A couple of years ago, I decided to make quilts for my nieces & nephews when they graduate high school. The first quilt was made from jeans that I collected from family members. I even had a pair of jeans from my late husband. The quilt was for my niece Michelle who remembers her Uncle Karl and his crazy stories (she only met him once and was 5 yrs old).

The Quilt from Hell is for Ryan, Michelle's brother. He graduated last June. Yep, I'm a tad late... I saw the quilt in a catalog and my first thought when I saw it was Ryan. It too is made from jeans from family members, left over from Michelle's quilt. So since I only have a photo to work from, and the quilt in the photo is folded over so it is difficult to work from just the picture. I do not have any pattern, no assembly instruction and no fabric requirements. As I have been working on it I have come to realize that this quilt is for "expert" quilters.... not for someone like me who has only made 3 quilts total (2 were baby quilts).This is why I refer to it as The Quilt from Hell.

I often will try to fly before I learn to crawl. People often ask me how do I do all this stuff without really knowing how. I simply tell them, I just do it. Yes, there are mistakes, yes, I often have to redo things, but I always end up with a beautiful finished product. Not all seams match up perfectly, some squares have some bulges, so just don't look so closely! ;-) Over all, I think this pattern is rather stunning. I am also keeping a log, just in case I want to make another.

Wake up, nap. Have tea, nap. Make breakfast, nap. Brush teeth, nap. Turn on the TV, nap. Change the channel, nap. Have lunch, long nap. Take a nap, then nap...... and so on....

I can't help but think of that saying, "If there is reincarnation, I want to come back as my dog/cat". Seems I have, sort of.

Having the flu isn't so bad, it just the extreme exhaustion that anything I do causes. I have the week off from work but haven't once thought of all the things I need to do with this sudden extra time. I haven't even touched my embroidery. Wow! I *must* be sick!!

You'd think that being a member of Danse Macabre for a lotta years and Guild Master of DM for 4 years, that I'd know.... but I always thought there were only 2 kinds of death, the good kind (in your sleep) or the bad kind (not dying in your sleep).

There's an Upper Death???!! That would imply that there is, somewhere, a Lower Death! One may extrapolate and then all the that there are possibly a Left or West Death and a Right/East Death.... and all the compass points.... and all the planes of the dimensions in the Space/Time Continuum....

Who knew?


PS. its near Escalante, Utah..... just in case you wanted to avoid it...

srsly
We were changing drivers and as I was coming around the jeep, I looked down and saw it...

The drive was rather boring.... We saw 2 parachuters land on a target as we passed the Mojave Desert. I hate going thru Lost Wages. It looks like an over used whore in the daylight. Then we got to Virgin River Gorge.... ( nearby town called Beaver Dam) and the trip got better and more scenic.

It got cold as we neared Cedar City, we almost reached 10,000 feet in elevation. We saw some snow, some cattle, some horses & some llamas.

Finally we got to Scenic Byway 12!! It took us through Dixie National Forest, Red Canyon, past Butch Cassedy's Hideout.... I've been down this highway before and it really is worth the side trip and extra time. It is a very beautiful route.

Good night from Escalante, Utah!

Wednesday I'm leaving for Moab, Utah!! The Mo'jave & I will be joining a Jeep Jambouree and doing some serious 4x4 off roading in the Moab area. Moab was where I did my first 4x4 trip. There'll be some incredible scenery, awesome/scary challenges, and friendly people!

To get there I plan on taking Scenic Byway 12 with a side trip down Hell's Backbone Road. The Mo'jave has never been there, too bad we can't spend more time. There are TONS of things to see and millions of back road miles I'd like to see.

The Mo'jave tells me he wants to try his hand at driving off road. OK, he can learn on the same trail I learned on, Chicken Corners. It only has one place where you actually have to do some rock climbing, but it is called Chicken Corners because there is a section of the trail hugs a cliff wall around a bend. In the driver's seat it looks too narrow to drive through. But when you get to the other side, get out and look back, you see there is plenty of room. And then you look in the opposite direction, across the gorge, and you can see the cliff where Thelma & Louise drove over/off.