Another play day -

Just taking my sweet time -

And I was able to get my Victoria and Albert Interweave top sewn together -

With borders - LOL -

Tomorrow I'll press it nicely and take some glamour shots - ;))

One of my readers and I were "chatting" about not being in a hurry -

She said it much better than I did yesterday -
And - I quote - with her permission - ;))

I love finishing a project too. But I'm not in a race and not meeting production quotas. I quilt because it brings me satisfaction to make something well and something beautiful (or at least, I think so)

It wasn't until I scheduled this post for Friday -

That I realized that Friday is January 31, 2020 -

The last day of the month -

And since this DOES count - in my book - as a FINISHED top -

It will be my second FINISHED top for the month and year -

But - trust me - the timing was PURELY accidental - LOL - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

Play day -

It felt so good -

To play with my Victoria and Albert Interweave today - ;))

I didn't quite finish getting the top together -

But I wasn't rushing -

I was enjoying each and every stitch - LOL - ;))

To me -

That's what it's all about -

ENJOYING the process -

I really couldn't care less -

If I EVER finish something -

And I can prove it -

One of my quilts is being quilted by a friend -

And it's just now being quilted -

Which is no big thing -

BUT -

I started playing with it in February 1997 -

And finally got the borders on it in September 2013 -

If you do the math -

I started it 23 years ago -

Played with it for 16 years -

On and off - mostly off - LOL -

Stored it for another 5 or 6 years -

Then sent it to my friend who offered to quilt it for me -

And she emailed me today that she's playing with it now -

Can you tell that I'm in NO hurry? - LOL - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

Sidestepping -

To hem my neighbor/friend's pants -

Ended nicely - YAY!! - ;))

And - funny thing -

As soon as I removed the pins -

Pressed the hems -

And took the photo -

My quilting mojo came back -

From wherever it went - LOL -

So - no chores are planned for tomorrow -

I'm declaring it an official PLAY day!! - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go- gotta sew -

Marked -

Is as far as I got - ;))

I lost my sewing mojo -

And had to take care of some "business" stuff today anyway -

So tomorrow I should be able to get them hemmed -

And then I can PLAY - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

One down -

Two more to go - ;))

When my neighbor/friend picked up the pants that I had hemmed for her -

She dropped off two more pair - LOL -

BOB* would have offered to teach her how to sew -

And then watch her disappear -

But she's special -

So I really don't mind -

Her sister is the lady who asked me to hem her work/scrubs when school started -

They are all very special people - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -


*For those of you who are new to my blog -
BOB is my alter-ego - Bitchy Old Broad - LOL - ;))

Sidetracked -

Again today -

I did some more "chores" -

And hemmed a pair of pants for a neighbor/friend - ;))

It seems like I'm the only one in my neighborhood who has a sewing machine -
or five - LOL -

And I'm happy to hem pants - it's easy enough -

But I think it's funny that none of them have any desire to learn how to sew -

Guess it's just easier to ask me to do it - LOL - ;))

Anyway - after I finished that -

I laid out the "twosies" on the kitchen island -

For one more "preview" before I sewed it all together -

If I want/need to move any of them -

NOW is the time -

I sure don't want to have to "un-sew" any of those long seams -

I'd rather PLAY with something else - LOL - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

Sew day -

Beats a "chore" day any day - ;))

I got the rest of the "twosies" sewn -

On my Victoria and Albert Interweave -

And ran out of mojo -

So tomorrow I'll try to get the top together -

But don't hold me to it - LOL - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

Flashback Friday - 1/24/20 -

I didn't get any sewing done Thursday -

So I don't have any new photos to show you -

But I wanted/needed to post something for Friday -

So - just for fun -

I thought I would post a link to one of my older posts - HERE -

As a "Flashback" for this Friday -

It's from 7/18/11 -

==========

Design Wall Monday - 7/18/11

LEFT-HANDED QUILTING - HST CORNERS USING ONE-WAY PRINTS
(HST = Half-Square Triangles)

==========

It may be an old post - but the information is still relevant -

And some of you may not have been reading my blog way back then -

Also - it's fun for me to look back at stuff I wrote YEARS ago -

Sometimes I read it -

And forget that "I" wrote it - LOL -

Does that ever happen to you? - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

A little more sewing -

Two more are sets sewn - ;))

Five more sets of "twosies" -

And the two right border strips are waiting their turn - ;))

Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

A good sewing day -

The two left border strips and first three sets of "twosies" are sewn -

On my Victoria and Albert Interweave -

The rest of the strips are sitting in piles on the ironing board waiting their turn -

They are all in order -

So it should be easy enough to sew a couple of strips together -

When I get a few minutes here and there -

I still have to work on my taxes -

But plan to take several "breaks" from the paperwork -

To help keep me sane - LOL - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

Moving -

The Victoria and Albert Interweave border pieces to the ironing board -

And the center strips to the cutting table -

Cleared off the kitchen island -

In preparation for more "chores" -

And that's about as far as I got today -

Maybe I'll get some sewing done tomorrow - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

Shuffle - Part 2 -

I shuffled the Victoria and Albert Interweave strips -

From left to right -

To mix up the colors a bit -

And even though I could have gone on f.o.r.e.v.e.r. -

I had to finally s.t.o.p. - LOL -

The top section looks OK -

And the bottom section looks OK -

So - while I was at it -

I chose the strips for the left borders -

And the right borders -

Now - tomorrow - after my chores -

I can SEW - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

Shuffling -

Is next on the agenda -

For the Victoria and Albert Interweave -

But first I had to lay out all of the strips on the kitchen island - ;))

You can see that some combinations are very bright and obvious -

And I only want one coral and one white on the bottom portion of the quilt -

And on the top portion -

So this will work -

Some sets are a little more subtle -

The third one from the right and the last one on the right -

Have the same purple fabric on the end -

And these two coral strips are the same fabric -

It's easy enough to fix if I take both the blue and coral strips and "reverse" them -

So that one coral is on the top and one is on the bottom - of the quilt top -

This other coral is similar - but not the same -

And will be moved in the next "shuffle" -

When I shuffle them from side to side -

These purple matchey ones were fixed -

The same way I fixed the matching coral ones above -

I took both the green and the purple strips and "reversed" them -

So that one purple is on the top and one is on the bottom - of the quilt top -

These blue/purples are similar - but not the same -

So - no matchey matcheys on this (top) side -

And no matchey matcheys on this (bottom) side -

So that worked out better than I thought it would -

Tomorrow is round two of the "shuffle" -

I want/need to separate the ones that look similar -

And mix up the colors a little more -

From left to right -

Then I can sew them together -

And play with the placement of the border sections - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

Playtime -

With some sewn strips - ;))

I had the Victoria and Albert Interweave that I wanted to play with next -

The columns were all sewn -

I just needed to lay them out and sew them together -

But I got side-tracked with year-end "chores" -

And had to settle for sorting some scraps when I had a little time -

Then I got a major tax chore done on Thursday -

So Friday I got another chance to PLAY -

I paired up the strips with the same "end" sections -

And flipped one of them the "other" way -

Hopefully so they don't both wind up on the top or the bottom of the quilt -

I say hopefully because they obviously have "another" end section -

Which may or may not "alternate" properly - LOL -

But that's as far as I got -

The kitchen island is finally cleared off -

So maybe Saturday I can get them all laid out -

Sew them together -

And make the borders -

Can't forget the borders - LOL - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

Sorting pretty scraps -

Is so much more fun than "chores" - ;))

When I showed you the "next" bag yesterday -

With its pretty colors -

I forgot to show you the other side -

With even more pretty colors -

This is the quick sort that I did -

After I got a MAJOR tax chore DONE today -

Now I can relax -

Regular tax stuff isn't due to my accountant until 3/1 -

So I can sit back and wait for stuff while I do my little summaries for him -

For now -

I'm going to play some games on my tablet -

Fix some dinner -

And play with more scraps -

Not necessarily in that order - LOL - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

Next up -

Is sorting this bag of goodies - ;))

I didn't get a chance to play with them today -

But I will definitely make some time -

To PLAY with them tomorrow - LOL - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

More sorting -

This time I started sorting the purples -

Light - medium - and dark -

But then wound up picking out the green-ISH ones -

And the blue-ISH ones - too - ;))

This is so NOT scientific -

Some of the same fabrics are in more than one pile -

But I'm OK with that -

I'm just PLAYING for now -

I'm not into the cutting phase yet - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

More -

Paperwork and chores were on the menu again today -

But after dinner I opened another bag of scraps -

Dumped them out -

And petted them -

Maybe I can play with them tomorrow - LOL - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

Sorting scraps -

Is always fun - ;))

I started with the solids -

And I played -

And sorted them by color -

Some are really close - and just a shade different -

So pretty -

Then I pulled a baggie of greens -

That I wanted to sort -

Light - medium - dark -

And I went about it very scientifically -

NOT!! - LOL - ;))

We all know that "value" is relative -

"Medium" can be "dark" when next to "lights"-

And "light" when next to "darks" -

So I did it the best way I knew how -

I sorted out the "lightEST" ones -

The "darkEST" ones -

Some with a bit of "blue" -

Some "oddballs" -

And what was left were the "mediums" - LOL - ;))

I did a little more tweaking -

And when I finally got this -

I put them all in their own little baggies -

And back into another bigger bag - ;))

Monday I go back to playing with paperwork and doing chores -

So we'll see if I can get some more sorted later -

I don't really have to SEW to have fun -

Sometimes just petting and sorting scraps -

Is all I need to make me happy - LOL - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

Playtime -

Is on the menu for Sunday - ;))

Saturday I did more "chores" -

Including more paperwork and laundry -

And - I swear my "paper" is worse than my scraps -

Dang things multiply in the night -

And every time the mail comes there's another batch of stuff to deal with -

There always seems to be NO end in sight -

But I know there is - somewhere -

At least there better be - LOL - ;))

Anyway -

I couldn't stand it any more -

I wanted to PLAY!! -

One day won't make any difference -

The paper will still be there on Monday - LOL - ;))

I wanted to play with and lay out the Victoria and Albert Interweave -

But my cutting table and kitchen island are covered with piles of paper -

So - instead - I opened a bag of scraps that my friend sent me -

For another "confetti" quilt -

Aren't these lovely? -

I had to pet them -

And Sunday I'm going to play with them - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -