Slowly does it

I'm still not feeling the love in my sewing room. There are other things I want to be doing, like sorting and de-cluttering and re-organising the rest of the house. I feel guilty that I'm not making progress on any of the 30 projects I have underway, but it's not making me spring into action.

It took 2 sessions to sew the last 10 Jacob's Ladder blocks. I sewed all the parts into sets of three one night, then made the blocks the next night. I have never made so many mistakes, one after another. The seam ripper was smoking. The blocks have to be sewn in two different layouts, and pressed so that the seams all match. I just couldn't get it right, I couldn't keep it straight in my head. Even when I thought I'd nailed it, I'd go to press it and find a triangle was tipped the wrong way, or I'd sewn a row on upside down. So that might be another reason why I'm not particularly keen to work on this. But they're finished now, and they can spend some time back in the box because I've had enough of them for now.

I want to do a bit more on these blocks next. I have 16 made, and 30 kitted. I even have the sashing cut for them. They will be a whole lot less complicated than the Jacob's Ladder blocks. And it's my favourite colour combination, so I will be a lot more enthusiastic when I sit down to sew.

I think my philosophy for organising/decluttering is, Look in ALL the boxes. Especially the ones that haven't been opened in a decade.

These scraps were in a box with some templates from a Sunburst quilt that I finished in maybe 2002. I've always thought that I'd make more of those blocks, so I kept the scraps and templates together. 

These came from a drawer filled with miscellaneous bits and pieces, I have no idea why I put them in there.

Now they are 2.5" squares for my scrappy project, and I have zero regrets.

This was in another box, that I discovered shoved out of the way on the floor. I started collecting these weird landscape and foliage fabrics when I dreamed of making a Ruth McDowell inspired quilt, 2 decades ago.  I have absolutely no desire to do that any more, so these are going to be stripped up, probably for another Ladder quilt. It's time I introduced reality into my quilting decisions, and re-purpose the bits I've had squirreled away.

My squirrels are not new projects that divert me, they're the bits I've stashed away and never got back to. I've been hoarding these things unquestioned for far too long. Time to say goodbye, clean out and move on. 

First Finish For 2023

The other day I cut the borders for the Scrappy Mountain Majesty top, and applied them. 

It seemed to take forever, my inner teenager was moaning and complaining, Do we HAVE to do this? And the answer was Yes, we do have to, so pipe down.  It must be because I haven't finished anything for a while, but it seemed to take longer than usual. But it's done now, and I even have a backing prepared.

I sewed all the 4-patches for the Jacobs Ladder, and I even made a few blocks, but again, my inner teenager is rolling her eyes and kicking rocks around and telling me how boring it is. I know the answer is to start something new and shiny, but that doesn't solve the UFO crisis in the sewing room. I need room in the project boxes so that I can get the current projects housed, and hopefully have room to start some new ones.

These leftover blocks from my Scrap Chain were going to become a new quilt, until I read the notes attached to the original quilt and saw that I had planned to use them to extend the backing.  Why didn't I remember that? The memory is failing rapidly.

I needed a few more units, so I went hunting through my boxes, and came up with this.

And this.

So that was simple, to put together some more blocks from these ready-to-use components.

I made 9 blocks, and I plan to space them across the back with strips of fabric between, to give me a strip 8" x 80". I have a rough idea of what I'm going to do, but I may need even more blocks; good thing there are plenty more parts available.

I liked this completely scrappy one so much that it's in the ideas file, for when I'm looking for something new to start.

I've done 4 jigsaws in January, and this one was awful. It's old, and the whole thing was so out of focus I had no idea what most of the pieces were. It's going straight to the op-shop, to torment some other unsuspecting person.I should put a warning label on it.