11 jan 09

I've had one of those busy, busy weeks that saw me jumping from one job to another and back again, and I really hate that now. I can't seem to multi-task easily any more, so it's disconcerting to have to stoke the photocopier with paper, set the Statler stitching, run back to the computer and add things to the website, race back to the machine to rethread and restart while the site loads, whip things out of the copier and sort into packs, answer the door or the phone, back to the computer to work out why the !@@#$%^^ thing has errors in the upload. I deserve my weekend off. And I'm even happier that I did fix the problems and get all the jobs done on time, or I'd still be tinkering with it all. Time for a rest. The quilt is a beauty, pieced by a lady in her 80s as a birthday present for her son. She just wanted a panto, and Bell's Beach was perfect for that, but as soon as I saw those compass blocks I knew I wanted to use the Creative Studio software to trim out the panto, and quilt the blocks separately. Mereth declined a lesson in CS, and left me to it. It went without a hitch, I designed a simple block of lines radiating from the centre, positioned it over each compass and trimmed out the area behind the pieced centre. I had so much fun, enthusing to Mereth about how clever the software was, and how I could do the same thing different ways, and look! I could now edit the pattern in CS and... I believe her comment was 'Whatever." She's the freehand queen, and I'm the geek who like to mess about with the software, and that's a good thing. We complement each other. This quilt is a charity quilt a customer made for a little 3yo cancer survivor, and I designed a panto with stars and hearts for it. Stars are a symbol of hope, and the hearts are for love; it's nice to quilt with symbols, to make the quilting more meaningful.Mereth actually quilted this one, after my job of designing the panto was done. Then I had to scarper off and get to work on all the other stuff. I'm glad I'm busy, but I keep saying to Mereth 'I want it to to be Christmas now!' For some reason I'm ready to put up decorations and bake goodies and do jigsaws and sing Carols, at least a month too early. It's going to be a hectic Christmas this year, so I guess I just want to have a quiet time first. I see Tazzie is feeling the same way; maybe a little tree in the workroom, and a jigsaw to puzzle over, would be a good way to start the Christmas season this year. Even if it is only November.