Overdone

My enthusiasm to enter my studio and start sewing did not wane once Competition was over. I've been sewing like a fiend for a week, and various parts of my body are the worse for wear as a result (I overdid it, plain and simply put).

The string project I thought was to be a long-term, add-as-strings-became-available type project, saw itself as something entirely different and forced its way to the head of the queue. Trouble was, I didn't have enough strings in some of the hues to complete the required number of blocks (which I had increased a few weeks back in order to make the top twin-sized).

The first plan was this size, possibly finishing out around 56" x 70":

The revised plan, requiring 15 to 24 more blocks in the various hues, and theoretically ending up at 69" x 90":

I was well and truly stuck between wanting to move forward, and not having the scraps to do so. Most of the fun of a string quilt, for me, is making something out of trimmings that would normally be tossed aside, so I was loathe to cut into legitimate yardage (or FQs) in order to supply 'illegitimate' strings.

However! Lurking about in my 2.5" drawer was a partial jelly roll, adopted out of the Community First! Quilters' donated legacy stash. I'd used some of the lighter strips in a previous project, and wasn't terribly impressed with the width of the cut nor the quality of the fabrics. They frayed, and by the time I'd pulled the strips out of the roll, they were significantly shy of 2.5". For that reason, the rest of the jelly roll loitered in the drawer, overlooked and basically unwanted, until it occurred to me to use the remaining strips in this project. There were plenty to flesh out the dark, medium-dark, and medium-light hued blocks. The game was once again afoot!

So for most of this week I've been sewing diamonds, filling the telephone-paper templates then trimming, trimming, trimming. I haven't yet mentioned it, but last Thursday through Sunday morning I was away from home (Sweet Adelines Region 10's annual competition) and Zoe let me know her opinion of the quantity of attention she's been getting since my arrival home again.

I think it was Thursday morning when I realized my right hand felt slightly sprained as I resumed trimming diamonds. The base of my index finger really hurt when I used the rotary cutter. Why? What was causing such discomfort?

Then I looked, really looked at how I was holding it. For some inexplicable reason, I was resting my index finger along the top of the handle.

My nails aren't infected with The Pox. That's old polish wearing off from Saturday's performance.

In this position, all the downward force was being provided by the muscles in that single finger. I was immediately reminded of Chef Anne Burrell in "Worst Cooks in America", where she'd color with a bright red marker the offending finger of any of her students who dared hold a knife this way.

As soon as I curled all my fingers around the handle, the pain in my hand went away and the larger muscles in my arm were back to doing their job of pushing the cutter down and forward.

And just who, may I ask, attached this old woman's hand to the end of my arm?!?

I'd been thinking this was a recent anomaly, but this morning I found myself 'red-fingering' the handle again! I've no idea how long I've been using this incorrectly, but I'm now deliberately retraining myself every moment I'm at the cutting station.

With the trimming done, I've been sewing diamonds together, carefully fitting the bias edges atop straight edges.

It's fiddly work, but everything is fitting together satisfactorily. It's sometimes too satisfactory and I'll sit and sew far longer than is good for my back, making it impossible to find a comfortable position to sit or stand or lay down until a couple of Tylenols kick in. Still, when you view the results, it's hard to call it quits at the end of the day!

All the dark and medium-light diamonds, playing nicely together before being sewn into their columns.

My favorite plant-based beverage (being vegan-adjacent [The Loud is aggressively Vegan, and he does the cooking], most of my diet is plant-based) underwent an overhaul of its packaging and marketing. I gave a short burst of laughter when I saw this for the first time:

If I've let the same box of cardboardeaux sit on my counter for 6 weeks, I'd've been dead for the last five of those weeks.