It's a weird juxtaposition when your brain tells you the Christmas projects--and therefore Christmas itself--are done, yet Hallowe'en hasn't yet arrived!
In my last post I'd listed the projects I'd hoped to get finished and donated at the final (for this calendar year) meeting of Community First! Quilters in October:
Bunny didn't make it (he's still 'living' with me, with hopes of more relatives in the next 12 months) but everything else did!
I did it! I made garlands as planned!! When I finally sandwiched, quilted, and trimmed all the strips and scraps, I had 367 strips (7.25"x1.5") to make into chains.
So, back to the Arkansas Cross Road blocks and project.
From this layout of all the pieces . . .
Another project took "cuts" in line and demanded my attention before I could get back to the Arkansas Cross Road borders. I've been reading the blog of hand quilter Gretchen, and while that will never be my sandbox, I really appreciate the beautiful work she does. The more I'd read, however, the more I wanted to get back to quilting the vintage top I'd been working on while visiting my mother (waiting for her to wake from her naps). I was hand quilting using a large but portable hoop, but had discovered another fabric that had shattered. I'd auditioned some fabrics and thought I had a plan for replacing at least one of the squares.
I'd mentioned an interesting brown fabric I found at clearance price at the Wisconsin quilt show, but had forgotten to post a picture of it then. Since it was hanging around waiting for the next load of laundry to accumulate (I hate to run the machine just to spin out rinsed fabrics), I took a photo.
Huh.
I'm back in my studio! I realized a few days ago that I had been suck[er]ed into (by a friend's overwhelming enthusiasm) a project that was Too Soon and Too Much, so I asked that we pump the brakes on that until after the holidays. There was no need to dive headlong into things right this minute--which we were doing--and everyone else agreed. Big load off my mind, and lots of time freed up as a result.
My pile o' squares, after their Big Adventure in Wisconsin, weren't content to going back to Leader-Ender status when we got home.
I've been back from my 5-day trip to Wisconsin/Illinois for nearly a week, and haven't sewn a single stitch since getting home! The main reason for that appalling lack of stitchery is that 18 hours after touching down, I was attending a rehearsal of a women's singing group (Women of Heartsong) and have made that my new singing home. There's been a glut of music to reformat and learn. Thursday I finally had enough of a handle on things that I could look at everything I brought home with me, pull out my camera, and start taking photos not only of some batik panels from Nann's stash that I promised to list for her on ebay . . .
. . . but 23 other pieces from the CF!Q stash I'd been setting aside over the last several weeks, also for ebay. Yesterday I stared at all those pieces again, comparing real-life colors to what my camera captured and tweaking as necessary (I could barely see straight after 9 hours of that). Today I'm determined to get the CF!Q listing finished, then do some sewing!
