weeks to make a few cards for my Etsy shop than I'd had during my non-existent lunch hours at work. I think I've made four handmade cards now in darn near three years... I will get to them one day, and it will be fun. And I will be able to find everything easily because they are in a clear bin, as opposed to cardboard boxes, file folders and handled, brown paper grocery bags (PIGS... the infamous projects in grocery sacks).

In with the cardmaking supplies were all my decorative hole punches and brightly colored typing paper. I'd pulled everything I own together back in April of 2020 to make kits (which got mailed because we were all being good and staying apart) for all my grands back when they began getting bored with the extended "two weeks". That was an incredibly fun project for me to put together and for them to receive (and for their moms to get a breather), but all are back in school now and active in sports and snowy ranch games (such as being pulled on sleds across acreage by a tractor) with no time for tiny, colorful paper hearts, animals and stars. The cardmaking supplies bin had room, so all the paper punches got stashed. Fun memories, though. Really fun memories.

Holy moly! Wouldn't those moose make a great Hawaiian appliqué project?!? More glorious memories came flooding into my heart!!!

The Dancing Lizards quilt I made for my Lizard so many years ago!!! Last October, I converted that beloved quilt into a jacket for me because the years had taken very sad toll on the quilt. I'm still proudly wearing that jacket when I go to the office one day a week or to the grocery store, and my new coat is always such a conversation starter.

But, time to put the past back into the past for now and move forward into the future of what will hopefully soon be another finished WIP.

Linking up with Alycia Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

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