Great Day in the Studio

It almost feels as though I've got my "mojo" back.

Although I've been puttering around a lot, today I actually accomplished a fair bit.  There was quite pile of "good" quilting batt in the store room, none of which was wide enough to do anything with, not even join sections to make a usable piece of batting.  But I do have a couple of charity quilt patterns that require pre-cut batting.  So I have cut enough of one pattern to finish, and about half of the the other.  They are now put away until I  get to those patterns, as there are enough fabric pieces already cut (those were cut several years ago and ignored until now) to finish both of them.  But not today.

Today I decided to get down to business and finish as many of the scroll books as I could.  How to finish them has been percolating around in my mind for a couple of years, but I didn't trust my own instincts, until now.  One is finished and progress is being made on three others.  Yet another one is slowly being stitched, but won't likely be ready to finish for a few months, at the speed I'm working on it.

Here is the first one.  I'm sorry the first one isn't better, but I think I must have lost some detail when I cropped it.  This is the end of the center of the scroll.  If you think it looks a little like a yo-yo, you're right. I covered the cardboard roll, and buried the edges inside ad then hand stitched a yo-yo on top, after adding three strings of beads again by hand.  Both ends are the same.

Here is the full scroll with a pocket book beside it for size comparison.  It is actually about 11"long.

Tomorrow I'll have to see what trouble I can get into.

Finally! 'Tis done! Jen Kingwall's design, Long Time Gone.

 Too large for the design wall, so we move to the living room floor.  I'm so glad to finally see the piecing finished, after about 5 years in the making.  

Navel Gazing yet again

 This year has been a busy one in the studio, with my 4 month daily "purge", and even now still dealing with all of the UFO's found during that purge.  Now that we're able to get out and socialize more, I've been able to "ramp up" my volunteer work.  This is all demanding a lot of energy that hasn't been needed in my life since March of 2020.  Now, with my 78th birthday looming on the horizon, I find that once lost, that energy is very, very hard to find again.  Yesterday, DH and I volunteered to spend 5 hours greeting guests and being available for questions in an art Gallery that we've supported for almost 20 years.  Thank Goodness there were other volunteers available, as it was quite busy, and I just wasn't able to pull my weight.  DH was fine--a tribute to the physical exercise program he's been on for the past 6 weeks.  

How can I continue to socialize and spend time in my studio without entering that downward spiral that so many aging people get swept into by life?  This maybe needs to be approached with the same strategy that I used for problem solving in my professional life.  Set some SMART goals with the emphasis being on "realistic" and "achievable".  Break these goals into steps, and most importantly, actually do something toward actually attempting to complete those steps.  I think my BuJo just might have a role to play in this.

Catch up

 I've been talking about a second quilt for finishing without identifying it.  This was because it didn't have a name.  Well it is now called FS#3, and this is what it looks like.  Some may recognize it as one I put together about a year ago.

 Most of yesterday was spent playing with my new stencils and different kinds of paint, both with and without textile medium.  I used a previously worked piece of fabric that I just haven't yet been able to find a use for.  It was worked with a variety of media, and could provide a good surface for finding out how the stencils took the different paints and surfaces.  I was looking for the best paint for both coverage and transparency.

This is the best result I had, and clearly demonstrated -to me--how important value can be when working with fine stencils.

This again demonstrates how important value is in very fine stencils.  I have several ideas about how I might use this small stencil in future.

My hope, when I purchased the stencils was to explore how to actually use them, and how they might be used as fairly faint images in a mixed media piece.  Here, I also experimented with two different types of paint--acrylic plus textile medium on the left, and fabric paint on the right.

This just didn't work for me, and it's something I'll have to explore more in future.  It bothers me how willing I am to put the creative stuff aside.  I'm happier going back to more traditional work--my comfort zone.  This needs more thought, something I'm not looking forward to.

For now. I've put the paint and stencils away as I found a long armer for my two quilts.  She's reasonably local, the price is good, and she's available, although she can't promise to have them done by Christmas.  I assured her there was no way I need them done by Christmas.  She also comes well recommended.  So now I just need to cut and stitch the borders on Long Time Gone, and prepare backing and bindings for both.  I have the fabric and batting, it just needs to be cut to size.

Progress!

 Things are going very well on "Long Time Gone".  As of this morning, the various pieces are laid out on my flannel wall in their final positions. The stitching instructions have us putting together 6 sections, a couple of which are assembled using sub-sections.  Sections 1-5 are now stitched together, and section 6 partially done.  While the light at the end of the tunnel is a little brighter, I also plan to add pieced borders as suggested in the pattern, so a finish will likely not happen until, at least, a week Sunday.  It might have been sooner if my schedule weren't so very full for the next few days.

This is what my flannel wall looked like around noon today.  Followers will notice that the fish that live at the top right of the first section of wall, have gone travelling for a few days.  I think those fish have been up there for close to 20 years.  I expect them back soon, but am wondering if they might like to be at the top left of the right section of wall for a few years.  We'll see what they say when they get back from their travels.  On the left section of wall the left hand side is comprised of three separate sections that have each been assemble and stitched, but not yet together.  

The right hand side of this wall is arranged according to stitching pattern, but nothing had been stitched when the picture was taken.  It is all pieced now.

This wall is also arranged according to stitching design, about half of which has now been pieced. 

So I've been very busy over the past week or so.  I mentioned in my last post that I was getting "antsy" to do some "arty" work.  Before I became obsessed with finishing "Long Time Gone", I had been doing some Thermofax printing and playing with some stencils.  A couple of friends will be taking me out to a shop that sells nothing except stencils.  So I'm slowly preparing for a frenzy of stencil, block printing, and screen printing just as soon as I can convert my studio into accepting wet work.  Not safe to attempt to do both fibre and paint work in the same space.

Is there a light at the end of the tunnel?

 I think I can maybe see a small glimmer.  I am now on the final section of the pieces for the top.  Then there are some checkerboard sashings to do, before I can actually start sewing the whole thing together.  This final section requires that I construct some triangle pieces out of three fairly small pieces, using a template technique.  I cut several pieces last evening using the templates, and will try to machine stitch those together today.  If I can't do this effectively, I think that the whole section will be done via EPP, or even by hand.

This whole episode has both challenged and pleased me.  Finishing a section gives me a good sense of accomplishment.  But, at the same time,  I'm feeling the urge to do something "arty".  I have wondered throughout my journey, through past more traditional work, if my creative juices might start flowing again simply because I'm working with fabric and creating something, even if it's not really my original design.  Oh but safety is so addictive, especially coming out of the recent pandemic.  Of course, my brain is also saying that I've come this far in "long Time Gone" that it would be a shame not to actually finish it.

Don't you hate it when your heart and brain are fighting each other? 

Finally!!

 Here are the finished 16 Pineapple blocks, each 5 1/2" square and containing 37 pieces.  What's more they are paper pieced, a technique I really don't enjoy.

The next step is to join them together in the pattern they will be used in the final quilt--a row of 3, a square of 4 and a square of 9  That should be a fairly quick job.

But--I have been working full out on this, and need to reconsider.   The pleasure is gone, if I see this as a necessary, priority job, and start to neglect other parts of my life.  I've been down that "rabbit hole" before and don't want to visit it again.  Life's too short, and my health, both physical and mental is too important.

So, for now, I will schedule a certain amount of time to spend on this, and try not to go over.  With my right wrist feeling a little better, I may even try a little hand stitching.

"Long Time Gone"

I've talked about this quilt enough over the years, and now maybe it's time for a picture. Just a reminder that each small piece in all of these squares has been individually cut, and each square is carefully machine pieced.  The first picture is of the squares done, so far.  Some have already been pieced together in the configuration they will be in, in the larger quilt, but most haven't, as there will be sashing to consider.

And here are the pineapple squares I'm currently working on.  Each individual square has 37 individual pieces, each one carefully cut to fit.  Each individual square is only 5 1/2" square, including seam allowances.  Two more have been finished since the picture was taken, but I need 16 in total.

I may not finish piecing the rest of the quilt now, but there really isn't much to go.  I've learned over the years I've worked on this that I will reach a point when I need break from it.  But it will be finishedsome day.

Precision Piecing

 As mentioned in my previous post, my right wrist has been acting up quite a bit lately, so, instead of  attempting anything that might aggravate it, I went back to the Long Time Gone project, and was pleasantly surprised to find that I am further along in it than I had thought.  But any cutting with my rotary cutter is out of the question, so I went to the last part of the piecing--Pineapples using 37-1" strips to produce a square 5" square.  I haven't used paper piecing in years.  I don't enjoy it, and avoid it if at all possible.  But the strips were all cut, and there are 16 squares in this section (OMG!)  The first square took me two days of work to get finished. Admittedly, this was a refresher of the technique, but that amount of time was excessive.  However, the second one was 3/4 done in an hour and a half. It should be finished today and the third started.  And that time included cutting just a few more 1" strips.

So the project is going well--better than expected.  I'm sure I'll get sick of Pineapple squares before they're finished, but the use of my wrist is more important, than my frustrations.

As an aside, in trying to reduce stress on my right wrist, I'm trying to use my left wrist for controlling the Mouse, and doing well, but I can't keyboard with one hand-yet.  Still, I can't believe the mis-spellings that are coming from my clumsiness.

Glad to say I've settled down

 There's nothing like a bit of a shock to make one "sit up and take notice".  Following my little "freak out' as described in the previous post, I concentrated on relaxing over hand stitching, for a bit.  I worked hard on my Frigid Sanctuary box.  The problem there was that I didn't have a clear vision of the finished project, and ended up picking out sections, and re-doing them as I experimented with a different design or technique.  I even resorted to using glue!  Please don't tell anyone.  (Note to self:  try things out first, on a "doodle cloth", as you were taught to do many, many years ago)  I was working on the last bit of stitching, sewing the base to the top section, when my right wrist said "Enough!"  This meant several days of using a wrist brace and a prescription ointment I have, and no hand stitching. But the box is now finished.  This is one of those cases of "Done in better than perfect".  It is not perfect, and I know in my heart that I couldn't exhibit it, nor try to sell it for my usual box price.  But I have found a place to show it in a sale situation, at a lower price.  This price may be still too high for the piece to sell, but I'll have the satisfaction of knowing I tried.

Having managed this hurdle, what comes next?  Perhaps a temporary escape into past successes and try a bit of precision piecing. A few years ago, I started a commercial pattern "Long Time Gone" by Jen Kingwell.  I did okay, about 1/3 to 1/2 of the way through, until I got to a section on mini-log cabin blocks.  I just couldn't stitch them well enough, and put the whole thing away.  I still have it, and it has been preying on my mind.  My new sewing machine seems to be quite good at precision piecing, and I believe there are good instructions in the manual.  Maybe I need to give this a try.

An "epiphany" of sorts.

 Yesterday, I spent some time checking out the greeting card blanks I was planning to use, and discovered that they aren't at all the type I'm used to and will require a bit of thought before attempting to complete them.  So I decided to clean up the studio area as my first step, while I was mulling things over in my mind.  I found a pair of jeans that I had bought a few months ago and never got around to shortening.  Lately I've been paying to have my pants shortened, but these were cheap jeans and it looked like a simple job.  It's been quite awhile since I attempted anything related to dressmaking, but I confidently sat down to do it.  But, like the Frigid Box, what could go wrong, did go wrong, especially in figuring out how to do the job, on my newer sewing machine.  Finally, the thought occurred to me that maybe I had forgotten how to do simple jobs on a sewing machine?

Well, maybe and overreaction, but this whole idea struck at the very basis of my self identity.  I've heard people say that they were "devastated" about something.  Now I know what that means.  This may be the first time I can honestly say I had a panic attack.  I was almost rigid with stress.  Talk about a "fight, flight, or fright" response.  I had one. I was in such a panic that I just stood there shaking-frozen on the spot.  I couldn't think of what to do.  Thank Goodness, I have some past work experience in addressing milder forms of this, but not much worked very well, yesterday  The need for physical action took over. I did all of the chores I had listed on my task list, but that only helped a little bit.  I couldn't read. I couldn't settle to anything, but the tension/stress was very slowly diminishing.  More physical activity.  Then, David took me out, to the casino, for the evening.  We had fun, and casino vlt's have always provided a bit of stress reduction for me. (Not a Good Thing!) After a couple of hours, with minimal losses, I was ready to come home, feeling much.  A bath, some Cherry whiskey, and I was able to sleep--a bit of restlessness, but still, some sleep, and everything is better in the morning. 

So, what have I learned, and what am I going to do about it?  I think I've said, in the recent past, that, following Covid, it's almost been as though I was re-living, my lifetime journey through the various techniques and strategies of art quilting.  I think I might be wise to lean into this by going back and re-learning, or maybe just doing a lot of practice, in those techniques that I rely on, such as using my machine for machine quilting and Free Motion Quilting.  Now is not the time to be worrying about craft sales, especially when my heart has never been there in the first place.  What will be, will be, and if something turns out to be worthy of a sale, so be it.  The group in Lorette has already told me that I can come to the sale and just sit there and enjoy the day if I want.

Several of my recent posts had indicated a sort of restlessness in my studio work.  Maybe a sub-conscious sense of loss of ability, but more a sense of seeking a sense of direction.  Again, maybe I need to lean into figuring that out, before I start worrying about things I cannot change.  And, yes, the Serenity Prayer came to mind several times yesterday,

Decision time

 The box "Frigid Sanctuary" has been in progress for almost two months.  It's a case of "what can go wrong, will".  There are so many steps to making this sort of box, that even the smallest step can influence the image and structure of the box.  I am thoroughly tired of it, but still think that it can be salvaged, and may even be good enough to offer for sale.  But I need a break.

This is the final appearance of each of the five sections.  Yes, the large darker beads have been discarded, and will hopefully find their way into another project.  Interesting, in that the whole concept was based on the those beads. The lining has been fused to the wrong side, and I have started to hand stitch the crease that will form each corner of the box.  The next step is to stitch it to the bottom section.  That, itself, isn't at all finished, and the five feet haven't even been cut out.  But, when I tried to see how things might fit, I discovered that the structure isn't strong enough to hold itself upright.  I had forgotten to put in either strong interfacing or a cardstock support into each of the five sections.  This means trying to open the very bottom of the lining section and insert some sort of support into each section. This could be a a tedious and somewhat nasty job.

Then, after taking the previous picture, I realized that the final beading up the center of one section is off center. 

I'm tired and discouraged.  I need a break.  This will be set aside for awhile, and I'm going to consider making some stitched greeting cards for sale at the one Christmas sale I'm committed to.

Paint Day(s)

 As we were expecting a quiet week, spent at home, I planned to do a day of painting.  I especially wanted to do some leaf printing.  Well, there's always flaws in plans.  Our car has been in the shop and we were told that it would take 8-10 business days to get it back. So, we  rented a car and panned ot to minimize the expense, by staying home. But to our surprise the car was ready in 4 days and we got a call yesterday to pick it up. yesterday was spent dealing with the shop, the insurance, and returning the rental.  But I have found moments to get into the studio, even though we're now on day 3 of painting, and there's more to go.

But the box has not been neglected.  Here it is, as it looks right now.  The large beads have not been sewn on, as there is still fine stitching to be done at the edges of each of the five sides ( tiny silver beads to be stitched along the dark purple line).  But the top closure parts are now fully finished including the special wrapped threads around the edges.

So, onto the painting.  The pale background of this pieces was done several months ago. The circles and checkerboards were done today. This is a very large piece, at least 60" by 24", and I'm sure it will be cut into, at least, four pieces for further work.

This is the other previously started piece that was augmented today.  the grey metallic and green spots were already there, done  with acrylic inks, and I figured that all it needed was some straight lines, but this time used fabric paint. I believe this piece is about Fat Quarter in size.

That's all I accomplished today.  The preparation and clean-up takes far more time than the actual work, and today, the camera appears to be hiding all my recent photos.  I sure hate "updates".

More Frigid Boxes

 Progress has been slow, and if I'm honest with myself, the fault is within me and not anywhere else.  I just seem to be moving slowing and spending a lot of time thinking and dreaming.  that having been said, I do get into the studio, and do putter around with whatever project I'm working on at the time.  There has been some progress with the first "Frigid " box.

While it may appear that I work in chaos, it really is an organized chaos.

But first let me show you the two lovely Blue Jay feathers that David found in the garden.  They are no safely put away in a special "feather" page in one of my sketch books.

Here is the box as it was when I first went into the studio today.  There has been a fair bit of careful embellishment so far, much of it by machine.

But now a problem.   I would very much like to echo the corner beading at the bottom, but there isn't enough room, as I need some space to stitch the bottom of the box to the lower edge of the side pieces.

Here I've very carefully placed the beads in position, but the very narrow edge space is obvious.

Here, on the right, I've replaced the long bugle beads with shorter ones, and I think it leaves enough space to carefully sew the two edges together.

So that's what will be done.  I also have an idea for adding a bit of colour along the long edges of the silver mesh.  But that will wait for tomorrow.  A quiet sunny garden calls me.

Frigid Boxes

 Studio time has been scarce lately, but bit by bit I've made a start on two new reliquaries.  The original intent for the piece was a framed beaded piece, but it kept telling me that it really wanted to be a box.  However, I couldn't choose what box shape I wanted.  As well, it's been a very long time since I last made a box, and it was back to the original book, and starting step by step in refreshing my memory of the construction techniques.  Once the basic background was machine quilted I discovered that there was enough room for the necessary pieces for two boxes, one based on a pentagon and the other loosely based on a simple house.

Here is the original book where the basic concept, several patterns and detailed instruction come from.

Yesterday was spent sorting beads, as many beads will be used in this project, and besides which, I love sorting beads.  Here's my collection of potential candidates for inclusion in the work.

The pentagon box has only two basic pieces. This  contains all of the upright side pieces, as well as the method of closing the box.

This afternoon was dedicated to getting the basic label on both boxes.  I learned how to do this in a workshop earlier this year, but still had to refer to the manual to get it done.  Of course, what could go wrong did go wrong and it was a bit frustrating, but I persevered, and got both boxes labelled.  Looking back, I realize that the titles are a bit weird, but it represented my feelings lately and, besides, it's too late to change anything.  My boxes never sell, so the title is important only to me.  While you might not be able to tell from this photo, the house box has only one piece, but for both of them, I'm not counting the feet, and how those are made is a decision for another day.

Just to please myself

 Two of the donation quilts, mentioned in a previous post, have been finished and labelled, but the third one needs more complex quilting, and I needed a break from the constant work related to the "Great Purge", that started mid-March.  So, while I'm not leaving the purging behind completely, I am re-visiting the techniques of Maria Shell, as a design challenge.  There are three big Rubbermaid tubs on my shelving unit that are somewhat dedicated to that type of work. The work requires a good quality, light-weight cotton in a variety of colours and I've chosen Kaufman's Kona cotton, both for its price and its quality. 

There are two full tubs of cotton ready to work with.

And a third tub of various pieced fabric pieces awaiting a use.  It was in this tub that I found the smaller pieced fabric that the zipper pouches, I now have out for sale, were made.  Here's what already pieced scrap is left as of today.  Some extra pieces were added after the top I've been feverously piecing over the past couple of weeks was put, more of less, together.

This is version one.  I knew that it needed more, but had spent a great deal of time to even get this far.  For several days I couldn't get my head around selecting a direction to go, and had been randomly piecing looking for just the right image to base my design on.  I had also been wanting to use a colour scheme that was quite different from any I had used before for this technique, but also had a box of pre-sewn sections that wanted to be used in some way.  They kept shouting at me, and I eventually gave in.  Finally, the red strip in the center jumped into place, once the green on either side was added. I had my anchor.  The triangles were all left over from a past quilt, and found a home here.  But it still needed more.

But I didn't have enough of the green/dark grey checkerboard strips to create four separate strips to balance things out.  Then I realized that I had enough of the narrow, mainly red, strip, to create two full length section, could make a third checkerboard strip, and the whole design fell into place. Here it is with just some basic seams to be stitched, and the horizontal striped piece on the right to be lengthened. As of this morning, all of the horizontal seams are done, and only the vertical seams remain.  And I've had a wonderful time, both with being challenged to create a design, and with using up both fabric and fabric scraps--still purging, but enjoying it a lot more than I have been. (And the mother fish and her babies weren't bothered at all.  Bonus!)

Slow progress

 Life keeps getting in the way, and I'm not getting as much studio time  as I would like.  Since the last post, I've pieced the strips shown there, quilted the result, and turned it into bags.  There are no more planned for now.  Who knows what the future holds.

The next job is to quilt the last three donation quilt tops I have waiting.  They have been sandwiched ready for quilting.  I had a large piece of extra wide backing fabric, that had been purchases for, but proven too small for, the large green and pink EPP quilt that was finished earlier in the year.  This spare fabric, with a small bit of piecing, proved enough for all three donation quilts.  It is a gentle pale greenish yellow, and should work very well.

Having fun

 When all the dust settled after the purge, I was left with a large bin of scraps, mainly left over from when I was working my way through Maria Schell's book.  Many of these were narrow strips pieced together in short strips of 5-6 narrow strips, about 4-6 inches across.  There were also a few, but not many larges pieced fabric.  So these were all cut into strips, as well, and then everything pieced in long narrow strips, trimmed to about 4" wide.  Finally these were joined side by side, and quilted.  Then, I cut them according to sizes described in a video workshop I bought from designmatterstv.com and finally put together to make two zippered bags.

I'm quite pleased with them.  There is still a basket full of similar scraps that will likely be used in the same way.

My brain is "foggy"

 all during my 100 Day Purge I was aiming at May 16 as being the last day.  OMG!  The last day won't be for another month, and I've purged just about anything I can. I was quite angry at myself, until I realized, that it's my purge, my plan, and I can do anything I want with it.  So I have declared that it's over.  Done!  Finished!

The green quilt was finished yesterday.  This was emotional for me.  I worked on it, by hand, almost every evening during the long Covid lockdowns. Two years. Now the quilt is ended, and many of the restrictions have ended.  I still have some UFO's left in the pile, but those are mainly pre-cut pieces ready to be put into charity quilts. Some of my colour choices are depleted, so today I bought 10 fat quarters in light cheerful prints.  I think these will greatly help fill out designs for the charity quilts, but only just enough pieces will be cut.  This is a little more time consuming than just cutting until the fabric is gone, but I have nothing but time.

A friend and I have talked lately about artists who are the "latest hot thing", but eventually fade as the next "latest hot thing" comes along.  This is maybe where I am.  My images and designs were popular once and sold well, but now I appear to have reached a stage of life where I no longer have to try to meet anybody's expectations-even my own.  I can do whatever I want and not have to apologize to anyone. This means that I can maybe take a deeper look at the ideas and designs that have been coming to the surface lately.  To that end, today I did some shopping.  Just a little-some beads, some charms, and the fat quarters I mentioned above.  And now, I can relax and get back to work--no more asking "Why on earth did I buy this?"

UFO pile

 Yes, now I'm tackling the UFO pile.  I've started the process of putting the binding on the green and pink EPP quilt.  This is almost a Queen size and has cut off corners, so there are eight corners to deal with.  As well, the darn thing is so big that getting it through my machine is difficult.  But the binding has been stitched to the back of the piece, and is now at the stage of turning the binding to the front and clipping it down.  There are threads to trim, and extra rows of stitching to un-pick, so it's a slow process, but I hope to have it finished this weekend.

Everything else is on hold, but my brain is working on planning a new piece, using the heavy sheets of water colour paper that were used for echo printing a couple of years ago.  There is a vague image circulating around my brain, that I need to pin down.  I plan to get into a sketch book, somehow, so that it doesn't get lost while the green and pink quilt gets finished.

Still at it.

 While my progress has slowed down, I'm still trying to get something done every day.  For the last three days, I've been still recovering from the sale, and not really capable of working on anything too important or complicated.  ( Old age is not pretty!) So I helped, to a small degree, while my husband "purged" a large storage area under our stairs. This certainly took more than one day, especially if one considers the trip to the thrift store.  Two very full green garbage bags, and one almost full, along with some boxes, full of more breakable things.  There were also two full garbage bags sent to the landfill.  There was also a decision to be made about the "things" that didn't sell on Saturday.  Not that anything has been finally decided, but I object to my work being sent to a landfill, and do not want to let happen  Especially as there were multiple items that I knew would not sell, and had not taken.

So, my purging has reached a very difficult emotional stage.  Things that I know must go, but I'm fighting to keep.  I guess they'll go at some time in the future, so why not now?  Ouch!

A normal, low key country craft sale.

 Gail and I may be "pros" at sales but these ladies were obviously well experienced, and probably more experienced with this type of sale than either of us. The big winners were the bake sale participants, which included a gentleman working in the kitchen, making fresh bread and buns as well as "cinnamon knots".  Cinnamon Knots were dough, drenched in a bit of oil and then dredged in cinnamon sugar, before being twisted in a knot before baking in the oven for 20 minutes.  He brought out a batch regularly, and they were gone almost immediately.

There were people through fairly regularly, but they were often people who came to see a specific vendor, likely a relative.  I sold more than I expected but less that I would have liked.

I took a picture of my booth, just before the sale started.  After taking the picture I realized how awful those fabrics hanging down the front looked, and very quickly tucked them in.

After packing up, we headed home in the rain.  The same rain as was pouring down all day.  We stopped at the pizza store and bought supper, then spent the rest of the evening watching my regular Saturday night shows.

Two steps forward, and one step back

 Yesterday was devoted to re-assembling the scrap quilt that DH has been ripping for me for the last three days.  With the de-assembling, many small seams split a bit and needed to be re-sewn.  But, to my dismay, there were a couple of areas where the original surface had not been properly sewn, and there was a hole.  This required that the inner colourful square, had to be ripped further, mended, and re-assembled.  I'm so glad we found these areas before the quilting was done, but also embarrassed that I made that error in the first place. Could this have happened because of an age-related diminishment in judgement?  Or, more likely, was I just working too quickly in trying to get the job done.  Maybe a bit of both.

Today I will be packing up items for the sale tomorrow, while also doing the wash, and having a coffee meeting at 3:30.  Fortunately, we will be able to set up for the sale between 6 and 8 this evening, even if that means an extra trip out to the sale site, about a 40 minute drive.

Still busy

 My poor Dear Husband has been working on taking apart the quilt I mentioned in the last post, for the past 3 days and evenings.  At the same time, I've been working on a large drawer full of scraps that had been partially stitched together.  They were in several different colour schemes, and the only way I could make them the least bit presentable was to simply ( ha ha it was definitely not simple!) stitch them into long narrow strips, working with scraps of the same width in each long strip.  At the same time, I was tryin to recover the long narrow pieced strips from the piece my husband was working on. Here's a picture of what was accomplished this afternoon. The longer strips are about 40" long.

Back in the saddle again

 There've been no posts this week, but I have got a bit done every day.  The small quilt top that I wrote about last week has been finished, but when I hung it on the design wall for this picture, I noticed a huge problem that will have to be addressed.  This may mean taking the thing half apart, but I know it must be done.  There is a 2" border around the outside edge that appears rippled.  This will have to be taken off and sewn back on more carefully.  Unfortunately,  I have a hunch the problem goes back to the inner white border.  There's a good chance the smaller coloured squares may not come off in one piece.

                                       

A second small top has also been stitched together.  Both of these small tops will be quilted later, as there is no deadline on donation quilts.

The past couple of day's work resulted in 96 sale tags cut, ties cut and attached, and a small pin attached to the tie.  This is part of the preparation for the craft sale which is next Saturday--April30th.  Today I started sorting and pricing all the things I plan to take to the sale.  I'm half done and have used 5 new tags.  ( insert bad words of your choice)   I can't even say that I'll keep them for next time, because, I'm very much hoping there won't be a next time.  But it did give me a chance to clean out my "tag" tin, and the pins are recoverable. although that still leaves me with the problem of what to do with 300 small gold pins.

                          

Sorry--

 Circumstances today meant that I didn't get into the studio, and so made no progress at all on the "Purge" challenge. I hope to get back at it tomorrow.

Yesterday---

 Yesterday the sashing, between the 91/2" squares, was started.  This meant my first experience with the big laundry basket of scraps.  I knew most of those were long strips, and I had decided that the sashing would be best in white.  This wasn't my first choice, but after seeing the pieces against the white background of the design wall, I knew that white was the right choice.  The colours seemed to come to life against the white.

But. while there was more than enough white in the laundry basket, it was in a variety of widths, and all needed pressing before it could be cut.  This meant that most of my studio time involved pressing and cutting, but the piecing is started and should be easily finished today.

Piecing Scraps

 The smaller scraps are done!  Yay!  Glad to see the end of that process.  I had seen the "twosie/foursie technique on the internet, and had wanted to try it.  Now can say "Been there, done that".  But with a tremendous amount of work today, I squeezed 9-91/2" squares out of the pile.  Some of them went together quickly and some didn't.  The last two took an hour and  a half.  All of the seams have been trimmed to 1/4", and pressed open so as to minimize bulk.

This is the next pile to deal with.  Most of the pieces have already been stitched to another piece, but much more attention has gone into matching colours, patterns etc., and the result is two, maybe three colour ways that are in progress.

This bin is the third pile that I have separated out.  I have to admit that I just haven't figured out how to approach it.  In the past I would have simply cut it all into like-shaped pieces, but my arthritic wrists just won't tolerate that any more.  The fourth pile is a laundry basket filled to overflowing with long narrow strips of fabric.  I have a pretty good idea how that will be approached.  So this third basket may just be put aside pending further thought.

Regardless of how I deal with these piles, they have to disappear somehow as part of the overall "purge".

Guess I should'a taken some pictures

 I promise for tomorrow.  My "onesie-twosie" strategy has now reached the "eightsie-sixteensie" stage which is really just a stupid way to talk about it.  But this stage is giving me about 7 pieces big enough to cut a 91/2" square out of, so that's good news.  I would have liked to get 9 squares, but this is not to be, although I could maybe get 8, with  a little fudging.

Unfortunately, after getting to that point, and speaking to a friend for over an hour today, I crashed, and am still feeling a little rocky.  So this message will be short, and really just to let you know that I'm still on track.

Finally sewing on the machine

Yes, I felt I needed some stitching time, and pulled out the smallest bin of scraps and started stitching them together using a "Onesie/Twosie/Foursie method.  ( Don't ask) Worked on this for about and hour and a half, and almost feel as though I might have bitten off more than I can chew, but will persevere.  I'll get the first pile done before even thinking of moving onto the second pile ( of four), as each of the piles on the table will require a slightly different sewing method for putting them together.  Thank Goodness, I have a concrete idea of how each of these could be finished into a charity quilt.  I'm also thinking of dealing with the scraps to create tops before even considering the quilting.

Hopefully some pictures tomorrow.

a couple of decisions made

 DH and I spent some time in the studio today.  We got my old Pfaff out, set it up, and tried it out.  It works just fine.  I think the reason it was skipping stitches when I tried it a couple of years ago, was because I had threaded the machine incorrectly.  Could I sell it?  Yes, but I wouldn't get much for it because of its age and because the lid of the equipment  box is broken.  It's been decided to keep it as a spare, as we've been doing for the past 17 years.  

It can be easily stored in the rolling cabinet I use for the Janome whenever it has to leave home.

We went through the hangings found yesterday, ( was it yesterday or the day before?  Who knows?)  All but one of them have been cut up and thrown in the bin.  My 5 gallon bin was full, and dumped in a large black plastic bag, as I type.  The hanging that has been kept will be hung in the studio over the tv, and the one current hanging there may be moved, although it might be a candidate for binning as well.

And then there was a discussion and maybe a revelation about how much scrap fabric we have and how it's to be used.  I don't feel that I've had a creative thought since I was sick in March of 2020 (Covid? who knows?)  Right now I would be quite happy to work on donation quilts.  Using scraps for these could be a spur to creativity.

That thought has resulted in a revision of the challenge.  The UFO list will now be the major part of activity.  I have both unfinished projects and 2 bins of scraps dedicated to making donation quilts.  Those two bins will be given a degree of priority.

A poor night and another putter-y day

Oh, I'm so confused!  Yes, considering how much purging I'm involved in, and how much I'm dreading dealing with the bead cupboard, today I went out and bought beads.  This meant that those that I bought had to be stored, and this meant that I had to start getting ready to purge my bead collection.  I admit that I don't really know what's in the cupboard, although I have a rough idea. So today I started consolidating various beads into container stacks of like colours.  I need to know what's there before deciding on how  to approach the purging.

Here is the top half of the cupboard.  This is where all the seed beads and a few of the larger beads are stored.

The bottom half of the cupboard contains specialty beads, and various large beading tools

There are two shelves dedicated to towers of seed beads, most of which are size 10 or 11.  I prefer that like colours are kept in the same tower, but things have been confused over time.

This lower shelf contains a few towers but also quite a collection of tubes of beads.  Over the past few years I've opted to purchase a better class of glass seed beads.  I rarely use the older glass beads as I know I can't count on them being reasonably the same size.  While the less perfect beads may have their use, especially if I'm trying to colour match.  These tubed beads will not be discarded.  The towers behind them will be considered for purging.

This top shelf contains mainly smaller Mill Hill beads that accumulated during my embroidery days.  I don't have a lot of them, in each container, and will not be able to use most of them as they are just too small for my elderly eyes.

Finally, here is my collection of various "bead soups".  Whenever I finish a project, and have only a few leftover beads, those beads become part of one of my various colours of  "bead, soups".  These are a recent development in my beading world, and invaluable in my more recent work.  I don't care what size or shape a left over bead is, as long as it matches one of  my selected colours.

I started another bead soup today.  Prior to destroying older work, DH will pick off the beads for me.  There have been a lot of beads  redeemed this way lately, and many of them are not really worth the effort of trying to sort them out.  So as many as possible were sorted, but quite a few ended up in this mish-mash of various coloured seed beads and fancy sequins.  I have a hunch this soup is going to grow over the next while.

But the older sewing machine didn't get dealt with today.  Maybe tomorrow.