Tuesday, November 30, 2021
Scrap Chain Progress
Monday, November 29, 2021
A big shuffle
All this was actually on the table when it collapsed, so I sorted it out into strip sizes.
Saturday, November 20, 2021
Surprise
I did quite a bit of cutting last night, kitting up another 8 Jacob's Ladder blocks and cutting pieces for the Boxy Bowties. I was planning what I would cut next when.....the leg of the table fell off. I hadn't planned on that!
To be fair, this laminex table is older than I am, and has been wonky for quite some time, but I didn't expect it just give up like that. Luckily there's a cabinet underneath that stopped it falling over, but sheesh, talk about a surprise. If I were the least bit sensible I would go buy a modern table, but this table is part of our family.
It sat on our enclosed back verandah, and was the designated spot for anything messy. We rolled out plasticene on it when we were little, spread paper and crayons all over it, did jigsaws every summer, cut out dresses and sewed them in our teens. In fact, this is the table that our vintage hand crank sewing machines sat on when we were about 10, as we learned how to use them without sewing through our fingers. So it has to stay.
Today I'll have to deconstruct the sewing room and clear enough floor space so I can turn the table on it's back and screw the leg back on. I think that is going to take most of the day. I know I said the weekend was going to be messy, but I didn't mean this. Good thing I sewed for hours last night on the Scrap Chain; I saw the cutting table mishap as the universe telling me to buckle down and do some work on it.
It's a big job, but I've only got 24 little blocks left to sew into sets of 4, and about half of what's on the design wall is joined into bigger sections. I can't guarantee that I'll get it all done today, but it's well on the way to being in one piece. Then I'll have to choose borders, and I don't have the slightest idea about that. Yet.
Friday, November 19, 2021
Scatterday
I am all over the shop with my projects. I just can't settle down and sew one thing for more than half an hour. I think maybe I have anxiety about the sheer number of things I have going; I'm trying to make progress on all of them at once so that I feel better. And it's not working!! I'm being made more anxious by all the piles on the cutting table. Sigh...
I needed to make a few of the Jacob's Ladder blocks to get the cutting and pressing locked in.
Done.
I needed a leader-ender while doing that.
The 2&4 was handy.
Then I saw all the Boxy Bowtie pieces and thought I should just throw together a few more blocks so that project didn't completely stagnate.
Up to 9 blocks so far.
Wasn't I working on the Scrap Chain blocks too?
A few more added to the tally.
Now I need to cut more pieces for all these, except the Scrap Chain, and somehow keep track of all the cut pieces and the scrap leftovers, and the bits for the string pile. It's going to be a messy weekend.
Tuesday, November 16, 2021
I am being inundated with red and white scraps. What I don't use in the 2 & 4 top are going to be cut into 9" Jacob's Ladder blocks. I don't often make 2 colour quilts, but I need to get these red bits under control. I'm going to go from shirtings to dark butterscotch with the light pieces, to give it a bit of movement, and I hope that will help clean more scraps out of the neutral scrap drawer. Once I have that whittled down, I think I'm going to choose a heap of neutral FQs from the drawers and run them through the AccuquiIt using the 2" strip die. It will be lovely to have a whole drawer of fresh neutral strips waiting to be used.
Sunday, November 14, 2021
A long overdue finish
I pulled out this project for some light-hearted sewing. It's time to move it on from just a pile of blocks and bits.
Saturday, November 13, 2021
Leader-Ender pieces
The coloured pieces so far have some from scraps and charm squares, and I wanted the light fabrics to come from scraps too. I pulled a heap of bits out of the scrap drawer and cut them into squares and rectangles. All the time I was doing it I had to fight the thought that these were 'good' scraps and I should save them for something else. Honestly, that's crazy talk, when I have 10 times this left in the scrap drawer, and 10 drawers of FQs and yardage. I need to learn how to let go.