I can go in, I can go out. I can go in, I can go out.

For those of you not well-versed in the TV show M*A*S*H, that's a line from Larry Linville's character Frank as he taunts Alan Alda's character Hawkeye, who's under "house" arrest in their tent. It was a show I watched almost nightly with my parents as I spent the last 16 months flying in and out of Oregon (2 months in, one month out/home). As of this month, I'm finally out of there and back in my home for good. (The parents have been settled in Assisted Living and their house sold. Mission accomplished.)

One would think (this one, anyway) that having been uprooted from well-established routines and carefully-planned projects, once back home I'd want to jump right back in where I left everything. That has not proven to be the case. Instead, I was at loose ends for nearly two weeks, unable to dredge up interest in nor settle down enough to work on anything.

I hated the feeling of wasting all this perfectly good time (and, at the moment, weather) and took some serious stock of what was keeping me from feeling all the way home. The feeling of being overwhelmed by stuff (a throwback to everything I'd been dealing with in Oregon, surely) and the need to get rid of anything superfluous was the greatest anchor wrapped around my psyche. After days of letting things simmer on my mental back burner, I finally decided that I don't want any long-term projects hanging over my head when I hit 70. 

There: a goal. A definable end point.

Towards that goal, the first small step was to finish my mom's quilt for my brother and his wife. Here is where it was left back in October, when I was last home:

I spent October (my last 'vacation month') camped out in our guest room, basting all the flowers and leaves onto the border, and binge-listening "America's Next Top Model" (and some of Australia's). I even got started in on the applique, sans hoop. The hoop was used solely for the basting portion of this project to secure everything so I wouldn't have anything in the way during the applique part.

For the past week or so, I've been binging "Grace and Frankie" while I continue to applique through the day. I'd started that show years ago, then fell off, and this has been a great way to start over again and catch my memory up on the story line.

Today I put in the last applique stitch, cobbled together a frankenbatt of 3 large batting pieces, and threw that batt into the washer (just to soak and spin) and dryer (to shrink). This top will definitely need to be carefully washed after it's quilted, but it must be quilted first to stabilize all the barely-there seams. It's not going to be actually used--it'll be a wall-hanging without any doubt--but I didn't want that crinkly, cozy puffiness you get after you first wash and dry a quilt.

One of the many fabric-related items to come home with me was a large white tablecloth with a B embroidered in the center (it's relevant). I'm hoping that'll be the perfect thing to use as a backing to this top. That'll be tomorrow's to-do item, after we get the clowder to the vet's.

Glad to be back in the blogosphere!