Making decisions and living in chaos Posted by Virginia "Ginnie" Leiner on May 15, 2018 at 12:00pm View Blog Hello Campers: I have not posted since winter had us by the throat and would not let loose (it lasted til the end of April, for God’s sake) so here I am again to give you an update on what is happening around the quilting house of Leiner Inc. In a nutshell, I am stuck on making quilt tops (and only quilt tops) that have “inchers,” or one inch squares as I am told they are called. There is a reason for this, of course. There always is a reason and that is the story for today. If you remember my last post (about paper piecing), I did some whining about my knee woes, specifically that I had two right knee operations last fall, October and November. This is getting to be a regular thing for me (please God, no, not that again) so the Leiners and associated crew are getting pretty good at making this situation for mom, that impacts everyone, work (most significantly my long-suffering spouse, George). So the medical professionally determined the right knee was infected and needed to come out quicker than quick. The scheduling of the procedure coincided with a philosophy conference my professor husband needed to attend in Memphis. He was a presenter and the editor of one of the many professional publications that come out from this event. Of course, he immediately offered to cancel and stay home. Enter into the picture, my two wonderful daughters, one in Plano, Texas and one in Livermore, California. They came to the rescue and left their families and busy lives to be with Mom while George went to the conference. He was present for the surgery, I saw him in recovery for 5 minutes and then told him to go get on a plane! The stay at the hospital was longer than usual as we had to wait for tests to come back to confirm or deny the infection and it was the most enjoyable five day hospital stay I have every had! The girls and I talked and laughed, played cards, ate bad food (not from the hospital – junk food) and generally had a good time, all while recovery was going on. Fortunately the knee infection was negative and I got to go home, only to return in five weeks for a new knee. Blah, blah, blah, get to the part about the quilt tops, already! Ever have one of those experiences when you make a decision and know it is not only the absolutely right thing to do but that it will absolutely happen in the near future? While in the hospital, I had this epithany that it was time to remodel the attic for an office for George. When he returned from Memphis, I told him I had made this decision and that it was going to happen. He, thinking I was on drugs (and I was) humored me and said sure, that could happen. I knew it would happen and here we are, knee deep in the project. Everything in the attic had to be moved out (call the lame girl with the bad knees) and stored somewhere else in the house (let’s put it in the room that gets used EVERY FRICKING DAY by said lame girl), her sewing room. The overflow of stuff can go in the guest room and every other nook and cranny on the second floor cuz why haul it anywhere else when most of it has to go upstairs anyway when we are finished. So with no sewing room, I have set myself up in the dining room to sew. Someone suggested I NOT sew for the months it is taking to finish this attic project. I think someone would end up murdered in their sleep (the long suffering husband) if this girl did not get to sew. So with limited space, I am making only quilt tops and have two finished so far, two more in progress, one cut out and ready to piece, one with two blocks made and nothing else, and one in the planning stage. I have seven quilts going at one time. A record for this quilter. Eventually, this will have a happy ending. The attic is really beautiful so far and progress is being made. I am sure it will be done mid summer or so. George will get moved up to his beautiful new office, emptying out his 2nd floor crowed, chaotic office in the process. All the boxes and such will go back under the eaves in the attic after they have all been sorted (an ongoing project) and hopefully, half the stuff tossed out. My sewing room will be restored to order and the BEST part, I will take over the empty 2nd floor office space as my 2nd sewing room, to set up my big table permanently so that I can start pinning and quilting all these quilt tops. Every woman needs a room of her own and apparently, I require two! A cynic would imply I have done all this work to provide my spouse with a lovely new office just so I can take his second floor real estate. Let’s just say that we will all be happy campers when all is said and done! Here are the two finished tops (and a lovely pic of my daughter Jamie and her daughter Ruby, whom the pink quilt is for) and one of the "in progress: "

Happy quilting and chaos management! Ginnie