A Day in the Life

My friend, Marylou started me on an Odyssey last month. On every third Thursday a group of us meet to meet and eat and visit. We don't necessarily sew, knit, or bead but we do all sew or bead, just not on that particular day. We always have show and tell and the talent and ideas just flow into whatever room we happen to meet.
We were at my friend Jim's house and Marylou brought out this wonderful stack of 'Grandmother's Flower Garden ' Blocks. She passed them to me. It was love at first sight!
I am strictly a machine kind of 'Chic'. I piece on the machine & Quilt on a machine. I learned when I made my first Quilt that doing it "by hand" would take me the rest of my natural life and that was just about the last thing I did by hand. Up until that point, I had loved hand work, I crocheted. But just little stuff, like doilies. Learning that Quilting was a much bigger project, I thoroughly immersed myself in machines and love all that having them affords me. I am still the slowest Quilter in the world but I have always admired the "fast" Chic's. Amazing to watch Charlotte or Marilyn or Deb or Eddie turn out things in days that seem to take me months.
But I learned my niche and pretty well stick to it.
However; seeing Marylou with all those pretty hexagons really turned my head. I am spending my machine time these days working on "Ode to Fish With Lips". This is a complicated piece and it requires all my attention. I've had interuptions, EC made me a light bar - how could I have ever sewed before LB - and three of my Grandchildren have been here for a visit - but every free day I spend in my 'Studio' working on the 'Fish'. It is tedious and time consuming.
So, seeing these wonderful blocks that my friend had solved a problem.
In the evenings, after supper, usually by 7:30 p.m. EC and I move to the living room to my couch and his chair to watch a little TV and unwind and talk about our day. I always have something there in my 'nest' for me to do. It is hard for me to just sit with nothing going on with my hands, I've been doing some beading. Marylou showed me the hexagons she had bought on a web site, 1200 of them in a baggie, one inch on each side. When I got home I ordered me a bag full and the following Monday they arrived. WOW!
I just happen to have a drawer full of 2 1/2 inch blocks that fit these hexagons to a tee! Now each evening after supper, I make little 'english paper pieced' flowers. I love the look of them. Friends that come on 2nd Saturday Sew Days can't believe that I actually sew with a needle & thread in my hand. It is really fun and fills a desire to hold and fondle my fabrics. Also fills the need to stitch little bitty - something I just can't help.
I've made 25. That isn't a lot and certainally won't be a Quilt any time soon, but it is some cute handwork and a great diversion.
Happy Sewing, we'll talk again, soon.
Carol Ann, Quilter