A Finish and a Sandwich

This got bound, photo'ed, and tumbled in the drier today, ready for donation to Community First! Village. Diamonds and Pinwheels, finally ready for its new home.

71" x 90"

Slow and Steady

I'm definitely not winning any races with this approach, but things are getting done! 

Two weeks ago in my last post, I showed these columns, the medium lights and the darks sewn together.

Those were moved to a different location as the other half of the columns were created from the light and medium dark strings, filling the design wall once again.

And naturally from there everything got sewn together.

Another Floral Finish

Yippee, skippy!

72" x 91" (I've since cleaned off the smudge that makes that vertical strip look faded and blurry.)

Floral Finish

Another finish!

"Clarissa" pattern from ge*designs

Some Semblance of Self

I'm going to take a page out of Lane's book blog and insert anything political, that I feel I must get off my chest, at the bottom of my entry under a line of asterisks. I am also giving a hugely grateful "Thank you!" to Nann and Caroline for their comments of support and virtual hugs. Those, along with reading some of my favorite bloggers (The Bloggess in particular) and having Real Time conversations with friends (of both persuasions), have helped me work out and through my feelings and get back to a semblance of my normal, bubbly-but-sarcastic self. I'm singing again, ready to perform for The Great Unwashed in our upcoming Holiday gigs.

On a completely surprising note, in the midst of my utter depression I had a dream about making a colorful quilt from a panel of this fabric I have on hand. There was hope yet, and I clung to it!!

A Third Pinning, and a Finish

After a few days my back agreed to coöperate and I got a third top pinned.

By this point I was fast running out of my bendy basting pins and had to scrounge through all the other sizes I've collected over the years. I eked them out and didn't have to resort to the diaper pins (or those equivalent in size) that I also have.

Pinning marathon

Maybe I woke this morning feeling invincible. Maybe I woke especially stupid. I know the two aren't mutually exclusive! But for whatever reason (perhaps because I had the batting already cut for me and I had two backings ready to go), I decided to pin two quilt sandwiches today.

My back is making sure I remember the consequences of that decision so that I never, ever think about doing that again!

The first sandwich was the intentional goal for today--the split-9 floral.

Stalled

The COVID caught me last week and it's taken me until yesterday to feel well enough to be in public again. But my down time wasn't unproductive time. I cleared several hundred emails from my various mailboxes, something I kept putting off for a time I was under the weather and recliner-bound anyway. I also was able, after the first 3 days, to summon the interest and energy to get into my studio and sew a bit.

The first thing I did was take a picture of what was hanging on the design wall, so I could look at it from a distance and make any changes deemed necessary.

Now that's a full design wall!

Vanity

I've been idly wondering what vanity I'll carry with me to the Afterlife, and I think it'll be about my intelligence. It's useful, and plenty, and I'm proud of it.

Always have been.

 

Most of the time.

Letting go

As soon as I trimmed all the 4.5" triangle squares (previous post), I started sewing them to the dark/medium and light 3.5"squares I had cut weeks earlier, with an eye toward making this top.

Mind Games

When we were growing up, my mother would send me in to help my youngest sister clean her messy room because, as she explained it to me, I could always make a game out of it.

She was right, of course, and it's something I continue to this day--making a game of Tedious Tasks.

The latest "TT" has been a result of my decision to quilt each wonky star by itself--all 80 of them. I made up the game of "4 Esses" to get through them without losing interest or momentum, and to keep myself active as well.

For every Star I quilted, I'd get up and move to the cutting table where . . .

Burying the beginning threads before stitching over them.

Hide and Seek

As I grew out of childhood and into my teens, I remember thinking how tedious this game was, especially as The Seeker.

Its allure continues to dim the older I get, logarithmically I'd venture to guess.

As I close out August staying inside and away from the punishing Texas heat, chipping away at several piles in an effort to get them from over- to merely whelming, I find myself seeking things that "just a minute ago" were right there at my fingertips.

Radio Silence

I hadn't meant to stay quiet for so long, but although I've been busy, I haven't had much to point to and exclaim, "TA-DA!"

This morning I put the final quilting stitch into Sugar Skull. I'd decided on diamonds in the white strips, which meant straight-line quilting, which meant my Brother 1500 on the "dinner" table.