Thursday, March 30, 2023

Working on several projects lately

I've been trying to get projects completely finished, before I start a raft of new ones, but it's not been entirely successful. I spent a few days concentrating on bindings, which saw 2 little quilts finished.



 There are still 4 to bind, and another 2 have the binding attached, I just have to turn it to the back and machine it down. It won't take long, but I keep getting sidetracked.


I somehow started a new project, with these blocks. BlockBase calls them Good Fortune, so I guess I will too.

I love how graphic they are, and they don't use much fabric, so I'm chopping up some of my precious scraps. Pure fun.

Then I got a bee in my bonnet about my untouched batik stash, so I pulled out a heap of them and started cutting for this pattern, I don't know what it's called, but I love how it tessalates.


I'm piecing it in 8" blocks with a partial seam, and they are making me very happy too.

They need to take over the design wall, but I have many other things on it right now, so they'll have to wait until I can make space for them.

The UFO guilt got to me, so I pulled out a project box containing these blocks. 

I think they're called Washington Sidewalk, among other things. I love making this block, first started in 2016, then set aside since early 2020. Time to make some progress.


I have such a bad habit of not adding these tiny little corner triangles.  It seems such a trivial detail to work on, when all I want to do is finish more blocks, so I don't bother. Then I have a mountain of them to deal with. But I was good and did them all in one sitting, chain piecing one after another. I'm trying to be better about that from now on.

And how did our little baby turn 3 last month? He's such a character, very intense, opinionated, loving and impetuous. We call him Cyclone Finn, because he does everything at great speed, and sometimes with attendant destruction. Oh dear.

And, to stop me being maudlin about not having a little baby grandchild anymore, my son and daughter-in-law are expecting a little girl in August. I'm so looking forward to having another little girl in the family, what a blessing our grandchildren are.

Thursday, March 09, 2023

It's not that I haven't been doing anything in the sewing room; it's just that I haven't felt like blogging. I'm very much being in-the-moment, and that sort of precludes taking photos for future blog posts. I'm unapologetic.  My blogging mojo will return, and I'm not going to hurry it. What have I been up to in the sewing room?

I'm going through my boxes and drawers filled with spare parts, extra blocks, trial blocks, failed projects. What sparked this was the completion of the red Jacob's Ladder blocks. I HATED them. I mean, I loathed them and couldn't even bear to look at them. So I sold them on Facebook, along with a few other UFOs that I was never going to finish. The response was amazing, they were snapped up, and I felt good that they were going to new homes. So then I looked at my other bits and pieces to see what else could go.

It's been interesting, going back through decades of leftovers and false starts, and maybe-oneday pieces. My over-riding emotion was, I don't want to make quilts like this in the future. I don't want to make them Now. So the decision for most of it was easy, I've been sorting it into piles, photographing them, and they will go on Facebook too. I don't think I'll miss any of it.

Look at all this blue flotsam and jetsam. I have made an awful lot of blue quilts, and that led to an awful lot of extras and orphans.


2.5"strips. I really dislike 2.5"strips.




A box of2.5"squares. See comment above.


Ugly 3"HSTs.


Random blue 2.5"squares sewn together, plus many HSTs..


Even more of them. Why am I like this?

I took those bits and more, and sewed them into this little top. 

I had to make a few more of the little HSTs, but other than that it was all just sitting in boxes. And now it's not. Yay me. But I'm not quite ready to tackle the other bits that I decided to keep. They can mature in the dark a little longer. I've whittled them down to one underbed box, admittedly crammed full, but it's much better than it was. Once I clear the decks of all the clutter I think I'll do some something fun; I've had enough of sewing stuff just because I should.