The Lost Weekend

The neurosurgeon, in his wisdom, said "Sure you can go to Amicalola Falls with the group from Tiny Stitches the weekend after you have brain surgery, if you feel like going."  Now, let me just say this.  In a week when I heard a lot of no, including "no, you cannot take a shower" and "no, you cannot leave your room" hearing yes meant everything to me.  What he knew but I didn't, was that there was no way I was going to be able to go.  He wasn't worried I'd get to the mountains and be far away from medical professionals because I wasn't going.  No. Way.  Have I mentioned how much I love my neurosurgeon?  The things I like best about him include his sense of humor and his ability to empathize with my desire to live as normal a life as possible.  (That and the whole "I can cut into your brain and not cause major damage" thing is pretty cool, too.)

So... Melinda and Stella and all the other Tiny Stitches ladies went off to the retreat while I lay mostly unconscious and certainly too drugged and weak to care.  I was looking forward to making the mystery quilt, which I have enjoyed every year that TS has been doing this event, but Maetha, who owns the shop always comes up with all kinds of fun side projects and goodies to give away and I was missing that too.  Or so I thought.   After the retreat was over Melinda came by and brought me a great stockpile of goodies.     Stella had, in addition to everything else she worked on in the weekend made me an apron, I got a pattern and fabric for making some pretty napkins, too.  A little bucket with my name on it that I know I will use for toting tools around in the future.  Somebody made me a beautiful black and yellow thread catcher, plus Robin's pattern for that project.  Quilting girl socks, a name tag made out of "Georgia" fabric printed by Hoffman for the Quilt Shop Hop last year.  Melinda even brought me candy, which Maetha sprinkles around the tables a few times a day during the retreat.

I feel so loved!

It's a Mystery

Last weekend I participated in the Tiny Stitches mystery project at Amicalola Falls. It was great, even though it's taken me all week to recover from it! Once again Maetha and Melinda chose a wonderful pattern from Debbie Caffrey. The green fabric really grabbed me when I was browsing the quilt shop. It dawned on me that although green is one of my favorite colors I've never done a quilt for myself that was predominantly green. The mystery clues called for a light background but I decided to make this fabric my background choice and I worked backwards from there. As I kept looking around the shop I was taken with a collection of florals featuring violets. I've always liked the way green and purple play together but I had an "aha" moment and remembered that I had yards and yards of a pretty floral at home that might work with the green. So, I bought a half yard of the green to come home and check against my stash. Sure enough the floral I had bought and hoarded worked beautifully.

Back to the quilt store to buy more green plus the red and cream fabrics. There was also plenty of homework, cutting the fabric and placing each "clue" into its own ziplock baggie. I have to say this kind of work really appeals to my sense of crazy.

I'm almost done with the quilt top, one more border to go. I'll show you the whole thing when it's finished.