Mushy-Brain Sewing

I lost more brain cells than I can count this past Saturday night. I wish I could say it was the result of a night of fun and merriment, but that could not be further from the truth. I accompanied my little guy on an overnight sleep study at a local pediatric hospital. A four-year-old who doesn’t understand why he is being hooked up to a bazillion wires + the not-conducive-to-sleep environment of a hospital (oh, the irony!) = four hours of shut-eye for Mama. The happy ending is, we survived and (I hope!) will never have to go through that ordeal again.

Sunday was a wash. No church. No trip to the playground. No getting a head start on meals for the week. I caught up on laundry until I crashed hard and fast before noon.

This was not a day for sewing. When your brain function is as low as mine was, playing with pins, needles, and rotary blades is not advisable. But come midafternoon I was starting to feel like a real person again.

I passed on my top-priority project at hand, which involves manipulating fiddly 2.5-inch squares and matching many seams, for some super-easy piecing. Sewing a straight seam? Yeah, that’s about all I could handle.

Lucky for me (and for the safety of my fingers), I had already cut many strips in preparation for a rail fence quilt. This project was originally slated for Stitched in Color’s purge initiative, but that deadline came and went. Then, inspired by 100 Quilts 4 Kids, I decided to donate the finished project to charity. That is not going to happen: the 100 Quilts 4 Kids deadline is a week away, plus I’m considering keeping this quilt for my own family. (It’s a decision that would make me feel guilty if I hadn’t just made this quilt for charity!)

I’m following Amanda Jean’s instructions for this project. Most of the fabrics have been languishing in my scrap pile; I recognize a bunch of them as leftovers from my rainbow pencil roll. Others, like the orange frogs and yellow-backed snails from Rae Hoestra’s Lotus Pond line, are from my stash. I bought the moose and raccoons—both from Robert Kaufman’s Woodland Pals line—to flesh out the palette of mustard, orange, aqua, and brown.

I have 99 6-inch blocks, enough for a substantial throw-size quilt. I’d love to keep going with this, but my brain activity is back to normal. It’s time to tackle those 2.5-inch squares, fiddly or not.

BTW: My son is just fine! He is not symptomatic for sleep issues, but he is at higher-than-average risk for them. I’m hoping that the study results show he’s sleeping A-OK.

Update: You can view the final quilt here.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday, Let’s Bee Social, and Needle and Thread Thursday ...