Did I really start this?

I am NOT going to tell you how many hours at the sewing machine this little pile of pieces represents. Just know that I didn't touch anything else quilty all weekend, except these. When I finally pulled myself from the machine at bedtime last night, I had one more of the arc's started and I finished it this morning. I have got the arcs down to about 25 minutes each, and the curved diamonds and large arcs at the bottom of the photo took about 45 minutes each, but I expect them to go faster now that I've had some practice. There are 120 of the small arcs to make...and I have 19. Ugh. But, after 6 hours of sewing on Saturday, I only had 5 arcs and one curved diamond.

There is a rhythm to making them and it takes three stations, one for cutting, one for sewing and one for ironing and I've got them set up so I don't have to get up from my chair. Now, if I only had a better chair. I've passed up a hundred free padded desk chairs as my office has redecorated over the years and now, it looks like I'm going to have to buy one. RATS! My beautiful old wooden one that I've been using for years creaks so bad that I can hardly hear the TV anymore and since I'm sewing and not really watching, hearing is very important to keeping up with plots. The centers of the 25 blocks are four patches and my mentor didn't have those cut for me, so I went to JoAnn's yesterday and bought 11 quarter yards, some fat and some cut from the bolt. I didn't have much orange in my stash and half the centers are orange, ranging from yellow to dark brown, and half are gray, ranging from light gray to black, and including dark greens and blues. Those will be easy, but I don't quilt with much orange. The goal is not to use any fabric more than twice, and not to use it in the same position more than once. She had already cut from 125 fabrics and then she cut some more from her stash and I'm planning to cut some from my stash, so there should be a lot of variety. So far, I've only ruined one paper foundation to the point where it can't be reused, so I'm going to have to photocopy one and hope it comes out the right size. I've heard that copiers stretch the image slightly. I can only hope it's slight or I'm up a creek.

On a family note, I took Sydney for a haircut yesterday. It was the first time I had taken her. My best friend has been taking her in for that, but I realized that with all the other girl stuff I've learned to do, this one should be a piece of cake. I talked to her before we went and made sure she could tell them what she wanted, and I gave her a couple of bucks for a tip. And, I sat near the door and read an Earlene Fowler mystery. It's been years since I was in a salon...bald men don't need them. I had forgotten the smell, yuck! She seemed to do well. I heard she and the hairdresser chat the whole time she was in the chair. I was afraid she'd get all shy and sit there frowning, but she didn't. And, when they were through, she slipped the tip in the girl's hand and thanked her. So, I guess it was a success and the my little girl is growing up. I'm starting to see more evidence of young woman around the house, starting with hairbrushes everywhere. And, she stuck her head in my door this morning to say "remember when these shorts were really tight?" and she had the waistband pulled out with about 3 inches of extra space in them. GOOD FOR HER! She's finally seeing the result of all our hard work and all those salads. I'm proud as I can be and I think she is too!

Take care and have a great Monday. See ya around the home page. Lane