“Patience is waiting. Not passively waiting. That is laziness. But to keep going when the going is hard and slow - that is patience.”

I'm trying not to passively wait, but to keep myself constructively occupied. Now that I've actually have something to keep me occupied I'm not minding the being home all day....I'm actually kind of liking it.

Today I managed to get some more of the kitchen cleaned; of course, then Matt was home for part of the day and he decided to bottle his Pumpkin Ale, so there went my "clean" kitchen.

I also managed to work a bit more on my quilt that I'm making. Over there (to the left) is the magazine cover photograph. I'm trying to do what they say "A Great Scrappy Stash Buster": It's rather hard for me, because I like things to have a pattern and a method to them. Random is not so much my thing, but I'm trying to get over that.

In the past 2 days I have cut 560 pieces of fabric, ranging from 1.5"square to 2x5". I still need to cut another 336 pieces, but as of right now I can start piecing together the leaf blocks. Another plus is that I've only spent about $25.00 in fabric. I pulled everything (almost) from my stashes...the only things I had to purchase was a yard for the background of the leaf blocks and a 1/4 yrd each of 3 purple fabrics and 2 browns: Not too shabby.

I'm not planning on sending this quilt out, but am hoping to learn how to tie a quilt. I also haven't decided if I'm going to make it bigger (the pattern is for 70X80, which is full size) so that we can use it on our bed (we already have a fall quilt)...or if I'm going to make 2 throw size quilts from it (approximately 40x50 -I'd have to make a few extra blocks if I do the queen or throws...not a big deal....or add a wider border), or just leave it the size it is.

Anyways, that's where I am. Tomorrow I can get up and start piecing together 56 leaf blocks (with an average of 10 rows of stitches each - for a total of 560 rows of stitches). You know, when you start thinking about all of the individual pieces, cuts, and stitches that go in to a quilt it's no wonder a homemade quilt costs what it does to buy. If I can get 1/2 the leaves pieced tomorrow I will be happy :-)