Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Two more blocks have been sewn, and I'm auditioning fabric for the alternate setting squares. I know I want it to be a black print, but I want just the right black, which will involve a bit of a search through all the storage containers. I can handle that.

I'm making the HSTs (Half Square Trinagles) needed for the blocks in sets of 16 (with this template of mine) and I only need 12 for each block. That leaves four left over, and I'm sewing them into these Broken Dishes units, as leaders and enders. They will be the starter for another quilt, and seeing that they finish up at 4" blocks it will take a while to collect enough for a whole quilt. Actually these are the sort of blocks that end up taking over, so I will end up cutting more fabric just for them, and the original blocks will languish. I've been there before. But I may also be sensible and make a miniature quilt, cause they are really cute all on their own.

And while other Mavericks are swapping pictures of favourite sewing spots, and entry ways, I thought I'd post these pictures of Mereth's sunroom. It's a lovely room, wonderful to sit and sew and knit around the combustion heater, or put in a few stitches on the latest quilt. That polished wooden floor does look nice when it's just been washed, and there's not a mark on it!

My own house is so disorganised at the moment that I wouldnt dare post any pictures; when I get all the boxes and extra furniture into storage I will show you what it looks like.

Eileen in the comments asked about my studio.

Alas, we sold the cottage last year, because it was the sensible thing to do, given the skyrocketing prices here at the moment. We were going to immediately buy a block of land and build a workshop for me, but that proved way more complicated. All the land in town is covered by covenants, which limit what can be built. The block we loved had 24 pages of restrictions, right down to the colour of the letterbox. A shed or detached building for my workshop was out of the question, so we made rude gestures at the whole thing and went away. I could have the house and workshop of my dreams if we lived 15 minutes out of town, but Don doesn't want to move out there. So we are at a standstill on that front, and I'm crammed into all the available space in our home. I do have an office/sewing room downstairs, but it is being remodelled in aid of the Great House Sale, so I can't work in it right now. (Sob...)

But I am learning some lessons, about patience and what I truly want to possess, and how I need to organise my business and home life. I keep everything, which drives Don mad. I never even delete files, just squirrel them away on a corner of the hard drive. I'm convinced that if I ever get rid of something I will immediately need it, and it's happened so many times in the past that I feel justified. But I need to learn to burn the CD of files as a backup, two if necessary to make me feel comfortable, and then Get Rid Of The Stuff!! Throw out the unnecesary paperwork, get rid of the useless scraps of fabric, ditch the old clothes and odd socks.

In our last cleanup I found 17 odd socks in Don's drawer. 17!! My theory is that one sock in every pair is made of soluble fibre, and it just disappears in the wash. When DD Seonaid was three she carefully packed one of every pair of her socks into a play handbag, took it with her when we went shopping, and left it somewhere. So I had to go out and buy her a whole new collection of socks. After that I bought their socks in multiples, all the same, so that they could still wear them even though the number of pairs gradually dwindled down to one or less.

It has been so hot here already, I could have put the AC on yesterday but I wouldn't, just on principle. It is still Winter, dangnabbit! I refuse to acknowledge the 31 degree temperature. I will knit on regardless! Oddly enough the handknitted socks have proved remarkably easy to keep track of; not one has escaped yet......

10 comments:

Trisha 12:47 PM  

Your blocks look great! I'm working on some for a swap right now and need to make many, many more in order to even be close to done. I'm going to set them on point...my first try at it.

Trisha 12:49 PM  

BTW I didn't notice till just now that you're an identical twin. My oldest daughter has identical twin boys 3 years old. What a hoot they are!

Hedgehog 3:01 PM  

What is the name of that first block? I really like them set with black!

mereth 3:07 PM  

I'm glad you're able to sew now, even if it isn't under optimal conditions. Your blue socks look gorgeous, very nice pattern there.

Boy, doesn't that sound like Seonaid!Bless her heart, she was never a boring child, was she?

quiltpixie 10:23 PM  

life without the cottage for sewing sounds hard. Could you buy a very small spot 15 minutes out of town for your studio, continue to live in town, but have a short commute?? Doesn't really sound workable either... Difficult spot to be in.

The Calico Cat 10:58 PM  

pretty blue sock...

How do you pronounce your daughter's name? (I can think of about 3 possibilities...)

Eileen 11:28 PM  

I'm sorry about the cottage. I loved going and looking at your pictures.
I laughed out loud at the idea of your little one leaving socks all over town. What must the finders of all those odd socks thought? Maybe she was leaving a trail like Hansel and Gretel.

Quilts And Pieces 4:15 AM  

Love your blocks! And they look wonderful with that black print, but it sounds like that isn't the one you've chosen yet. But I like it!

Your blue sock looks so pretty also! Very fun!

tami 11:08 AM  

So sorry to hear about your cottage. Sometimes it's really hard to be "sensible".

Anonymous,  1:58 PM  

Mereth's sunroom does indeed look warm and inviting! The sock is gorgeous and poohbah to summer weather already too! It's 27 here on the Sunshine Coast so I think it will be a real stinker of a summer this year :-(

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