Sew Much Fun

Last spring, I decided to leave the float pool and take a permanent position in CICU (Cardiopulmonary Intensive Care).   Before I made the transition, I took an assignment on VNICU (Neuro ICU) for a month doing night shift (7p to 7a).   During that assignment, I discovered that my new home (CICU) was going to be short-staffed during the night, so I volunteered to continue night shift for a few more months until the new staff could be trained and up and running on nights.   Nearly 4 months later, I am still working night shift ...but don't be dismayed, the end is in sight!  I will start day shift again on October 20th.  

Night shift has taken its toll on me.  I have put on a few of the pounds that I worked so hard to lose, I'm cranky and my headaches have come back.  I am more than ready to go back to daylight hours.  Hopefully, I will quickly return to my more disciplined ways.

My sister Diana decided to rent a booth for her stitching retreat in October, and I agreed to provide some items for her to sell.   I have had a great time making everything from aprons to baby bibs and pacifier holders.   I've made over 30 bibs, 20 burp cloths, 10 totes, etc.   In my quest for cute ideas for embroidering, I discovered the cutest website for unique embroidery items.  http://www.sewn4youdesigns.com/index.html .   Not only is this a fabulous source for unique applique and embroidery designs, but Ginger truly provides top-notch personal service.   Several of her designs are my absolute favorites!   I was able to turn them into some very cute baby items.  Several of the young women at work have had babies recently, and I have also made items for their little ones using these designs.  The applique bird just makes me smile!  I turned it into a burp cloth.  The Stick Fairy princess is just fabulous .... and I had the cutest flannel with stick figure fairies.  Voila; a fabulous toddler bib!   

 

 

I'm not sure if things will sell at my sister's retreat, but I sure have had fun sewing and using up a great deal of my stash!   I completed some half-done projects and have take the warm, humid, summer and my sleeplessness to reorganize my sewing room to be something just a little more manageable.

 

There won't be much sewing going on this week or next weekend as the family prepares to gather for my only niece's wedding to Jon Papaharis in Charleston SC.   Looking forward to spending time with my sisters and my mom as we celebrate this beautiful, young couple. 

Lessons from Quilt Making

Wow!  It has definitely been a while since I wrote anything.   I've certainly been busy with work, sewing projects galore, my niece's wedding shower and impending wedding.  But what inspired me to blog today is yesterday I made a quilt from some scraps I had lying around.  I was really, really happy with the quilt top.  Love the colors, and the fact that I had just enough of everything to make a top and a pieced back.    I sandwiched it together and started quilting.   That's when it all fell apart.   The thread I was using was inferior -- or at least my machine didn't like it.  It broke, knotted or frayed several times.   And then, when I was about halfway done with the quilting, I realized that it had bunched up in the back.  So, I spent the better part of the afternoon ripping out the quilting stitches while my husband watched football.   I stayed calm through that. 

Then, the thread problems started again.  This time even worse.  But, I persevered and finished the quilting.   And while it wasn't perfect, it looked nice and I was still excited about the quilt.   So now, comes the favorite (NOT) part of any quilting experience ... the binding.     I won't go into the details, but at 10: 15 p.m. I had fought a good fight, but the binding had won.    Why did the binding win?  Because I let it.    I realized early on in the binding process that I probably needed a wider binding for this project, but I decided to ignore my intuition and keep moving forward.  By the time I was mitering the second corner, I realized I was in big trouble.  But HOW BAD COULD IT BE?  Right?  I could work with anything and make it look OK.  Right?  WRONG!!!  By now I was angry, I yelled at my husband and my stress level was maxed out.  I finished the binding, but today's project before I work tonight is to remove the binding.     Now, if I hadn't ignored my intuition at 8 p.m.  This quilt would be done with a ribbon tied around it ....

When I finally crawled into bed last night at 11 p.m.  I realized that this quilt is much like life.   So many times we realize that we are headed down a wrong path, but we just keep on trudging through feeling like we can make it work.    Why didn't I just stop at 2 pm and change threads?  Because the thread I was using was pretty.   Well, it may have been pretty, but in reality it was flawed.   It was superficial beauty.   Why didn't I stop at 8:30 p.m. and say --- whoa!  this binding just isn't going to work.  Let's start again?    Because I wanted to make things work.     I realize that in life so often we just want to make things work.  We want to fix the things around us when in reality they are flawed or unusable.  Sometimes it is better to just make a break, move on and find another way.

God gives us intuition and stop signs along the path of life.   Usually there is that still, small voice that tells us we should rethink a decision or a choice.  But we ignore it and keep trudging along.   Then, the threads start breaking and we are constantly repairing things, smoothing things over.   But we tell God we can work this out.   We are good; we don't need to change directions.   And then we look at our finished project and it is a mess.  We have to take it apart and start all over.  If we had only listened to that still, small voice in the first place, we would be finished and on to the next phase of our life.     When I was in college at PCC many years ago, Mrs. Taylor used to often sing the song, "The Brush."  I may have forgotten the lyrics, but I think they go like this.....   

Life started out like a canvas, and God started painting on me,
But I took the paintbrush from Jesus, and painted what I wished to see;
The colors I painted kept running, and the objects were all out of size.
I had made a mess of my painting, my way now seemed so unwise.

So I brought my painting to Jesus, all the colors, all the pieces, so wrong,
In the markets of earth it was worthless, but His blood made my painting belong.
He worked with no condemnation, never mentioned the mess I had made.
Then He dipped His brush in the rainbow, and He signed it, "The Price Has Been Paid."

When I gave the brush back to Jesus, when I gave the brush back to Him.
He started all over life's canvas to fill, when I gave to Jesus the brush of my will.

I am very grateful that I get a do-over on this quilt.   I'm also grateful for the multiple do-overs God has granted me in my life.    So, I guess its time to pick up the seam ripper.   I have lots of stitches to take out!