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Tuesday, June 30, 2020

So Many New Starts... where are the finishes?

I have, in the last week, either started or prepared to start (pulled fabrics) for no less than 5 new projects - all of them are online quilt-alongs, sew-alongs, or mystery quilts.  I'm really looking forward to doing all of them! 

I'll be doing the Meadow Mist Mystery quilt, 'the Morewood Mystery'.  You can find more information about it here:  https://meadowmistdesigns.blogspot.com/p/morewood-mystery-quilt.html

I'll also be working on (or starting) three Pat Sloan sew alongs or mysteries: 'Out West', 'Going on a Picnic' and the 'Jolly Bar' sew along.  You can learn more about these at Pat Sloan's blog page:  https://blog.patsloan.com/  .  I'm also doing her July calendar too... It'll be interesting (check out her page for more information about the calendar!

And of course I'm still working on several UFOs, so I'm not lacking for projects to do.. just lacking in motivation... I hope I get through July and maintain my sanity - what little I have left, that is.


Tuesday, June 9, 2020

Has my 'get up' got up and gone?

I am just about fully recovered... I have my mobility back, most of the discomfort is gone, and hopefully after this afternoon, when I get my stitches out, the last of that will be gone as well. Maybe I'll get to work again with more enthusiasm when it's not so uncomfortable to do so.

This past week, I put together my Childhood Games top (designed by Pat Sloan).


I didn't like it borderless, so I added a narrow dark border, and I like it a lot more.  I was planning on a second border, but now that I see it as is, I'm not sure it needs more, it just looks finished now. 


Opinions are welcome... is it done?

Anyway, I've got so many quilts in progress, some are mysteries and I can only do one block a month, others are just sitting and there's no reason for delay... I am feeling 'stuck' on these projects - a couple just need binding, some need sashing, others need blocks assembled, one needs a decision on borders (not the one above, a different one, so I guess 2 need border decisions, lol).

To top it off, I have quilting to do as well... one of my appliqued wall hangings has spots where the quilt is sagging a bit - because I didn't quilt it heavily enough inside the appliques.  I am a bit heartbroken, as I made two of this quilt, so that means the other one, which was made for a charity auction put off due to the quarantine, also needs more quilting.

So much to do and so much time and I'm just not feeling the enthusiasm for it all.

Where is my MOJO????


Wednesday, June 3, 2020

Playing Pretend

Yay!  I get my stitches out next week!  I'm so looking forward to that... until then, baby steps... I drove for the first time yesterday.  Today, I am sewing, working on Pat Sloan's Childhood Games block 18.  It is a wild card block - it represents anything we want it to... For me, it will represent my favorite childhood game of all - just playing pretend.


My friends and I used to stage elaborate and completely extemporaneous plays with no audience except ourselves, the players.  Each of us would take on the name and persona of some person from a book or movie and have incredible mash-ups of history, fantasy, science fiction and temporal dissonance.  We would tell these incredible stories that developed as we played... sometimes these 'plays' would last from after breakfast til we were called in for lunch... then pick up again (sometimes with changes in cast and roles) til the streetlights came on and we were called in for dinner.  We would range the whole neighborhood, into the orange groves nearby and to the school and park grounds closest to home.  We rode our trusty steeds (bikes) around the area, climbed trees, hopped fences and staged very elegant sword fights all in the name of drama.  Everything was very cinematic (we all had friends or family in the film industry including some of us kids)...

It was the most intense and memorable play of my childhood.  Fond memories.  I rarely see kids play pretend like that today.  My son did a bit with a friend of his, (She was the Pirate Queen and he was Captain Swashbuckle in one repeated game they played), but those games were few and far between.  I love seeing young (and old) folks and kids cosplaying because it is an off-shoot of playing pretend.  I hope the 'art' of playing pretend never dies out.  Perhaps my love of playing pretend is why I love roleplaying games so much.  Dungeons and Dragons and games like it have been a mainstay of my life since 1974.  I still play 2-3 times a week.





Etude de Cabines, my first truly modern quilt

While my EPP has progressed exponentially, and I'm enjoying it a lot - I had to struggle to finish another project - A modern quilt usin...