Dear Jane Patiently Waiting

I was just walking through the hall to the quilt room when I chanced to see this sitting patiently in a pile. I had given a 15 minute presentation of  my quilt journey (which actually began 40 years ago) at my local quilt guild last week and I took DJ off the wall. She is not going back up there again until she is completely finished.  I put the suitcases away but there is still a pile of quilts waiting for me to return them to their proper places, like on beds.

What is it about seeing all these little blocks sewn together neatly with sashing that makes  me smile? Not the same feeling I had looking at it on the wall. It hung on the design wall for 2 1/2 years as I added blocks once in a while. I could sit here and look at it by the hour, enjoying the accomplishment, seeing the errors, plotting how I will teach it next time which will be in September.

At lunch today, I was just reminiscing about the fall of 2009 when I started making this quilt that was supposed to take 2 years. I had just returned from 3 weeks in India where we had dedicated the school for orphan children that my husband and I had donated, spoke at a women pastor's conference, dedicated wells and a lot of other interesting activities. The day after our return (my 13 year old red headed, blue eyed niece and I) house guests started arriving for our son's wedding. After all the guests left, I returned to fall classes for my second year at seminary and some routine blood work. My husband flew off to Wisconsin for a cattle show and the boiler on our furnace cracked as we joyfully started our first 10 DJ blocks. The doctor suggested that I might have had a heart attack since my heart enzymes were over 2000 (whatever that means). The following week was Thanksgiving and a major cattle show so I had to  milk cows morning and night for 5 days straight, had 6 new babies, broke 2 milking machines and I was judging the junior exhibits at one fair and canning at another. And it rained and rained. My husband flew out to visit our daughter and I had one assignment (among many) due  for New Testament History and Literature on how the author of the Di Vinci Code used sources to portray the historical Jesus in his novel. Needless to say, every time I picked up a book to read, I started crying - no idea why.  Went back to the doctor and she suggested that I should reduce stress in my life since my blood pressure rose for the first time ever from 102/70 to 139/86 whatever that means. So, I dropped out for the rest of the school year, slept for a week, eventually put in a new furnace, saw a cardiologist and a rheumatologist who both politely told me I was fat and so I took a Baltimore Applique course.
I have started 11 big quilt projects since then and only completed 2. Guess I should get busy. I could play the mind game of planning to complete 1 quilt this year - no wait - how about 1 per month - no - the ADHD will kick in and convince me that I could complete ALL of them this week . . . and its only Friday . . .

I milked cows this morning for the first time since mud last fall and I am feeling a bit giddy . . . the temperature SOARed here today to a sunny high of -17C and frozen water pipes.
Spring is only 20 days away.
Blessings,
Chris