Quilting against the clock

When I originally set myself a timeline for a quilt that needs to be finished by a certain deadline, I try to pad it a little, to leave myself room for the inevitable SNAFU.  It doesn't always work out the way I'd like it, but I don't like to deal with more stress than I have to, and I hate to make quilting stressful.  I enjoy it, after all!

However, back in late October, I thought I had plenty of time to finish this quilt before the November 1 deadline--that being my grandmother's 90th birthday celebration.

I used the Granny Square tutorial (appropriate, no?) from Blue Elephant Stitches, and a jelly roll each of Butterscotch & Rose by Fig Tree Quilts and Moda Bella Cream.  The finished quilt is a great throw size, about 60" by 70".

But I wound up with a slight snag.  See, I was pushing to finish this by November 1, and even had the whole last week of October off, but then Hurricane Sandy happened on October 29.  Here in CT, we knew a day or so in advance that landfall was imminent, and that power outage was inevitable.  See, we dealt with Irene the previous year and were without power for 4 days, and then had a snowstorm that followed Irene and were without power for 8 days.  So we stocked up on firewood, charcoal for the grill, bottled water and canned goods, and put away anything that might be blown around the yard.  And then I quilted like my life depended on it, so that the electricity-reliant part of the process would be done before we lost power.  I finished machine sewing the binding to the front of the quilt at around 5pm...

The back fabric is another Fig Tree fabric from a different line, Mill House Inn, and the binding fabric was a serendipitous find at JoAnn's a couple of years ago.

And then a scant few hours later, we had this happen.

40ft pine tree blown over on our cars.  :(

Which looked like this in the stark light of morning the next day.

In any case, all's well that ends well--the insurance and tree service people were hugely helpful, my car's been replaced (the madman's SUV was actually fine), I finished the quilt although poor Gram's party was put off by a week--my parents and grandmother were all without power for over a week, and the madman and I were lucky to only be out about four days this time.  

And Gram?  She loves her quilt.  

What a week!!

The good:

I finished a top! A quilt top, that is! Sadly, I only have progress photos, but you'll get the idea.

This is Leah's Epic Adventure quilt. Between now and February, I have 2 baby and 2 older sibling quilts to make. Leah's 4 and looking forward to having a little sister for Christmas. I know older siblings often get a little jealous when there's a new baby getting lots of presents, so I thought maybe Leah would like a quilt of her own. I dug through my scraps (which always makes me happy) and used Heather Ross prints for the centers. From what her folks (we've been friends for 5 years) say, Leah's a bit of a princess, but loves art and detail, and will look at storybooks for hours. I immediately thought of Aneela Hoey's tutorial from the first issue of Fat Quarterly, which I've made before for bees and for a baby quilt and just love every time. I used these blocks as a break between rounds of bee blocks, and they were a great break. Now it's in the stack waiting for the marathon basting day next month, and then onto the finishing!

Also good. I went to the grocery store this morning. My one morning off this week. As a reward, I now have iced coffee. It's the small things around here that keep me going. Which leads me to...

The bad:

I left work Tuesday night to a flat tire. My phenomenal husband drove over to put the spare on in the dark. (Smart man brought the lantern. Thank you, Irene, for making sure we had fresh batteries in it.)

I had the tire patched and put back on after work on Wednesday. Went to dinner at the diner next door (bought dinner for said phenomenal husband). Drove home. All good.

Went out to leave for work on Thursday morning. Patch did not hold. Tire dead. Bad. My brother, who lives 10 minutes away, came and got me and brought me to work. There's been a week's worth of drama attached to that particular relationship, so a half hour commute trapped in a car with him wasn't quite what I had in mind. But I am grateful that he helped me out in a pinch.

Phenomenal husband picked me up after work and went home to put the spare back on. In the rain. He also took the tire to be patched again the next day.

That patch held until Saturday afternoon--thankfully, I got to work in one piece. But it was deflated by the time I got out of work yesterday...

(By this point I wasn't even upset. I was just...done.) Called the tire place to make an appointment to buy new tires on Monday. Not an expense I'm delighted about, but it means I won't have to count on the Madman as a personal pit-crew anymore, either. Tire place dude was extremely nice and is giving me a deal. (I should also say I've been doing business with this shop for 7 years and their tires and previous patch jobs have been nothing short of amazing, so I can't fault them for this. Sometimes, this just happens.)

Bought bbq dinner for phenomenal madman. Here's where it gets to...

The ugly:

A mile from home, I heard this terrible rattle coming from under my hood. I turned off the radio and the air and listened, then pulled over because it sounded like I was dragging something. Looked under the car. Nothing. Continued to make the noise all the way home. At which point I parked, grabbed the bbq and ran for the house like I was being chased. (Don't worry, Meg. That little black cloud will come, too! /sigh) The Madman drove it around the block twice, and it made no noise.

This morning, it made no noise, except to purr like a kitten. (Also, the bbq last night was amazing. If you ever happen to be near Seymour, CT, you have to stop into Uncle Willie's. It is the most shocking thing to have real southern bbq this far north of the Mason/Dixon line, let alone in the sticks of CT, right down the road from my house. Their pulled pork is like velvet. Unreal.)

(The car IS 12 years old and has 160k miles on it, so someday, it will go to the giant parking lot in the sky. I'm just not prepared to let it go just yet.)

So thank you, my fearless readers, for putting up with my pity-party-post. I believe I'm going to spend the rest of the day cutting and sewing blocks for a quilt for Leah's little-sister-to-be.

Right after I finish this delicious iced coffee. (Thank you, Bobby at Starbucks. You're my favorite. Don't tell the others.)