Designing When Stoned

This post is gross. My squeamish daughter should skip it, today.

The last few days have been one god awful disaster difficult due to health issues. I have what amounts to second degree burns on both arms and on my face. There have been mornings where I simply could not bend my elbows without wincing. My arms have been grossly swollen, red, broken and tender. Two separate mornings I worried that I should just end it all go to the hospital and be done with it. My face looks like it has been run over by a steam shovel more white than pink from cracked, dead skin. Until recently, I’ve not been able to put salve or lotion or topical analgesic on myself because I’ve been full of oozing sores open wounds where I clawed my skin when the poison ivy was attacking. I took prednisone but it didn’t really help. The mild oatmeal/honey soap that I used joined forces with the poision ivy and counter attacked caused an allergic reaction (can you believe that?) that made things tons worse. To my husband’s horror, I ran scalding water over my skin to kill the pain (like those self mutilators who carve on themselves to release endorphins), resulting in the burns. Repeatedly. I figured it was either scald it off or claw it off. I am paying for that decision, now. I know, all that is gross. But I killed that damned poison ivy rash and would probably do it, again. BTW – I am not a self mutilator, as a rule. This is new and desperate behavior. And I read about it on the internet so it must be okay.

At one point during the worst of it, I launched into a crusade against idiot posters on a message board I frequent and was unchacteristically caustic and rude.   Even for me.   One poster said I was a crazy old woman and he was probably right. It is probably the only thing he has ever been right about so I am not overly impressed with the observation. I am still a bit cranky.  And I hope no one else expresses surprise that I got an exposure since poison ivy is dormant this time of year.  Don't you realize how much that terrifies me???

All that being said, I am feeling better and Husband keeps bringing me lotions to try. I know he wants me to feel better but I suspect part of it is that he wants me to not look so much like something from a horror flick. He has shoved Vitamin E oil at me (he had it when we married, ten years ago), gall salve, Blue Salve ointment (unconditionally guaranteed), leather softener, hemorrhoid cream, and is threatening to hold me down and pour vinegar on me later this afternoon (he read on the internet that it was a good home remedy for itching so it must be true). Although it looks bad, my skin is feeling much better and I’ve been swabbing on “Udderly Smooth,” the lotion so many hand quilters use since yesterday. It has aloe and Vitamin E in it. It is water based, which distresses Husband, but I’m good with it. I think all the medication and histamines in my system have contributed to making me feel pretty awful but that won’t last. I am feeling a lot better and another week will hopefully see me near healed. I just hope I feel better by in the morning because I have my hand appliqué class.

In the midst of all my ugliness, Husband brought me lilies for Valentine’s Day (Lilies were our wedding flower).

What a darling.

They smell beautiful and perked me up.
Have you been watching the weather reports back east? My Virginia neighbors report getting over two feet of snow during the last wave and they are being slammed again, today. The pictures I’ve seen have been amazing. Record setting. Of course, we have a house to sell and this slows down the buyers so it is costing us money. Still, it would be exciting to see it as it happened, so long as you kept power. As for us, we’ve had snow and ice but spring will be knocking in no time at all. I’m ready, baby!

We ordered our new kitchen counter tops. Here is a picture of what we settled on – It is a solid surface – Hi-Mac.

I like the specks.

The name is Cameroon. I think it is really pretty. It will still be about a month before we get the counter tops.

My new Yankee candles also arrived via post. I ordered my standard buttercream but decided to try some new scents.

I thought I would love the lavender vanilla (how could you go wrong with that combination?) but just don’t like it. That only goes to show that when you are buying for smell, you need to check it, first. The baby power flavor is nice, though. “Just” nice.

I love this particular candle holder – even an unscented candle smells good when I use it.

In my last post, I showed my paper piecing round robin and the start of round 4. Round 4 simply required that we restrict our color choices to only two. I went with a metallic cream by Hoffman and the light blue focus fabric. I included some paper pieced corners but most of the piecing was strip piecing to create the beads. I finished that round and here is a photo:

I think it looks weird. 

I kind of wish I had gone with white in the center of the corner arrows on round three (the wider, purple row) but I am not going back at this point and dismantling it.  Well, maybe I will.  I am relatively happy with the design, so far, but am not sure about the colors. I thought the cream would pull it together more than it has but will probably need to add more near the outer border. Unfortunately, I don’t have much left of the cream fabric and haven’t been able to find it online.  I may just yank off that border and use it for something else.  The more I look at it, the more it looks like a mini skirt on a NFL linebacker.

It is a disaster.

If I had to choose my favorite piecing technique, it would be paper piecing. It wastes fabric, is counter intuitive, is frequently tedious and lacks the soft, gentle curves of appliqué. But I love the strong lines, bold points and the miraculous ending you can achieve if you practice steadfast discipline and an almost religious faith that the road to perfection is sometimes a muddy, rutty cowpath.

After I finished round four (the blue and white), and before I came to my senses, I got a wild hair that I would go all out on the paper piecing for round 5 to bring in color and the WOW factor. It was probably the drugs talking. I used a Carol Doak paper pieced pattern for a tulip (number 145 from her 300 Paper Pieced Quilt Blocks – an excellent book I don’t use nearly enough).

I have the patterns on CD and adjusted it to a 4 X 6 inch block.

Each block has 15 pieces. I need 26 blocks. I am out of my mind.

I keep a light under the clear dewing table to use as a light box. Since it is right by the needle, if it is going to slip, it needs to do it in a hurry.

Nothing looks more disciplined or calm than a finished paper pieced block. I mean, look at this:

Geesh.   Don't look at it.  The more I look at that white and blue border, the more I hate it.  I am breaking out in hives, again.   If that thing stays on there, it will be the topic of a "What was I thinking" post at some point.  And probably the topic of a "What was she thinking post?" on someone else's blog. 

But I'll get back to that.  For now, I want to talk about my paper pieced tulips.   I’ve never made sausage but I hear it is messy. So is paper piecing. Here are some partially finished tulip blocks:

They look like a ghastly mess. If you are bothered by clutter (and while I have a tolerance, even I eventually hit a wall and can’t take anymore), paper piecing might not be for you. But once you get to a certain point, it all starts coming together.

Here are the scrap remains that end up in the trash:

But here is the finished block next to an untrimmed one – the finished ones are so pretty.

See the back? 

Not so pretty.  And now, I get to tear the paper off the back of 26 blocks.  What is wrong with me?

This is Evelyn after looking at the blue and white border on round four:

I haven’t completely decided how I am going to complete this round but Plan A was to have the tulips be a large part of it. This was my original thought -something like this (still considering the corners):

Hmm.  That cream in round 3 really was a god awful mistake an ill advised design. 

Maybe I should wait to see what the next round is and if these tulips would fit, use them for a final border, instead. Or maybe I will just do that, anyway and come up with Plan B for round 5. Truth be told, I think round 5 should be wider (the outer row in the previous picture).  What do you think?

Let this be a lesson to us all - do not design under the influence.  I shall now retire to do some frog stitching (rip-it, rip-it).  That blue and white round has got to go. 

Happy Quilting,

Penny, Evelyn and Pearl