Masterpiece or Dog Blanket?

Some days you win, some days you lose.  Seems like our weather guessers lose most every time.  Though there was a big storm hitting Northern California and parts of Oregon, it has completely missed us this week.  I'm not complaining because it has brought a gorgeous sunrise and warm temperatures.  

It's easy to notice these when inside because it gives my entire living room a pink glow.  I parked a chair in front of the picture windows and watched it unfold. 

Okay, enough lollygagging, it's time to actually DO something.  I don't know why, but my git up and go just got up and went!!  I set Mr. Robert the Robot (or whatever his current name is) to work cleaning up the house.  I could probably vacuum in the time it takes me to put everything up out of his sweeping reach.   I've had to lay down boxes, pillows, pictures and a myriad of barriers so he doesn't get stuck and scream his head off. 

Seriously, if you have a critter who sometimes makes mistakes in the house, you better NOT use these things.  Luckily I've not had that problem, but he has attacked every lamp cord, pencil, doggie gate, stuffed toy and even my socks until he screams for help.  Yesterday, I just turned the TV up louder.

With nothing on my plate for the day, because I can't seem to get motivated even a tiny bit after a night of Bingo, I wandered through the quilting room to find this small one to play with.  Really, I wasn't playing, I just wanted it out of the way so I can work on the quilts of valor.

I know better than to tackle any quilting job after 11:00 in the morning.  My mind gets too distracted.  But tackle it I did, like I knew what I was doing.  The flower pattern was way too big, so I settled on the butterflies.  See how nice they look on the computer?

See how terrible they look on the quilt?  This is a problem I haven't figured out yet ... how big the actual pattern is versus the space I have to stick it in.  I tried changing the size of the pattern several times, but obviously it didn't work out so well.  It stretched out to fit the area without being able to SEE that on the screen, resulting in no butterflies, only two loopy wings way too far apart.  Of course you don't know this until it quilts the first 12 inches, and who wants to take THAT out stitch by stitch and start over?

All of a sudden, it ended in the middle of the pattern.  Well that's not right.  I reset it three times before it finally finished the row, leaving out an inch of quilting in the middle.  No one ever said these patterns were error free.  

RATS!!  My masterpiece turned into a dog blanket THAT fast.  I decided to find another pattern for the next row.  I had the same problem.  This quilt is way too small for the patterns I have.  I spent an hour looking up better ones on the internet, but got nothing.  

Okay, next row swirls and loops.  Same problem.  The pattern was too big for the area.  Adjusting it resulted in ovals instead of circles.  I quilted it anyway.  At least it's the perfect size for Mr. Cooper!!

Better luck next time!!  After four rows of misshapen patterns I was DONE!  Today I'll cruise through those 257 pages of patterns on sale and see if I can find some that will work on small quilts.  

In the meantime it's another day of rest because I was up at 1:00 on this morning.  Nothing would shut my brain down as it skipped from weird things people said thirty years ago, to what I SHOULD have said to my ex, to how it felt when I got bucked off that horse.  

STOP IT!!  I finally got up and took an Advil PM.  Bad idea because now I'm rummy with even less motivation than before.  This growing old stuff sucks!!!!

There's yet another meeting tonight, but don't tell anyone, I'm calling in sick.  I think a shopping spree would be much more fun!!