Ramblings On The Vagaries of Time

Birthday lunch with, and thanks to, Lauren

I have been sewing away; trying to finish some projects so that I can feel free to begin others. I have been experiencing a wee bit of ennui. The act of finishing my current projects is not as appealing as it should be. I think that I am looking too far into future projects and it is clouding my appreciation for my current endeavors. I should be enjoying the process of completion in the here and now. I am also working on a small donation quilt which I don't really have my heart into. Generally, when I feel this way, it is better to wait it out until I feel renewed joy for the process then to plug along...but it feels as if that wastes precious time. We had a Mercury Retrograde period that ended on June 11th so I just expected that I would magically feel more motivated. the 'mojo' is returning, but too.

My birthday made me stop to consider how time is slipping through my fingers at an alarming rate. I feel as though I can blink and another week has flown by. How is that when I was young(er) there seemed to be enough time to accommodate both a full work day as well as lots of play? The days seemed to last longer and, of course, I had much more energy then too!

My friend, Lauren, sent me this quote from the Dalai Lama- knowing that I treasure his words. It sure hits the nail on the head! My "new year's" ambition is to relax into the present - to simply be present. It's a good goal and I think that it will motivate me to appreciate the "finishing" without trying to already 'be' in the future.

With this short post I am off to finish ....more soon - or at least, I hope, more regularly!

Of Projects Great and Small

           I'm still trying to master posting from either the Blogsy app or the blogger app.

(Notes after I created this post in the Blogger app: The app is fine for a quick post, but I have had to come back in and use desktop in order to get several things to appear the way that I prefer: justification of text and images, ability to add links (this is a big one for me), image size and also the quality of the same image is much better when added using the desktop rather the app. I have no clue why this is so....these images are the same as I added with the app and they were all clear when they were taken.)

For this post I am using the Blogger app....I actually prefer Blogsy but they make it much easier to add images from social media rather than from your photo library and, today, I just don't have the patience!

I thought that I was ready to put my Wagon Wheel blocks (from Sandy Klop at American Jane) together...but then DH saw it on the wall he said that he would prefer it if I added another row so that it would be large enough (with borders) to use on the bed. It seems that neither us prefers square quilts all that much. I am also not a fan of adding more or larger borders to one or two ends to make a quilt more rectangular....and so I am, at his request, adding one more row of these 15.5 inch blocks. I have one done - and now have three more to go before I can sew it all together.  I told him that I had not planned for this to be a bed sized quilt, but that it was a wall quilt. His somewhat predictable response was, "Why?"....and so we will have yet another large bed quilt!

                          You can easily see the influence of Marica Derse's black and white line
                                                               of fabrics in this quilt !

     

I have been working away on my small hand applique blocks for my version of McCall's Hearts and Hands. I have more blocks finished now..but these are the ones that are at hand right now. Apologies for the fuzzy image quality!

                      

                             

        

                      

      

       

       

Look at those 1.25 inch sun bursts!

 A friend just made something much tinier for a Dear Jane that she is working on. Bravo Linda Coleman for your teeny, tiny, one inch full sized star block!

I got yardage...nearly a bolt...of Moda Fig Tree Cream. The camera does not do the color justice in the image below. I may use it for borders on this quilt, but I also wanted it to use in other projects as well and it can be back ordered at time from several sources and 'sew' I bought quite a bit. I am a big fan of the color palettes that Fig Tree Quilts use...always just slightly warmer than others. Their cream color is the same...just a bit more sun-washed than other creams or off white colors are. It's on the right in the photo below...and in order to get the cream close to 'normal' the rest of the image looks too dark! The link is better! The yellow that I am using is Robert Kaufman Kona "Grellow" which is a mellow golden color...not as lemony as the images above seem to show....closer to the photo below really but still a bolder choice I guess!

                               

I am almost ready to begin making my new "overnight" bag. I wanted a color to match my zippers (which are a yellow green) and so I special ordered cotton 1.5 inch cotton strapping from a shop on Etsy. I did order two colors of nylon webbing, but I was not happy with the matches or the shine on the nylon... I'll be cutting and beginning to sew soon! The blue will be the outside, the pink is for the lining and the yellow is for accents. These fabrics are also all from Fig Tree! 

I was also VERY inspired by reading the book I have mentioned before..."Overdressed"by Elizabeth Cline.  So...my aspirations to sew some clothing for a change are nearing realization. I have these two patterns that I want to try. The neckline on the retro blouse may be a bit long for my taste so I may even get to try out using my French Curve to correct it... fingers crossed. These two projects will be started after my Carry On Travel Bag is done though. I plan to share progress on these "new-to-me" projects...

    

In the meantime...happy stitching to all... next time I will just use my desktop and stop with the app experiments!