Close to Nowhere

I'm tired of sewing, even quilting. Over the past couple weeks I've made five pair of shorts for Shepard, my 3-yearold great-grandson; I've made three summer dresses for Sissie (Ruby June, my 18month-old great-granddaughter) and two summer dresses for cousin Linnette's granddaughter Elise. Linnette and all her family live near Mobile, Ala. I've never met Elise but she weighs the same as Sissie, so Linnette and I are assuming Sissie and Elise will wear the same size dress.

The Happy Quilters at the Marshall County Extension Service obviously can't meet right now, so my online quilting friends and I have many online "quarantine" projects. I've made a bunch of face masks but nothing compared to some of the quilters on the Pat Sloan quilt site. A couple of groups have made 700-800 masks. (If you're interested in her site, it's, "Pat Sloan, I Love To Make Quilts, a site for passionate quilters." She has tons of projects, many free patterns and around 2,000 passionate quilters on her blog.)

I've mostly finished a "quarantine" quilt; I've finished a block of the month, an April "happy" quilt and I've downloaded patterns for a "chick" table runner; the May block of the month; and the May "happy" quilt.

Oh, and I made myself a summer jacket also, in addition to cutting a sweatshirt up and making a jacket out of that. I've even finished a quilt I started for my youngest brother about 20 years ago.

I always thought that when I retired I would sew to my heart's content and my house would be totally spotless because I'd have all this time on my hands.

Apparently, my house being clean did not depend on me having time to clean it. (Yes, I stole that from Facebook.) Apparently, sewing to my heart's content is also something that's more of a dream than reality. I never thought the words "I'm sick of sewing" would come out of my mouth or brain.

I got up from my sewing machine one night this past weekend and thought I'd go piddle in the kitchen. You know ­ cook something really yummy and fun. It turns out a cheese and tomato sandwich does not constitute cooking, yummy or fun. And tomatoes just aren't going to be good until I get hold of some locally grown, fresh tomatoes. I'm really anticipating the farmer's market on the Holly Springs square.

I've saved a bunch of new recipes for squash and zucchini, and a bunch of tomato salad, etc. recipes. And cucumber sandwiches! And pineapple sandwiches! And cantaloupe, watermelon, peaches, strawberries and eventually even blueberries. OK, now I'm hungry. I would just play solitaire on the computer, but I'm tired of that as well.

What new hobby can I take up? Maybe I could start training cats? That should work well...