The Quilting Violinist: First Day of School


We started rehearsing this program today

You would think that after 23 years with the same orchestra the first rehearsal of the season would be a non-event. But Performance Anxiety stays with you for a lifetime! And really, I'm so much of a calmer person than a lot of my colleagues. However, somehow it always feels like the first day of school. And it felt like I played A LOT OF NOTES.

Whew.

Audience members sometimes think that we rehearse programs for weeks or even months before we perform them. But orchestras are revenue-driven machines, and there's no revenue generated during rehearsal. And we've all been playing our instruments for so long that things pull together very quickly once we get into rehearsal. (Plus, we get the music in advance, so we show up for the first rehearsal well prepared). So this program got rehearsed today, we will rehearse again tomorrow and that's it! Performances will be Thursday-Sunday.

I did finish a quilt on Monday. I named it "Kyoto Kimono"

The pattern is "Livy-Lou" by Valori Wells. This is the 3rd quilt I've made from that pattern, I just absolutely love it. The quilt measures 71 x 48 but has only 12 pieces to cut. I had been wanting to try this pattern with a really large scale floral of some kind. I think this red and white chrysanthemum fabric ("Lady Yang" by Benartex) rose to the challenge nicely!

I have to admit that some of the larger pieces are a challenge to cut. It makes my brain hurt to have to cut pieces of fabric that are larger than my cutting mat, what with having to fold the fabric in half and making sure everything gets cut correctly. However, I'm really pleased with how it turned out. And I will probably make this quilt pattern again. It's just too much fun.