Once again, this Mystery quilt is done without my knowing an outcome. I don't know where the blocks will lay next to each other, nor do I know if I am selecting the correct colors.
The more I work on it, the more I think I want to call it Gratitude. After talking with my friend about these latest two Mysteries, she 'pre- selected' the other one called Seasons for her husband. There are two more months to finish up, plus borders for that one.
She tells the story about how he gets up every day, makes himself an early breakfast with coffee, and then cuddles up on the love seat until it is time to go to work. Every day. He takes his jacket and covers up with it. Before she told me the story, I was leaning toward giving him Seasons and now believe it is his. He is a sweet man and is good to her.
Then I cut out, pinned, pieced, and quilted the three parts of the next tote; the body and 2 sides. Its ready for joining and then the binding will go on for hand stitching. I am planning a train ride down to Capistrano on Sunday so having hand work is perfect for 3-4 hours there and back again.
There
is a long-standing tradition about the 'tween' times as holding magick;
those times just before sunrise or sunset, just as the ocean touches
the sand; or when you hold your breath and exhale; or that moment
between being alone and falling in love. It is that space that separates
one moment from another, one day from the next. We all have our own
magickal moments that signal life and death, sadness and joy.
Well so it is with quilting projects.
Especially
now that I have felt great joy in finishing one UFO and then looking at
the list on my blog sidebar only to discover that there are others,
more, next.
And
so, the next thing I did in the studio was to bring out my warmer-weather clothes which are also kept in one of the closets, go
through my kitchen towels converting some to rags, and exchanging
Winter towels for Spring/Summer, and then to put away my Winter Village.
The Spring Village is ready to go up, yet for another day. It was a
still day and it was a good day.
One thing I am quite aware of is that there is a huge sense of accomplishment when I finish a UFO.
Yet, when it is still unfinished, all I want to do is avoid it. This one was a Mystery Quilt, so I gathered two colors and a background color as per the instructions. Instructions were in reds and greens for the holiday, but I had made enough holiday quilts, and so decided to make more a patriotic theme. I forgot that reds and blues bleed. Before I basted it to the batting and back, I did wash the top with Color Catchers that both turned purple. The white in the top did not bleed. And so that was a smart choice.
The reason this quilt became a UFO was that I felt inept regarding the points. Close up is different that farther away. It is actually fine. Nice. Acceptable. The points look like they work. The first wash took out the potential bleed. A box of the Color Catchers with laundry instructions releases me of all obligations once it is given away.
I put on an audiobook while I finished the binding. I remember watching the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris, so this book is fun. The reader has a southern accent; the book is written with Sookie as narrator of the story. It is fun to listen to and is the first of the series, so I hope to listen to them all. Audiobooks work for me while I quilt because I do not need to look up & its easy to pay attention to my work. Obviously, I could not do it if I need to cut.
I am not hosting a UFO Challenge, nor am I participating in one. I am working to complete a list of my own during this year. They are incredibly difficult. I've been trying to figure out why.
First of all, when we abandon a project, because it is all about abandonment, so much is going on and it might be different for each project. I cannot help but think of people abandoning each other; children being abandoned, lovers; toxic relationships or situations.
In order to look at quilting projects that are my UFO's, being honest, means I personally have abandoned the ones that are now on my list to finish this year. While they are not little children, nor are they lovers, at one time, I did feel a strong connection to making them. Then, something INSIDE ME, walked away from the projects.
I can see three reasons for this as I write this morning.
Honestly, sometimes, I got busy with wanting to finish projects that had deadlines. Those projects without deadlines to finish got put in a bin to work on later.
Sometimes, I found myself in over my head without the proper skills to work on the project or to finish it. As is said, I bit off too much to chew.
And then, I found one (so far) that I had no desire to finish.
When I looked at that project, it became quite clear that I would never want to work on it again. There was no one I wanted to give the quilt to, and I was simply done. I bundled up the quilt top/bottom/binding, PLUS extra like-themed fabrics that I knew I would not want to complete and sent them to another quilter who makes comfort quilts for others. Its in her closet now to make a choice to finish the first quilt and to start on another one. I am done with it.
That seems to be it, either they had less priority in my life, I needed more training to handle it, or I was done with it.
Organization played an important part in getting to this point where I could work on my UFO's. Next it was commitment to the project. If I wanted to finish it, then I really have been pushing myself to work on it. For instance, that Red/White/Blue quilt only has simple horizontal stitches, yet I find that it is taking so long. After each line is done, I flip it to make sure it didn't wrinkle. Then it gets rolled again to fit into the machine throat. I am not sure why it is taking so very long and already, because of the duration or the weight of it, I find myself wanting to set it aside.
However, I am committed to finishing it before going onto the next project. And so I will.
Looking at them like abandoned children, lovers or toxic relationships has helped me sort things and make new choices. The thing we often fail to look at is the person who did the abandoning. It is always easier to make them the bad guy or gal, but when YOU are the one who does the abandoning, then it is easier to justify your reasons. It feels essential for me to take responsibility for my quilting projects and either ONE; get on with it or TWO; release it. In both cases, whether it is a person or a project, this is all about healing our previous choices in life.
I started machine quilting the Red/White/Blue quilt with white thread. The back is white too, and I decided to quilt the lines horizontal. It took me a little while to lay out the quilt and think of options.
Its hard to see in the photo because of the lack of contrast, yet that is the whole idea. Its about half way done and while this probably should be easy, it is still weighty. I don't really want to work on other projects until this quilt is done, from the machine quilting to the hand sewing of the binding. It was a UFO and so my goal is to complete it and not have it wait for another time. It is going to take me the rest of this week, I am sure.
Meanwhile I went outside to pull the first bucket of weeds. I barely got things done in front of the window here by my desk. Weeds are coming up I haven't seen for years, and of course they have DEEP roots already. I think weeding will be a constant task this year with as much rain has fallen.
I decided to make another tote...camping, beach. What it does is to carry a LOT of linens whether they are pillows or towels or other fabric items. It is big enough and works.
After asking my eldest Granddaughter if she camped and if she took such things on her trips, I decided to make another tote. Thing is, I have a lot more 4" squares than I do 5" which got thinned out in the last few projects. I went to the calculator and realized I could sew 6 across and 10 down to get the same size. Then the small bin they were in was such a mess. It is colorized now and this is what I pinned together in rows.
Bobbins are loaded for quilting the red/white/blue quilt and so this project will wait until then.
I was delighted to finish another one of the Beach Towel Totes. I liked using the 5" charms, as well as finding scraps for the inside lining and the two sides.
Here is the bottom of the Tote. Its the part of the tote that gets missed. I loved using odd combinations and lined them up in rainbow-like rows. The piece takes five across and 8 long to make the full outside of the tote. It is a large enough tote to carry pillows or towels.
This time, I put in my rolled up lap quilt & a king sized pillow.
The top of the tote shows green fabric with pink flowers and green leaves for the lining, a side panel, the two straps and the rolled up quilt. Its so easy to carry with linens of any kind needed for the trip. The straps let you carry it over your arm. Its a hard tote to photograph so a person can see how it works. I just love it and hope that my Granddaughter will enjoy it when she goes camping again this Summer.
I have become fascinated with totes and signed up for a tutorial that comes from a woman in Australia. She uses quite different words than we do...wadding instead of batting, for instance. Eventually, I would like to replace the cheap bags I have for fabric totes. Some time ago I made one to carry the quilt parts to the clubhouse for basting and I love, love, love it. It is far too large to carry really heavy objects in it but the quilting projects are perfect.
