Friday, January 29, 2021

Glasses half full...

 Here we are at the end of January-- I made my lists, fell quickly behind, but in spite of that, I have had a super productive month! 

Sometimes it is more beneficial to write down what you did accomplish, instead of what's missing... so here's my January wrap-up...



1.

I got Once Upon A Time, Winter rolling-- FREE Charm 5 is out today. A secret-- my talented daughter Caroline is drawing these up for me-- did you notice a little stylistic difference? I've been really enjoying the fresh, new color scheme--some of these thread colors were never touched by me-- hee, hee, and it's been challenging and exciting to explore new ways of digitizing that only occur to me now that I am interpreting someone else's drawings.


A case in point-- I never could get a decent poinsettia digitized despite my love of all things Christmas-- I think my brain looks for symmetry, in which the poinsettia is sadly lacking. Presto! She did it. I would never have tucked that gold leaf in there!




Does it occur to us to ask for help when we need it? Just a thought.


So as we work together with this, I also have her drawing up some PEOPLE-- specifically, sewing people--let's see what happens! My skin tone thread assortment will have to be taken out of its preshrunk plastic wrapper for the first time!

2.

Cottages of the Month are ready for assembly! I used my chunk of time theory to spend 4 straight hours trimming them-- my least favorite part. Next week, I am going to schedule in a time chunk to stitch it all up at once-- how long do you think that would take? I'm guessing another four hours. In my quest to quantify the time spent on quilting tasks-- I've noticed after two hours on a single task, it gets very hard for me.



Once it's all together, I promise I'll get a better picture. Another thing I did differently is to use block, sashing, and border fabric that are all quite similar in color. It is subtle and sensational... but just can't be captured by a camera. As an artist, it's always such an exciting feeling to throw away your usual choices and try something new, isn't it?

3.

I mentioned that I want to have four quilts finished this year-- the first one I picked is Laundy Basket Quilts "Alaska." So at the beginning of the month, I wrote in my planner that I would stitch up a set of four blocks every three days-- that ended up being totally unrealistic! Glass half full, glass half full-- I did finish twenty blocks in all-- nothing to sneeze at. Also, these blocks are all made of diamonds-- that's something I haven't done in a while, and there was a bit of a learning curve. I put it aside for a bit, but next week, I am going to give it a huge chunk of time-- maybe even a whole day, and see where I am. I really have till the end of March when I'd like to finish it. It snowed here, so I'm really channeling it!



4.

The more I resolve NOT to do something-- the opposite usually occurs at an accelerated pace. So, NOT starting new projects has NOT happened. I want to try to make a new tablerunner every month this year, so I pulled this out of my closet.



A couple of years ago, I subscribed to Fig Tree Quilts Little Box of Figs subscription-- I got a cute little box each season full of goodies. They're still in my closet. LOL. This was a Valentine's Day edition-- it is a table runner named "Mimosa." I love this pattern-- I'm very partial to checkers.  


So, again, LATE on the January tablerunner of the month, but I'm giving it a chunk of time next week and hope to even finish it. On the plus side, I have a stack of "started" table runners, so other months may get a head start. I still think I can do it! Isn't it great, how hope springs eternal in my heart? Another topic I've been discussing with Caroline this week-- if you have a PASSION for something, do you really need TALENT? I just don't think you do. :-)



6.

Carefree highways-- Maine is done and Colorado is under the needle as soon as I get up. I'm issuing sets of five, and this collection is now going to get time and love-- look for it SOON.



Your turn-- what will you spend a chunk of time on today?


xox

Carol

1 comment:

  1. Well, I spent my day doing laundry SO tomorrow I get to stitch a bit. Had really thought I'd get to it today, but that didn't happen. As Annie would sing "tomorrow, tomorrow".

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