One step forward, three (or more back)...

So once again I’m taking baby steps towards getting quilting back in my life. I cleaned my sewing room this afternoon…well, just don’t look closely at that one corner…and was ready to print off the design I’d created on EQ a long time ago for an upcoming wedding quilt so I could get my head organized around it. I could swear I’d also taken advantage of a big sale online at one point to pick up some fabric for it.

That would seem like a step forward, right? Cleaning up, sorting fabric, getting ready to go?

I booted up my computer, only to find that somewhere along the way I’d had to reformat and not only was EQ8 not on there, but neither was the design file. Gone.

And even though I cleaned my sewing room, I can’t find that fabric anywhere. Did I even actually order it? Apparently only the Shadow knows at this point, ‘cause I sure don’t. I’ll have to spend some time online tonight digging around my various fabric site accounts to see if I can track down whether or not I did order it and I just can’t figure out where I stashed it when I came. That being said, I only have one wall of shelves on which I keep fabric. Can’t have gone far if it does exist. Goes to show my level of distraction this past year.

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Plus, in the detritus on my cutting table, I found where I’d stuck my little container of embroidery supplies for my embroidery sampler quilt I’m working on—and remembered that Auggie had used it as a chew toy at one point so the lid doesn’t stay latched on the container and one of the corners is entirely gone. (Luckily he only chewed on the outside because the inside could’ve been bad news for him!)(Second parentheses: Auggie has also gone through three TV remotes and a few pairs of rubber-handled scissors in recent months. Definitely in his teenager phase, the dope.) So I have to track down a new solution for that, although it’s not a stopper of making progress. Just a little less convenient.


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Last weekend I took Friday and Saturday fully off. Other than when I was out of state on vacation at the end of August, it’s really hard for me to get a full day off from work, let alone two in a row. I was also alone that weekend as my husband went to visit my daughter to go hiking in the Adirondacks. It was a gorgeous weekend. I intended to do some sewing. Instead, I nested. I spent most of Friday repotting every indoor plant in the house. Believe you me, they needed it. And they’re all looking really enthusiastic now. Saturday I had some other more mundane housework to do, but it was such a beautiful day that after I got that squared away, I hopped in my car and went to three different farm markets to get seasonal decorations for outside and inside the house. I had a great time. Those two days made a huge difference in my spirit, even if I didn’t ever get into my sewing room.


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My other exciting news? I’m finally back in a heel for the first time since my foot nonsense began!

No, it’s not a particularly stunning nor even interesting heel, but it’s just enough to make me look that little bit more dressy-professional when I’m out and about doing my thing. These are Trotters brand and they’re made for people with a wide variety of foot problems.

I got them from the Healthy Feet store. I also got a pair of light leather flats that were incredibly comfortable and supportive but the leather was discolored so I’m sending them back for an exchange.

I don’t recall if I mentioned this in my last post but my podiatrist told me I have arthritis in the entire foot. Most pain now comes from the center top and that’s what’s been causing the bruising and swelling. Cortisone shots and Aleve to the rescue. Digging through my stacks of shoes I’d amassed trying to find anything that worked is what finally sent me online, willing to pay a whole lot more money for a much smaller shoe wardrobe but paring it down to what won’t make me have to ice my foot at night. I just put about 10 pairs of shoes in a donate bag—all of them almost worked, at least enough to fool me into buying them and trying to wear them a few times in hoping they’d eventually wear in or whatever. But I’m done playing these reindeer games.

So that’s an update. Such as it is. I’m out of town the next two weekends—first for vacay with my husband, second for work—so I still won’t be getting much, if any, sewing done. But I hope to at least get my head organized again around that blasted wedding quilt, as well as a very exciting baby quilt I just recently found out I get to make! (I have the pattern and fabrics for that one all neatly stored and labeled in a bin, so no worries about that one getting lost!)