Decisions Were Made

 

On my next grocery run, I was pleased to see my store had expanded its selections of bedding plants. No hesitation now; I picked out three geraniums, more snapdragons, a couple of begonias (I've not had these before), a marigold and whatever that lovely lavender bloom is. Also picked up potting soil while at Walmart on a different day, so with the weatherman predicting weekend highs around 80, I'm prepared to set up my deck garden.

I thought by now I'd have strips cut and maybe even a few blocks sewn for the rails baby quilt to show but alas, the day set aside for that was spent dealing with a dying tv screen. It had been giving me warnings so I was not surprised when the screen suddenly went black that morning. Couldn't help but research what might be causing it and if I could fix it myself, but without buying parts and wielding a soldering iron, it wasn't going to happen. These screens are so inexpensive that replacing them is the better option. Mine was not "smart" and just like the phones, I don't really need a smart one, but of course, that's all that's available these days. I wryly scoffed at the instruction manual promising I'd be up and running in minutes. Took more than that to screw on the feet! Won't bore you with all the hoops I had to jump through to finally be able to watch my Directv and synchronize remotes, but the upside is I can now access my Paramount+ subscription through it and be able to watch those shows on a big screen relaxing on the couch rather than on my PC screen sitting in an office chair. I've always been a pretty independent woman, but I tell you, it's times like these I really miss my late husband! I would have handed it all off to him and had my studio time.

So what have I decided about the rail quilt fabric? I gave up on the lavender, everything being just too dark or not working with the pink on the table. And then I gave up on that pink as well and shifted back to a slightly different stack of pink. I definitely was feeling that I had the above problem and wondering why nothing I was seeing felt right.

I decided to assess my blues and pulled batiks. Getting closer but still . . . I'm really struggling to feel like they work with the raindrops fabric, they are so "clear" while it has that nagging off-white background.

I was actually leaving the studio when it dawned on me there was one place I hadn't looked yet, and that was in the drawers holding my many fat quarters of reproduction fabrics from the "club" subscription I had for so many years. And there, in the top drawer, I think I found the answer to my problem. Not just blue fabrics but pink ones too, and some with children's themes to fit better with the Noah's Ark backing fabric I'll be using. Way more than I probably need but plenty to choose from. Maybe I can start having some real progress on this project.

I do some of my best problem solving and decision making when turning things over in my mind while going about the regular routines of my life. Over several days, I caught myself working through options on what to do with the lavender sweater I started and probably don't have enough yarn to finish. If no more yarn is to be had, I think I could easily turn it into a sweater vest, so I decided to just keep on knitting the back and see how much yarn it actually uses. In the meantime, I did go back to the store where I'd bought the yarn, and as I suspected, no more of it there. However, the owner said she'd just put in an order for more of these mill end skeins, but she had no control over what colors they sent. They won't arrive for awhile so I will knit away while I wait for her call telling me if I am lucky or not.