The project next

First, thanks so much for all the recommendations you sent for blogs.  That was wonderful and the support made me feel a bit more reassured that wonderful people care.  Yesterday was nice and cool and wonderfully pleasant and we had the house open.  I made myself a cup of tea and sat at the dining table and read about people's interesting lives.  It was GREAT!

I spent a good bit of the rest of the weekend on chores, but more about that later.  I always like for my best picture to be on top. 

I got the snowman quilt almost finished.  I have about a foot of binding to sew down by hand and then will dampen it and block it nice and square.  Because it's raw edge applique, I don't want to wash it, but it would be nice if it could dry stretched to shape.  I also started quilting the Dresden Plate.  I was able to quilt around all 12 plates.  Normally, when I start a quilt, I do stabilizing quilting first.  That holds the whole thing together while I quilt the rest of it.  It helps prevent puckering on the back because I can stretch between those lines of stability quilting to hold the whole thing taut while I quilt.  My normal stability quilting is around the blocks, along the sashing but this time, not so much.  I plan to quilt across that sashing as though it wasn't there, so no outlining it.  This time, the stability quilting was in the plates.  Next I'll work on the circles that outline those plates, but first, I needed the cornerstones quilted in.

 
I drew a "mini" 16 fan Dresden plate to mimic the fabric ones.  I needle punched it through a bunch of pieces of tissue and I pin the tissue to the quilt and quilt through it, using the holes as my lines.  It's an easy way to make copies in tissue.  I plan to use theses shapes in the corners and in the fabric plate centers. 

I'm trying to very carefully plan the steps.  I have a very complex plan for the quilting on this one and instead of quilting a section at a time, I plan to do each step, one at a time across the whole quilt.  That way, if I give up on some of the detail I have planned, I can just walk away without having to complete something because it's already done somewhere else.  Because let's face it, sometimes quilts say "I'm finished" at unexpected times,

One of my chores this weekend was to start filling this box.  This box is going to the "free" table at the next guild meeting I go to.  It came here with a king size batting in it and I decided it needed to go out full, too.  I started with a book and then went through all my regular stash, pulling fabrics I don't want anymore.  And, as I did, I realized that some of those fabrics were large pieces.   Pieces that could be pieced together for quilt backs.  Quilt backs for Linus quilts.  Quilt backs are one of the holdups I run into when I make Linus quilt  And, I found at least 30 yards of quilt backs right there in my stash that I'm not in love with anymore...and really, that's all that's wrong with any of this fabric.  I'm not in love with it anymore. 

I was blessed as a new quilter with several other quilters cleaning out stash.  And, I've benefitted (and so has Project Linus) from those fabrics that they didn't love anymore.  Now, I have a large enough stash to be able to share some of the fabrics I don't love anymore.  As you can see, without those large pieces I held back, I've got a long way to go to fill this box.  Maybe I'll slip a couple of the big ones back in to move me forward a bit.  But, honestly, I filled it this far by going through about a third of my fabric and I also want to go through books and tools, too.  I collected a boatload of tools, ending up with multiples of some and it's time to share them as well. 

Everybody have a great Monday!  For months, my focus has been external.  Now, I think it's time for me to focus more locally, on what I'm really interested in and on what I think I can do something about.  Being a good person.  Being a good team member at work.  And, practicing my art. 

Oh, and lest we forget, that 19 year old girl still requires regular parenting.  We're focused now on expressions of gratitude.  Because I've drawn a line in the sand.  If I have to say please and thank you, then so does she.

I honestly believe this is one of the most important things I will teach her.  She has a real problem with expressing gratitude that she brought with her when she came to us.  It's like she shows weakness when she shows gratitude.  Having her Grandma here for a week observing it and drawing comparisons to all the people she lived with before us really brought it to attention.  If she's going to be more successful than those people, then this is something she needs to understand, even if she can't ever do it consistently.

But, golly it's a big job.  Lane