Renewing Interest

I haven’t posted in many months – in fact, it’s probably been a couple of years.  I’ve been meaning to; really I have.  A new job with more responsibilities kind of took away some freedoms and so I find I have less time to devote to the things I love. Now, though, time is a bit of a fog with the whole world being turned upside down.  Who knows what to think of all of this; I certainly have mixed reactions – melancholy in that I really can’t do much to change anything, anger and frustration because reasonableness seems to have gone out the window, and the calm that comes with now having to work from home.  Human interaction is virtually at a standstill, and who knows how long it all will last.

What it has given me, though, is some time.  Time to think and time to sew – or escape.  There’s just only so much Netflix one can watch, and only so much news one should watch. So, I find, it’s time to start getting back to things that matter and back to things that do make sense.

I figured it’d be fun to show several projects I’m working on.  Are they UFOs?  Well, not really. They're simply work in progress at various stages.  I don’t know about you, but when I get stuck on something that I’m not sure what I want to do with it, I set it aside for a while.  I figure if I let my mind rest from it, at some point I’ll get an epiphany and the light bulb will shine. Once that happens, then I’m off and running on that project again. 

We’re quilters.  We have more than good intentions, yet we can get sidelined and get stuck in the “I’m trying to make this my best quilt ever” mode.  I did that with one of my quilts – sandwiched the darned thing incorrectly, started quilting it, and got too far along to rip it all out once I figured out I sandwiched it wrong. So, instead of just dealing with it and moving on, it has been sitting, on my quilting table, for almost a year now.  I get lost in the “perfect” world, get mad, then don’t finish something.  I look at it every day – because it’s near my workout area, so I see it nearly every day.  It’s too pretty to just give up on.  It’s too much work already invested to be angry at it and want to toss it aside.  That’s not what quilting should be – it should be an expression and it should be enjoyable – not something that makes you mad and frustrated.  So, I finally decided to just get on with it – resign that it’s not “perfect”.  No, it won’t win awards, but every quilt doesn’t need to, nor should it.  Every quilt needs to be enjoyed.  It needs to be loved and cherished because a lot of work goes into these beauties.  They are phenomenal works that folks produce, and they should be enjoyed. 

So, here’s some of what I’m working on these days…

A “wheel of mystery” quilt that I’m hand-piecing.  I have almost 100 pieced made; think I need 120 and then I can start to set it together. This has been my nemesis quilt pattern….I’ve tried to piece this for years, never being successful. Then, this year, for some reason (really, 2019) I figured out how to piece the pattern, and now, I’m close to having the pieces ready to set together.  Wow!  I always thought to myself, “self, if you can piece this quilt, you truly are a good quilter”.  Achievements; those are always nice things.

95 pieces and counting...we'll get there...it just takes time...which most of us have now that we're at home more...

Here’s my Circle Play pieces that I’m working on from a Jen Kingwell pattern.  What I love about this is nothing – and I mean literally nothing – has to match.  You don’t have to fuss about what works together and what doesn’t – but, magically, it all works.  Only 4 more pieces to go and I’ll be ready to set this together.

The Jen Kingwell pattern I'm working on.  Nothing HAS to match, which makes this fun.  Circles, though, are challenging...but hand-piecing works best for me in these situations...

And, here’s a quilt I’ve intended to make for  a friend and his wife who both retired about 2 years ago.  Yep, I’m a bit slow.  But, the front will be this happy farm-like pattern and the back will have Dodge cars and Dodge fabric on the back – you see, my friend is a Dodge car fan.  So, the front is for his wife, the back is for him.  Fun, huh?

And then, here’s the applique quilt that almost didn’t get quilted.  It’s in progress and at least I’ve decided it makes more sense to quilt it and enjoy it rather than toss it aside.  I’ve got hours – I don’t know how many hours – of needle-turned applique work on this quilt…the first, and probably only all-applique quilt I’ll ever do.  So, it needs its place in the sun, and finishing it only seems fitting.

Two blocks and part of the border is quilted.  I'm making headway, but it's slow because the quilting is dense.  But, like most things, in time, it'll get finished.  I have to get it quilted so I can get it off the table and get others on...

This world isn’t perfect.  Nothing is.  But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t enjoy it for what it is.  And, every quilt doesn’t need to be a “winner” in some show.  Every quilt needs to be a “winner” in the eyes of the owner.  As you look at your stash, find those “misfit toys” that still want and need to be loved.  Sure, they’re not perfect, but they’re perfect in their imperfection.  Remember what’s important, and get to enjoying things from the base level. 

Life is going to be okay.

Breathe.

Deadlines...deadlines...

Stardate 2016.344.1

Wow, have things been nuts lately.  Work has been insane, my hockey team is dead last in the NHL, the cold weather has really set in, a lot of my work colleagues are retiring, and between the election, Thanksgiving, and figuring out how Christmas is going to go, I haven’t  had a lot of time to post to the blog. I have been trying to get quilting time in; sadly, there just hasn’t been enough of it.  I’m hoping that’ll soon change – that things will slow down and I can refocus. 

Until then, here is what I’ve been working on.   

With some of the quilting started, I just might make my deadline...

I picked up a chunk of a quilt I had been working on (very off and on) for some time and thought I could try to run the race to the finish line and see if I could get a small quilt made for a friend who is retiring at the end of December.  Sheesh – back in November, it seemed like a good idea.  Forget that it’s a Double Wedding Ring pattern, which, for me, means sewing by hand, which translates into “slow-going”.  But, I figured out I was limited by fabric as I’d started this quilt with just fabrics I had from years ago, so there’s no getting more; once I run out, I run out.  I did run out of one fabric, and did manage to get enough rings pieced to at least make a square quilt.  I’d seen on another blog one gal set a Grandmother’s Flower Garden – with its uneven edges – on a border, so the edges would be square instead of hexagon-shaped, and I decided I could do a similar treatment with this quilt.  So, I was able to “extend” the quilt size by adding the border, then appliqueing the Double Wedding Ring quilt to the border.  I like how it came out and now am in the phase of quilting it.  Somehow, in my grand brain, I’m going to get this done before the end of the year (I won’t look at the calendar as it can be defeating at this point….). 

So, here’s some of the quilting – my brain is trying to figure out how to minimize starts and stops, since they do eat up time, but still have the quilt look good quilted.  I’m still working on that…

 

Quilting in the center is easy, but time consuming with a stop and start each time.  Those pesky melon shapes will require some thought to have continuous quilt lines...

On other notes, I’ve made some, albeit little progress, on my scrappy stars…the dark grey background won out the color wars.  

And the offset log cabin quilt is waiting for its day in the spotlight as well.  Soon…soon…your day will come. 

Now, back to getting some quilting done…

Thanks for stopping by!  Linking up with Myra at Busy Hands Quilts for Finished or Not Friday.

Happy Friday!