A Day in My Life

Monday was a holiday here in the States so there was no mail delivery (among other things). I was waiting anxiously for the order I'd placed with eQuilter.com to arrive to see whether any of the prints I'd ordered would work to fulfill the "something fishy" design challenge for the liberated quilt along. Couldn't really settle to anything in the studio but I got a lot of laundry and a few other household tasks done. Tuesday I woke up feeling really great. Our mail doesn't come until afternoon so Son and I ran some errands. I stayed in the car and read while he went into the shops. I still felt pretty good when we returned home. That isn't always the case. Exhaust fumes or other toxic air coming into the car is enough to take me down. I keep the air conditioning on all the time in my car to help filter the air. Winter is challenging because I have to use the defrost setting instead and it brings in more of that toxic air. But back to Tuesday...

The package from eQuilter was delivered and, joy of joys! one of the prints I ordered will be ideal for my Macabre Medallion. :D However, along with the package from eQuilter there were a couple of catalogs in the mail. I'd been feeling so good I recklessly, thoughtlessly, paged through one of the catalogs. Mistake! It took a little bit for me to realize that I was no longer feeling well. By the time I poured out half a cup of frozen blueberries to mitigate the effects of the exposure I was really not feeling well. I ate them too late for them to be as effective as they might have been. The evening hours were spent fuming at my shortsightedness, muttering about the sensitivities of my body, and generally being miserable.

Normally I can sleep off the worst of the reactions to toxins. I knew I wouldn't feel my best the next morning but I had hope that I'd at least be able to function. Not this time. It may have been triggered by the toxins or it may have been coincidental, but I woke up with a migraine that only got worse as the morning wore on. I was forced to lay down in my darkened bedroom after applying every possible remedy at my disposal. I don't know how long I was down but eventually I got up again and went into the studio.

Over the past few days I'd done some journaling about current and potential projects. My pile of scrap patches that I use as leaders and enders had diminished to almost nothing and I wasn't in the mood to cut more scrap patches. The last thought I'd had was to cut 4.5" squares and 2.5" strips for 12" Patience Corner blocks. They're assembled in quarters and don't require much thought. So when I started to feel at least human again yesterday I pulled out my white with black prints and cut squares. I was pleased that the cutting went smoothly. There are times when I can't cut a straight line with a rotary cutter in spite of the ruler to guide it! At the end of the day I had enough squares for 30 blocks.

I debated whether to make the strips out of a rainbow assortment of colors or stick to one color family. In the end I decided to take this opportunity to reduce my collection of pink prints. Now I'm wondering whether I'll have enough to do as many blocks as I have planned! I have a lot of pinks but many of them won't provide the high contrast I want. Oh darn, I might have to buy even more new fabric. ;- )

That migraine subsided over the course of the day but I went to bed with a headache nevertheless. After an exposure I very often have a bad night. I'm restless and have bad dreams. That didn't happen this time, and this morning I got up feeling well again. Woohoo! I feel like I might actually be able to get to work on the liberated medallion. And now I have these Patience Corner blocks to use as leaders and enders. Win-win!