Back to Work

It is back to work for me this week. The lovely warm spring weather lasted through Monday. Tuesday we had big storms and now we are back to the cool, gray weather we expect in April. The storms yesterday made everyone kind of jittery because April 3 is the anniversary of one of the worst tornado outbreaks ever. You can read more about it here.

I was in college up north of the storms, but I came through southern Indiana on a weekend visit to my then boyfriend. In those days you could take a Greyhound bus from my college town to southern Indiana pretty cheaply. I came through the devastated area a day or two after the storms. It is something that I will never forget. In one area, there was a beautiful old Victorian farmhouse on a hill above the road. A tornado had come through there, and the house was just gone. There was shredded lumber, insulation, roof shingles, parts of machinery, bits of furniture, clothes, just anything you could name all over the countryside. The little house trailers that lined the road below the house were ripped apart, and sheet metal from their sidings were wrapped around the trees off in the distance.

The devastation in Louisville, Kentucky, was awful. One tornado ripped through a park, taking all the trees with it. Another, or maybe the same one, came through part of the east side of the city, tearing up buildings, houses, whatever was in its path.

It is difficult to describe the incredible destruction, never mind the aftermath of injuries and death.

Needless to say, most people who can remember that day get a little antsy when they see big, black thunderclouds on the horizon in the spring.

Fortunately, yesterday's storm went through with little destruction other than some trees and power lines.

There is very little quilty stuff going on around here this week while I adjust to the routine of getting up and going to work again. (I know, poor, poor me!) The mystery quilt is in the hoop. I am quilting in the ditch, just to get everything kind of set, then I plan to do some kind of design in the open patches and the border. No pictures yet--I still want to wait until the guild members have their big reveal.

I started back in on the Brave New World blocks because I really, really want to get this thing together before I get distracted with another project. It's a great work-in-front-of-the-TV project because it is so mindless. Comfort piecing. I'm going to keep going until I just get tired of piecing the individual blocks, because I CAN'T seem to get to the bottom of the bin I keep all the scraps in. I actually thought I was beginning to run low on the light background fabrics--then I discovered a whole grocery sack stuffed with MORE scraps, all lights.

A Yellow Jewel and Scrap Cutting

I thought I would share a picture of this magnificent forsythia that I pass each day on the way to work. Not that I can see it in the dark on the way to work when it's dark, but I definitely can see it at the other end of the day. It's hard to get an idea of the scale in this picture, but I think you could probably hide a school bus behind it with maybe just the top sticking out a bit. I think they must have planted a ring of them and let it go from there.


A few years ago our town fathers had these Bradford pear trees planted in a row down this street. They are really beautiful when they are in bloom in early spring. In between the trees they installed old fashioned street lights, and it's a beautiful drive down the road after dark. I didn't think I could manage the picture in the dark, so here it is in daylight.

So there you have it: scenic southern Indiana in the spring.

Yesterday after finishing the four patch, I took these squares out again. Remember these? Last fall I began working on them, only to get sidetracked by the log cabin, the Christmas things, the mystery quilt, and the four patch. I was going to work on the layout and see if maybe I had enough to declare it finished. When I got it up on the wall though it seemed such a shame to call it quits on this when I have boxes and bags full of scraps and leftovers that are just aching to see the light of day in a quilt.

So, I started going through my bags of crumbs--bits that are just too small to put back in my boxes of fat quarters and yardage. I cut enough for twenty or so new blocks. (They are only 4-1/2 square.) Then, this afternoon after running all the errands, I started going through the boxes with the larger pieces in them. I cut even more.

But, you know what? I found myself actually putting fabric BACK into the boxes. Some little voice, somewhere in my head was telling me, "This is okay, but not this, or this." It suddenly occurred to me, WHY in the world would I not use these scraps in a scrap quilt? What in the world am I saving them for?

So, I went BACK through the boxes and starting pulling out bits and pieces of fabric and I'll be cutting more tonight. Truthfully, I could make this quilt a California king-size and STILL have fabric left over.