What to do, what to do???

What do you do when you can't sleep at night? You probably know the feeling, when you lay in bed and want to sleep so badly because you are so very tired but the sleep will not overtake you? Or the time that you are on pain medication and you feel groggy and dopey but the sleep just will not come to you? 

Do you visualize the ocean and laying on a warm beach with your feet in the hot sand soothing away allyour  troubles while listening to the roaring of the waves? Or maybe you visualize sitting on the porch of a log cabin hearing the gentle calm breezes in the pine trees and the tinkling of Aspen leaves in the forest.  I seem to gravitate toward seasonal visions. l like the the vision of sliding on skis down a fresh powedery white blanket of snow on the mountain cutting into the powder and sometimes making a swish sound as you descend the mountain top into a deep sleep of quiet and peace. I used to love to ski when I was younger.  It is amazing to me that these visualizations can rest the soul and ease the body into deep slumber. 

But...................if your are a quilter this is not what you do!!  NOPE, not this quilter..... I have a quilt to design and the visions above do not work for me.

I  lay in bed and my mind drifts away like drift wood to my quilter's palate of fabric, texture, color, patterns, block pieces and colored  threads.   My thoughts jump from my fabric stash to the fabric pieces auditioning multiple colors using the light and dark fabrics to find their place in the quilt. 

And then I make a decidsion.......... to make these blocks work better inside the quilt, they need coping strips.  This will make the blocks all the same size and give each of the blocks a frame around their pattern.  The fabric needs to be a dark blend for all 12 blocks to wrap around the center medallion.  Two blocks on top and on the bottom of the medallion and 4 blocks on each side with one or more strips in between to fill the space. I will add small print pieces to the green strip to pull it all together to blend with the fabric in the medallion. "Something like this.

I begin to feel the deep cloud of sleep hovering over my head. As I doze away I tell myself that tomorrow I will draw it out on graph paper and then lay it out on the floor to see what it looks like...................right after I go to the quilt shop and buy the dark green fabric I need for the coping strips.

Ahhh......my sleep has arrived and the new quilt has a plan.