More Bits and Pieces and Pieces and Pieces

The title refers back to this post, in which I claimed I'd be making three more backs that month. Owa tagoo siam! (It's nearly impossible to find a relevant clip of that Odd Couple episode ["The Exorcists"], but I really wanted to link it here!)

I did manage to make two more backs this week, but that was after getting a head start on this:

Nann had commented, "The black/white top might benefit from some improv cutting and bright inserts." Which tickled me, because it had been included with lots of this in the orphaned bag:

So many random slashes and bright inserts! None of which spoke to me in the slightest. Not in the least little bit.

Queue

We've all been there: a room with a hint of a suggestion of a loose idea of a line. Nobody's officially in charge, but every person in that room knows exactly their position in the invisible queue. Newcomers are eyeballed suspiciously--will they try to jump ahead? Fat chance of that happening; a gentle correction ("I believe she was here before you") generally keeps things well in (invisible) line. The only time I've heard any kind of disagreement in these situations is when one person suggests, "You were here before me?" and the other replies, "No, no--you go first."

This phenomenon isn't restricted to mere mortals, by the way. As various projects were coming out of Leader-Ender status and into Full-on-Project mode . . .

All the triangle squares for the Lady of the Lake centers, sewn into 3- and 5-square strips.

I finished a Thing

The Star of Bethlehem got finished in short order. After discovering (and removing some of) the existing quilting, I did a simple 8-point star design (with white thread) in the four corner squares . . .

Not very easy to see, but all the other non-flash shots that showed the quilting were too blurry to keep.

. . . some point-to-point lines in the triangles . . .

Oh Christmas POUT, Oh Christmas POUT...

The chorus had its tech rehearsal last night (for our December 2nd show) and we're sorted for all the Christmas gigs in the next 3 to 4 weeks, so I feel as though I'm on the countdown toward finishing the holiday season. As a result, I was quite relaxed during my day "off" today. That's the funny reality about performers/performing: by the 2nd week in December, we're done! It takes two more weeks for the rest of the world to catch up with the fact that Christmas is "over".

After accomplishing the two tasks I had promised myself I'd do (clean the litter boxes, catch up on Mom's finances/bills), for my reward I spent most of the afternoon planning Mom's December banner. It didn't take long to go from an idea of four 4" blocks and a series of 2" blocks as borders, to the idea of three 5" blocks with snowflake fabric (for the first day of Winter) separating and bordering them.

Fabric pull:

Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah

More movement

A Magpie friend popped in last week and took the boxes of her cousin's fabric (and a box residing in my bedroom containing a sewing machine, its extension table, and a few finished projects) that have been underfoot for several months. The fabric-filled boxes (one held blocks {accounted for here and here}, two were stuffed with chili and Dio de los Muertos fabrics) had a short residence under the ironing board.

The boxes left my house approximately 15 yards and one project (Lady of the Lake) lighter. Carla will insist on sharing!

POUTs and MEQs, part 2

Once the nearly-emptied top POUT (Projects On Unlimited Time-out) drawer was returned, the second/middle drawer caught my eye and I had to take a peek there too.

The bottom drawer holds trash bag fabrics and plastic sheeting.

First things out of the gate were piles and piles of fruit and vegetable fabrics ...

... and an apparent plan for all these.

I definitely put a lot of planning into this MEQ (Mind's Eye Quilt) and was enthused enough to plan for several sizes. I vaguely remember thinking of calling it "Kitchen Sink".

POUTs and MEQs

With an empty mid-arm and a very full flimsy storage system, I found myself staring at this the other day and wondering which one to move forward.

One of the post-its had '82" x something' on it (QI Zoe's got me pinned to the recliner, so I can't leap up and refresh my memory of the second measurement), so I figured that would be a good candidate if I could find a few yards of 42"-43" wide fabric in my backing drawer.

POUT drawer, the last reveal

There was one more project to be uncovered in the POUT drawer:

This was in the process of being hand-stitched together, and I distinctly remember working on it in an airplane.

The big picture:

Ignarcrescence

That's right, I made that up. I was searching for a word that describes the ability of something to grow while being completely ignored and untouched. I mentally pronounce it as IG-nar-CRESC-ence, but I suppose ig-NAR-crescence would work too.

Anyone familiar with this phenomenon can probably surmise, correctly, that I just opened up a "Projects On Unlimited Timeout" container (ha! just made up a new quilting acronym, too!) My design wall was empty, you see, and I thought I'd pull out the oldest UFO I could remember lurking about and take an accounting:

This was #4 on my MEQ Hit List, the "I Spy" quilt.