2008 Project

I've always wanted to make a quilt based on this, one of my favorite paintings. So tonight I'm going through my voluminous scads of cloth and scraps, trying to find suitable fabrics. This is Masolino da Panicale's idea of the Archangel Gabriel. I wish I could see the real painting, but it's somewhere in Italy and I'm here.
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Sometimes when I'm doing something else, I suddenly get the urgent desire to quilt. Then I usually get out that leaf quilt that's almost finished, and I pull it and tug it, trying to smooth out an unquilted area that I've managed to bunch up, with stitching on both sides. I've even pulled out a lot of stitches, and I still can't get it smoothed down. When I get irritated with it, I fold it up and put it back on the stack, and wait another few months.
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But I think the thing to do is go ahead and quilt my other tops, or make something new, and just go around the snag of the leaf quilt.
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Our book club selection today was The Time Traveler's Wife. Susan remarked that the older a person gets, the more his life is compacted and the faster his time goes. "I know," she said, "that I don't have as much time in a day to do things as I used to have." I heartily agree with that. Sometimes I try scheduling things I want to do, like writing or sewing or sketching, like "do this for two hours without stopping." But before I can get well started, I find I've been at whatever it is for four or five hours and haven't made much progress.
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In the past, I have made several mini-quilts in two days (each), doll quilts in one day; made clothes, including shoes, for a doll in a couple or three evenings after work. Now, some days, I can't even hold a needle; it feels as if my finger have about doubled in size. Besides that, sewing machines have always hated me, and lately they positively try to hurt me, and often succeed.
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Anyway, I'm going to try very hard to make this angel quilt, because I've thought about it for so long.