Accounting

I've been awash in numbers lately, some tedious, some fun.

The tedious numbers were the 260+ costume items (that's just the clothing) I needed to count (there's still a section in one of the walk-in closets holding black pants that haven't been individually counted and sized) and account for, not only for the final report to Sweet Adelines International as part of our physical assets, but also so we can post the deets on social media in hopes that another chorus (or 501(c)3 organization) will want them. 

These 70 costumes are NOT being included in all that:

because it turns out Time was not kind to the silk tops, ruining the fabric while they languished in members' closets over the past 19 years:

That's fine by me--seventy sets of tops and skirts I needn't worry about counting/sizing/valuing or packing up for shipping. I'm hoping a local organization (Austin Creative Reuse) will look beyond the silk and see potential in all those beads and sequins. Another box on my "Go Around and Visit/Talk to Real People" list that remains unchecked at the moment.

The fun accounting involved fabric (of course it did!)

The Community First! Quilters had their annual retreat this month, to which I committed back in March. I know from experience that I never really feel part of a new (to me) group until I've been on a retreat with the members. Part of my contribution to getting things set up was to gather up all the storage containers of donated fabric collected over the years. They've been split between two locations, and it took me two trips to get them all to my house. This is only some of them (picture taken the day after the retreat):

There are still 6 more "small" containers (as on the shelf) holding blues, B/W/Gray/Oriental, pinks, yellows/oranges, purples, and red/browns.

Because this stash had been split between 2 locations, there had been some creative storing of fabrics. There were two containers of orange/purple, two of blue/pink, and so on. With everything in one place in my dining room, and knowing that going forward we'd only have one location at which to store these, I spent a happy couple of days consolidating and redistributing (there hadn't been a "Solids" container before), as well as purging the stash of fabrics that would be better used as trash/litter bags (a tutorial for which I've agreed to host sometime in the next 12 months).

Then I turned my attention to the big containers, labelled "Backings" and "Large Pieces". Within the containers had been piled mounds of fabrics--a sort of catch-all for pieces too big for the smaller containers. No organization, no information, no incentive to actually look at and use those fabrics. So they became my target for the retreat: pull, measure, label, fold onto cardboard (for vertical storage), and sort all those big pieces. "Backings" meant anything 3 yards and larger. "Large" was anything over a yard but under 3. The only other project I had in mind for the retreat was to cobble together all my batting pieces, and that got old real fast. By the second day I was looking forward to using the space to spread out and measure all that cotton goodness!

Nothing like a candid shot to give one an idea of how many chins one is sporting!

It was so pleasing to not only hear the gratitude of the other members, but to see them "shopping the stash" and getting excited about what they were finding!

So that's where I've been, physically and mentally.

Lately I started feeling overwhelmed and disinterested in anything (okay--depressed in general) and realized I hadn't taken any time to do some sewing/creating. So I've been working on some log cabin blocks. The 50 40 orphan blocks I took home from a CF!Q meeting in February (I would've sworn it was 50, but when it came time to make more I could only find 40) needed 23 more in order to make a Twin-sized top with a 7x9 setting, so that's what I've been nibbling away at.

Ah HA! I'm not losing my mind--I really did only start out with 40 blocks (an excerpt from an exchange with a friend): "A wad of 40 casually-measured/made log cabin blocks came home with me this past weekend...." Here's some of them:

With a 2" (finished, hypothetical) center and 1" (finished, hypothetical) strips, these should measure out to 10.5" raw. It was a challenge to get some of them straightened/trimmed to 10"! One was so wonky there was nothing to do but frog it and resew everything. Even with that, it was close. I was worried I'd have to trim everything down to 9-7/8" in order for all the blocks to have enough fabric for 1/4" seams, but they're flexible and so am I.

Here's where the project hangs today, with the remaining 18 blocks stacked by my machine, ready to be sewn into two more columns. I chose the lightning setting because with it there's so much movement, you can't tell where some outer strips had more trimmed from them than others.

This makes me happy. Log Cabins in general make me happy--I've no idea why this is only the second Log Cabin top I've ever made.