NQR - Disappointment and Depression

I must admit that I am a recovering (?) depressed person, on daily meds to keep it under control (Pristiq and Abilify).  Still, sometimes it's hard not to let events creep in lay the seeds for disappointment which leads to depression.

Tonight, friends and I had tickets to see Jersey Boys at the local Cultural Arts Center, performed by a national touring company.  We've had these tickets for months, waiting for tonight's event.  I declined an invitation to an Oscar Party that we attend annually to go see this show.

We went out for dinner before the show, enjoyed chat and good company while we ate... then headed to the theater.  We arrived at 6:45, plenty of time to get seated for a 7pm show.   We parked, and went in, entered the theater at 6:50 to find the place dark, and the show already in progress.  When we went out to the lobby and asked the usher, we were told the show started at 6:30. 

Furious, I went to the box office to get my money back, only to be told they couldn't refund the money because the misprint on the ticketmaster tickets wasn't their fault.  They said they had made good faith efforts to contact all the season ticket holders by phone and email, but the lady who got our tickets (who IS a season ticket holder) never heard a word about it.  We were given a business card of a lady who is in charge of the box office and told to call her on Tuesday (apparently she doesn't work on Mondays).  I was livid... they should have made good on the price of the ticket immediately, imo. 

I had a good cry over the whole thing on the way home (I tend to cry when I get angry).  Of course, now that I'm home and calm, the anger has turned to disappointment and the disappointment to depression.  I hope I can generate some anger again by the time I call this woman on Tuesday.  I will need the edge so I don't cry.

Anyway... I just needed to vent a little, so excuse the rant...

At least they gave us corrected tickets for the next play in the series (those were also mis-printed) while we were at the box office.  So we won't be late for Ragtime next month (which I've seen on stage before, so if I'd missed it, I would have been a little disappointed, but not so much as I am about Jersey Boys, which I've never seen, but love the music from it). 

Finishing things

I made a goal to finish up a few tops this month (February) because most of next month  (March) I'll be en route to/from or in Hawaii.  I am going on a quilting cruise, so I'll be sewing my way across the Pacific both ways, but I'll be working on 'class' projects, not my own UFOs. 

That said, I worked pretty hard on my goal and finished up 4 tops this month.   One is quilted, the other 3 are on the wait list for quilting.

I finished making the top to the second Thimblecreek mystery (they call it a Halloween mystery, but only a few fabrics are really Halloween-ish).  I changed the sashing they designed for it (it was supposed to be a pieced checkerboard sashing, but I didn't like how busy it was, so I redesigned it).

I really like the candy corn border treatment and the little 6" blocks were fun to make.

The Hoffman Color Palette quilt is finished, quilted and bound and I just love it.  Can't wait to find a place to hang it.  I love how it segues from warm to cool (left to right) and light to dark (top and bottom). 

The Animals quilt is finally finished as well... The borders were not as much work as I thought they'd be, and I love how it looks, so it's all good.  I have no idea how to quilt it though.  Traditional quilting like feathering or crosshatching doesn't sound right, and modern type quilting (lots of parallel lines) wouldn't suit it either, so I'm dithering.

I finally finished up that Saturday Sampler from last year too, the red and white one.  It too needs to be quilted of course, and I think an overall pattern for this one will be fine... I will probably end up donating this one eventually, but it was still fun to make.

I will be making 2 quilts on the cruise (one on the way to Hawaii, one on the way back), and there will be free sew time as well, so I'll be working on one of my (piecing only) BOMs.  I will be leaving all the applique BOMs at home, as I do all applique by machine, and we won't have irons available on the cruise (apparently the cruise line only allows them in the laundry rooms and they are a long way from the sewing rooms). 

Needless to say, I should be coming home from the cruise with two quilts that just need borders to finish up, some blocks for the BOM I'll be working on, and hopefully some good memories and new friends.

Projects New and Old

Today was a good day.  I set out to make blocks for a sampler quilt.  I had planned to make two and got four done!  The sampler is set on point and has 13 blocks... I didn't realize that and set my sights on two blocks - December and January (for a Saturday Sampler that started in February 2015).  I thought that would finish out the year, but when I got to the end of the book of patterns, there was one more waiting for me - February 2016!  I got that block done and then made the decision to make 5 more blocks so my quilt won't be square.  I got one of the five done, giving me a total of four for the day.  I've got four more to make now to finish off the blocks for the quilt, then I'll have to figure out how to set them all on point with sashing and such.  The pattern for the setting is a separate purchase from the shop, so I may just try to figure it out myself. 

I made the decision not to do any more Saturday Samplers this year.  The two local shops that are offering them are doing quilts I just don't like very much, using fabrics I don't like either.. (both are using florals, which are WAAAAY outside my comfort zone.  I know it's a good thing to stretch and actually do things outside that zone, but I just don't like florals.  I like flowers well enough, just not on my fabric.  Then again there's the quilts themselves - just didn't like the blocks that much either. 

So instead I'm doing a bunch of block of the months this year - three so far, but I've still got some to finish up from last year, so they are all overlapping.   The ones I am doing for 2016 are:

      Tuxedo Tales
      Susie's World
      Fancy Forest

I am still finishing up Purrfectly Pieced, Bertie's Autumn, the Animals quilt, Nifty Nine-Patch Saturday Sampler from last year.  Not to mention the other quilts I've made that need quilting - SO many of those piled up!  I counted them all and there are 31 (that I found!).  There might be a few more that got missed.  And I've got some I haven't started yet too - unopened kits and such.

I'm sure I'll add more projects as the year progresses, too!  I always find new things I simply 'must' do.  I really need to learn to edit my urges to start new things!