Our Summer showed up at last, it was horribly hot yesterday and I just didn't feel like doing anything.  I've been cutting and sewing like a maniac, on three separate projects, and it all ground to a halt. I was hot and cranky and I didn't want to sew at all.  That is so unusual for me, but maybe it had something to do with the two hours I spent outside, watering plants, shifting hoses, moving pots into the shade.  I was overheated, practically had steam coming out of my ears, and the sewing room just looked like a disaster area to me.  I did the only sensible thing and started a jigsaw.

At times during the afternoon I stopped and packed away some of the bits and pieces littering my tables, but I only worked at that until I started feeling cranky again.  By the end of the day I'd cleared all the projects away into boxes, returned the fabric to drawers or containers, and my jigsaw was nearly finished.  I'd say it was a successful day after all.

One project was a nine-patch made out of charm squares.  I pulled apart 5 charm packs and paired each dark fabric with a light. 

It was amazing how all those different collections just went together like they were made for each other; some of them were years apart, yet they still coordinated beautifully. I do have a bit of Cutter's Remorse; my charm collection is mostly gone, and they did bring me a lot of happiness sitting in their little drawer.  They promised so many possibilities, and now they are nine-patches, end of subject. 

However, I will allow myself to buy more in future, because I've proved to myself that I can use them, not just hoard them.

I packed away my cheddar and blue 4-patches, and I wrote a note to put in the box, detailing how many completed parts, and how many kitted blocks, and how many 4-patches I'd already made.  Future Self will find that very helpful, I know.  Even if I go back to them next week, at least I won't have to scratch around trying to remember where I'd got up to.

The other blue blocks got the same treatment; I'm waiting on some setting fabric to arrive before I go on with that one, so it makes sense to get it off the design wall until my parcel gets here. 

It's a cooler day today, quite pleasant, and I'm in a much better mood.  I spent three hours sorting out boxes of leftovers and scraps and oddball pieced bits. 

I have a mountain of plastic containers that I've emptied, and all the contents are neatly filed away in ziplock bags, with labels so that I don't have to guess what they are.  I think my day off was just the thing I needed.