Birdyhead

Catching Up

Sorry for the lag in posts. It's been very busy around here, but in fine ways. Here we are last Friday night at the Edendale for Lalena's birthday. That's Theron's light saber on the table. It was a big hit though other people were disappointed they didn't know ahead of time that they could bring their light sabers, too.
This is last Saturday night at Echo Park, 3 blocks away. Fireworks at the park for the Lotus Festival. Low stress and so fun. Earlier in the day we saw the new Harry Potter movie!!! Theron and I are reading 3, Prisoner of Azkahban now and, of course, the new one we pre-ordered BETTER be here Saturday!!!

Sunday Rebecca and I went to the Felt Club craft fair. Here's another one of those chicky murals that was across the street. We went early because we heard that the first 250 would get a gift bag and we wanted that bag. When we got there the line was around the block. We figured we missed out.
But we were wrong! Here's only some of the free stuff we got. There were also lots of stickers, and buttons and a pattern, and lime popsicle lipgloss. Oh, boy, were we happy. Then we went to the lab so Rebecca could get caught up on a treatment and I could work on the group quilt we made for Terri's going away present.
Here is the finished product. The party was today and I finished it this morning.
Here's a detail that shows the totem pole backing fabric, which everyone seemed to love as much as the front. I'll post details on Flickr - there were some really fun contributions. I actually can't believe it ever came together. This was the hardest thing I've ever tried to do. For some reason I could not get the math function in my brain to work so it is sheer dumb luck that I had enough fabric to pull it of. The purple fabric - I only had tiny scraps left over. I had to eye it. I kept trying to do the calculations, or drawing with graph paper, etc, but in the end I had to guess and just believe. Also, there is no where in our house I can lay out a queen sized blanket except for our bed so poor Ashley had to remake the bed every night to go to sleep (and hopefully neither of us will run into any stray pins but if there are some I hope they're on my side!). I haven't done anything this big in a about 5 years so I was also seriously undercalculating the time needed to finish. When Rebecca and I went to the lab I figured three hours and I would be done. Instead I came home with an armful of fabric pieces and at least 4 more full days of work. Ashley nodded patiently and said "You never learn, do you?". No I don't. However by the last day I accurately predicted 6 more hours to finish and I was right, almost on the dot.
And really it was worth it because Terri was overwhelmed with joy. Her mother was a quilter and I know of all people she will appreciate it forever. And we love her truly. Working on the quilt and stressing out over it everyday has been good stress displacement because I couldn't stop to think about the great loss. But now I can. Tomorrow is her last day and there is no replacement yet (as if) and things are just going to be very hard for awhile because she did so much, not to mention that she has been one of my most dearest friends. But she is off to Texas, to a fabulous new job and a piece of land her Randy is going to build a house on for her. So we have to be happy for her.