It feels like I’ve been running in circles for awhile. Since my soft retirement ten days ago, I spent two days  (and three nights) at Laura’s thinking that the baby’s arrival was imminent and an evening and morning at the ER/hospital with John with symptoms of a TIA. (Thankfully, all the tests were negative except for high cholesterol and triglycerides. They checked him pretty thoroughly so we feel good about that.)

My sewing machine has been running in circles too. I made four baby or lap-sized quilts using a “Crazy Curves” template.

It took me forever to figure out the first one, but once I did, I copied it three more times in different fabrics, finding it a fairly easy pattern once I got the hang of it.

Forever. I bought fabric for a quilt for a hoped for granddaughter about three years ago. I set it aside when our next grandson arrived, though I looked hard for that line of fabric because of his “tree” name. Couldn’t find it anywhere.

Last winter when I started my Swedish classes, I went early for the first class and also visited the Sweden Shop across the street from North Park College. I was meandering around the shop and walked into the fourth room–to be delighted that it was filled with fabric. There it was–bolt upon bolt of “my” fabric, created by a Swedish designer. I bought a few yards of each coordinating fabric. (On top of that, I had walked in on a 20% off sale.)

When I learned that the hoped-for-granddaughter was truly expected, I decided that I would make coordinating quilts for Oaks and his new baby sister. Fifteen months apart, they’re kind of Irish Twins.

Even though I was way overdue with Oaks’ baby quilt, I started with the new baby’s quilt. I cut and sewed and hung pieces on my design board. I ripped out seams, cut more, bought more fabric, and still couldn’t settle on a final design.

And then, I simplified it and came up with this:

 

 

 

 

 

I cut out the orange and grey fabric for Oaks’ quilt. And also the grey and red “robots” for a quilt for my grandnephew.

And then one day soon afterwards, I recalled that I had bought baseball fabric to “someday” make a quilt for our friend Craig, who is an avid fan of the Cubs. As Craig has recently been diagnosed with cancer of the jaw, I realized that someday better be soon. (He is now undergoing both chemo and radiation and his oncologist is expecting a cure.) I realized that my circle quilt would work well in the baseball fabric as well, so when I went up to Balgownie last week (the cottage is owned by Craig’s mother), my sewing goal was to complete the quilt top for him. I handed it off to my friend, Marilyn who did the machine quilting.

So, my machine is running in circles, as I have three tops to finish. I was able to get the baby’s quilt almost done in time for her sprinkle (small shower) at the end of May. And should be able to finish the other two this month.

Unless, of course, life keeps me literally running in circles (which it seems to do.)

Here are the four circle quilts, in varying stages of completion:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Craig prefers the back of the quilt.)