Block Party

I've been keeping up with the Splendid Sampler and adding a few extras or alternates.

I've gathered the first Splendid 16

And I've joined the Modern HST Sampler from Blossom Heart Quilts

Downtime

I love being "retired", don't get me wrong. Being a lazy person includes the joys of sleeping in and staying up late, lounging and surfing at the same time and no schedule to keep. Sunny days can be spent outside and frosty ones, inside.

But

Yeah, there has to be one, right?

There's that nagging feeling in the back of my mind that I should be accomplishing something with all this freedom. I've been free for over a year and I'm not sure I've used my time wisely. Does that matter? Maybe not. Am I wasting time or taking just taking life at a slower pace?
Some days I don't care about my time, while other days I really enjoy doing and keeping busy and stepping away from Facebook and Netflix. I guess with several years ahead of "retirement" there's bound to be a bunch of empty days and maybe, if I'm good, a bigger bunch of productive days.

Almost Lazy

It's been a few months since I've flaked out on the couch and read a whole book. And though it was wonderful to put my feet up and not busy myself with sewing or knitting, I can't say I enjoyed the time spent on an totally uneventful book. I had high hopes for Charlaine Harris' mystery novel "A Bone to Pick" but was so let down by the blandness of the plot and the lack of 'solving' of the who-cares murder. It feels like more time was spent on coming up with a clever title than with any kind of suspenseful content.
I hope my next book, "White Tiger" by Kylie Chan proves more worth my lazing time.

After the wasted reading day, I finished my Mini Zen quilt top (2 1/4" blocks)

and completed the 5th Splendid Sampler block,

 and the 6th Splendid Sampler block, 

and my Reproduction 6" block version of the 6th Splendid Sampler block.

So I was Almost Lazy. I will try harder next time.

I'm Too Sixy

I love 6" quilt blocks. I've made blocks as large as 36" and as small as 2" and 6 just feels comfortable.
I recently finished the Moda Sampler Block Shuffle with 30 6" blocks and enjoyed it so much that I'm going back for seconds.

 

I've also joined The Splendid Sampler though Facebook and that will give me 100 6" blocks if I stick with it to the end.

I've also stolen blocks from a Block of the Month for Moda Modern Building Blocks and am building on those 25 to make a larger quilt.


I'll be showing off new 6" blocks from time to time....like now!

A Little Piece of My Heart

Block #3 of The Splendid Sampler: Lots of Love.
Though I'm glad this isn't a normal Block of the Month or Week. Getting 2 blocks a week is almost not enough, I want MORE.

This block (6") designed by Melissa Corry, used the technique of sewing corner squares onto rectangles. This design could be worked with flying geese for the top of the hears and half square triangles for the body but the corner squares allow for fewer seams and better view of prints used for the hearts.

With 36 corner squares in this block, my Frixion pen got a lot of use.

I prefer to draw lines on my squares rather than using tape on the sewing machine bed or any other tool because it keeps my eyes on the fabric. I do change out my 1/4" presser foot for a normal open foot to get better visualization. 

Oh...and these six-inchers are what I worked on after finishing Block #2:

  

Sunday Morning Ramble

"Sunday morning breakfast is a ritual that brings me back to center and reboots my week. It is a practice in focus and multitasking: bacon must be carefully watched while coffee is ground and measured, bread cannot be toasted too early, and eggs must be basted evenly. When perfection is achieved, the napkin is folded and the orange juice is poured. After the last corner of toast has wiped up the cooled yoke the week can begin anew."

From 

Available for Kindle Apps

Tiny Bits

Miniature quilts are a favorite of mine. They use less fabric, take less time, take up less room on the wall. They give me a chance to try new designs.

If the sewing and piecing is accurate enough they are no more difficult than full sized quilts.

The Splendid Sampler is 6" blocks, not tiny but smaller than average. The second block of the sampler is made up of 1" finished squares, mostly simple plain squares. If cut and sewed and pressed properly it looks neat and tidy.

Blocks for the 365 Quilt Challenge are both 6" and 3". Some of those blocks are too simple, but others are more intricate.

 

And if they won't look right it doesn't hurt as much to toss them away.

Feeling Splendid

With the chaos of the past few months fading from memory I thought I'd give journaling another shot, hoping that a year-long quilt-along will help keep the momentum going.

I'm hoping I can resist buying into any BoMs this year, perhaps actually completing some from past years and using up some of the wonderful fabrics purchased in the past two years. At least I can start off with that goal, right? With that in mind, I've joined The Splendid Sampler group on FB and am aiming to make the 100 6" blocks for the coming year. 2 blocks a week is a nice pace and I may double them for a secondary sampler.

So here is Day 1:


And a pattern I've wanted to try for a while, the disappearing 9-patch.

UFO Attack

In the world of crafting a UFO is an Unfinished Object, often a quilt top that has yet to be layered and quilted, a dress that needs to be hemmed, an afghan that need yarn ends woven and cut. These are projects are in least a first stage of completion and just need some finish work. We also have WIP, Works in Progress, these projects have passed the planning stages and have had a few hours of work put into them. UFOs carry some sense of accomplishment as they have the appearance of completion while WIPs carry the stigma of being unfinished, with so much work left to be done. WIP can still carry some of the initial excitement that got them from idea to planning to purchasing but also glare at you accusingly when you playing Candy Crush or binge watching Doctor Who. 

UFOs and WIPs are a part of everyone's life and most of us learn to coexist with them. This week I was able to complete two UFOs, make progress with 5 WIPs, tamped down the desire to start 3 new projects, and joined a FB group, with members around the world, to begin a 100-block quilt. Knowing myself, this Splendid Sampler will be a WIP for a while but have a longer life as a UFO, and this doesn't bother me...should it?

The joy of creation does not always require completion, surely.

Wild Wild Life

At the beginning of November I was looking forward to a quiet holiday season. We don't really celebrate the holidays so I get a feeling of satisfaction at the lack of rush and fuss and craziness related to that time of year. Well...best laid plans and all.

Before Thanksgiving, life got thrown into chaos with entry into the world of suicide protection and detention. It was kinda like having a loved one sent to jail when they hadn't committed a crime. Yes, it's important to deal with what brought them down so low, but in this case the psychobabble was not going to work and it all became a frustrated incarceration. That was a long two months. We are getting better.

Just before Christmas, life got thrown deeper into chaos with entry into the world of premature birth and NICU life. As far along as we are in medical knowledge, it's difficult to understand incompetence. I'm not talking about the occasional "oops" but how in the world an OB can NOT see a major birth defect and how a neonatal department can NOT know how to take care of a TEF baby and how a nurse can misread/cancel security measures/administer/overdose a newborn in a NICU! But with all the craziness that goes with neonatal health issues I have to give thanks for the hundreds of people who helped and the Ronald McDonald House that made the horror survivable.

February is here and the ship is drifting toward an even keel. All the children are home and my new grandson is getting better every day. I'm now thinking that there must be an old Chinese saying "may you have a quiet holiday season".