Bronchitis and Crafting

Despite my best efforts to prevent it, I got sick.  On Monday February 20th @ 7:22pm I felt my chest tighten up and my throat dry out.  All at once.  I vigorously fought it off with NyQuil and sleep when not at work.  DayQuil and Caffeine while at work.   Friday Morning it felt like there was carbonation in my lungs. I had to give up and go to the doctor.  The Diagnoses, Bronchitis. After picking up prescriptions for and inhaler and 5 daily doses of prednisone I went home to sleep.  Problem was I couldn't lay down without coughing.  I napped briefly in the recliner.  Learned how to use the inhaler and basically vegged in front of the TV.  I just couldn't do anything else.

Saturday, I figured if I had to sit up to be comfortable I might as well be playing with my new machine.  So I unpacked my new sewing machine.  I read the manual and set it up.  Now what to do with it?  I really didn't feel like cutting anything out.  Since I wasn't feeling well I didn't want to work on anything I cared about.  I also didn't want to take on anything to complicated.  BUT I DID WANT TO SEW ON MY NEW MACHINE!!!!!

Then it hit me, I had a bunch of 4 inch squares.  Much to my 19 yr old daughter's dismay, I started another quilt project.  I grabbed stack of black and white squares and a stack of colored print squares and started matching them up.  I then turned them into four patch squares.  At this point I was too tired to continue so I napped in the recliner again.  That evening I took to trimming and squaring up the blocks.  I ended cutting them down to 7 inch blocks.  Two factors that I hadn't taken into account.  One because I was ill, my seams were not quite as straight as I would have liked.  And Two I hadn't cut these squares.  Some were not very square.  Still between Saturday night and Sunday morning I had them all trimmed. 

Now to lay them out,  I wanted this quilt to be a very random scrappy type of quilt.  So time to get out the design board.  Otherwise know as a flannel backed table cloth.  I laid it out on my bed since I don't have any walls that I can easily tape it too.  (Too many bookshelves, something I hope to remedy some day)  I laid out the blocks as they came to the top of the pile.  Then I tried to move them so that two of the same fabric weren't touching and the colors were spread out evenly.  After several attempts I called in the 19 yr old daughter and had her do a little rearranging.  With a layout set, I started sewing together the quadrants.  Except I got some of the blocks turned around.  Oh well it is suppose to be random and scrappy right?  I ended up with a nice looking little quilt top.  I didn't have any fabric to put a border on or back it with nor any batting or I would have finished it on Monday.  But when I get the borders on and finish it off it will be 45" X 60" a nice size little throw that I basically made in a weekend despite being sick or may be because I was sick.

LESSONS LEARNED:
1) Not everyone understands the need for accuracy in cutting fabric.  If the project is important to you, do the cutting yourself. I am sure that in doing fabric exchanges with other quilters you would be fine as well.  Quilters understand the need to be precise.  I was glad that I hadn't bought these squares with a project in mind.  I would have been devastated not to have had it turn out the way I wanted it too. 

2) Being Miserable Crafting beats being Miserable Bored.  I had to sit up to breathe and I couldn't do much of anything, Sewing was logical.  It took my mind off the discomfort and even energised me a little.  Plus it was a wonderful feeling to get something accomplished.