… ‘Cause life keeps getting me behinder.

The fires got close to Salem on September 7, 2020. My granddaughters and their parents are all safe, but their house is gone. Fortunately they have a house in Portland. Air quality since the 7th has been moderate to hazardous and I guess it will remain at the latter for a while, unless we get rain.

Obviously, with hazardous air, I didn’t get restarted on walking in the park.

My knee therapy was doing great … until last Wednesday. I don’t really know what happened, but the one knee feels almost as bad as it did when I started therapy (not the worst it had been earlier). This is more than just not taking aspirin. I’m wondering if stress, less sleep and bad air are part (even all?) of the problem. I dunno, but after going to the store with my sister for about 90 minutes this afternoon, my knee was in pain and I was pretty much wiped me out.

My house is still a mess. I can’t clean fast enough to clean it all at once, and frankly, cleaning is rarely high on my priority list, anyway. Also right now using the vacuum is not helpful to the poor indoor air quality. Oh, well. Inch by inch, it’ll get done even if it’s never all clean all at once.

I did manage to start purging the kitchen. When the refrigerator froze and the freezer died we had to stuff everything into the laundry room fridge. Everything outdated and open, but that we’d never eat, got tossed. Anything unopened was given to the Gospel Mission.

After the fridge, I tackled the pantry. Extras are going to my son and what he doesn’t want will also go to the mission.

Dishes will be a bit harder. I know I have more than I need, but knowing which I genuinely may use (most likely for holiday dinners or if I have any large gathering) and therefore not want to get rid of, is difficult. And storage bowls, jars, and tubs seem to multiply until I actually need more.

Deborah (my sister) will be moving in sometime during the next thirty days. Her house is sold and she doesn’t want to be pushed into a new one. That was how she ended up in one that didn’t fit. Her embroidery/sewing machine is already here and she plans to use it when she gets here. That will help me to use mine more. (She also said she’d help me with cleaning!) We’ll probably irritate each other a lot before she gets a house, but over all it’ll be a good visit. (She can go stay with our brother and sister-in-law if it’s too much. LOL)

As for my sewing/quilting/embroidery. I did get one row of Iqbal’s quilt pieced before the fires. I was ready to start the next row last week, but, although I really enjoy even the mundane hand stitching of piecing, I discovered I’d misplaced a couple of blocks for the second row. I find I can’t iron while sitting, and standing for any time is hard on my back and knees… and ankles, too. Big time fatigue. So, as usual, I dillyed and I dallyed. I finally got to it this past weekend. I think I can get started on row two tonight.

(I really love hand sewing. I never liked sewing clothes very much. Except, once I made a dress at work. There was no sewing machine at work, so it was all hand sewn on my breaks and I totally enjoyed making it. I have a lovely memory of stitching while sitting beneath a tree on lunch break.)

I also wanted to work on some machine embroidery projects. I’d had to take the machine in to be serviced and it was ready in less than half the projected time. Of course there is a “BUT.” The day I went to get it, the shop had closed because of the smoke. I will definitely call ahead before I go tomorrow. If they’ve reopened, I’ll be getting it about the time I originally expected to get it back.

So many creative ideas bouncing around in my head! No where near enough actually being started, much less done.

I was reading the new issue of Quilting arts this afternoon after returning from the store. One quilter was talking about how we’re living “through the looking glass” these days. I totally get that. At the same time, I’ve always felt I’ve been through some looking glass or another. LOL I think I’m from another other side.

And reading Jude‘s blog regularly this summer has led me back to my own path. Reading all the quilt sites and magazines created an artificial sense of why I quilt. There is SO MUCH focus on what’s popular and what’s award winning. Subconsciously “Award Winning” crept in to quilting for me. But not doing my own thing was not doing anything.

I was already aware that I balk at following patterns (though still can’t fathom how someone can own or copyright patterns made of traditional blocks). I’ve always wanted to do my own thing, even while ooohing and aaahing over someone else’s quilt patterns. Doing my own thing is a major part of what drew my focus to art quilting. But honestly and truly, while I’d be thrilled if I ever received any kind of award for a quilt, I don’t want to make them for an award. I want to make them for my walls and for my bed and loved ones’ beds and for those in need. And simply to be making.

I want them to be used, not “saved.” And while it’s fine to hang a bed quilt on the wall because you like it, I don’t wan’t someone to do that just because “it’s too good to use” or “it’ll get spoiled if I use it.” Nonsense! If I made it big enough for a bed, it was made to be used on the bed (or wherever else you want to use it). Maybe that’s the appeal to me of using scraps and not bemoaning the imperfections.

And Jude’s ruminations on the connections between big cloths and small cloths gave me an Aha! moment. With both my machine embroidery designs and hand embroidery (designs and freehand), I’m often usually wondering what to use it for. Of course I can use some for clothing embellishment, and I have. Some machine designs are designed as finished items–bags, towel toppers, coasters, jewelry, holiday ornaments, etc. Many are intended as quilt blocks. But I have so many beautiful (and a lot of cute and children’s) hand and machine designs that don’t fit into those categories. And the Aha! was to stitch them out (hand and machine) on small blocks and scraps to have them as small cloths and embellishments for larger cloths. Once I finish some projects I want to get done, I will be doing that with machine designs, and when the seam joining on Iqbal’s quilt gets to me, I can switch to motifs on scraps–either for his quilt or just because (to be used at a later date on some other quilt/project).