Priorities

As you might have seen on the right side, in the margin of this block, I have a list of projects. My Name and Claim-list.
One of the projects is a priority-project :-)
I have a priority-project, because it facilitates my getting things done. When I start to get "iffy" and need to ply needle-and-thread, it can be something of a steeple-chase to reach a firm decision as to which of my (still too many) projects I actually want to work on.
When I have a priority-project, that's what gets picked up.
And while I do one thread on that (or 5 minutes if it's on the machine), I decide what I actually want to work on. If no decision has been reached, I'll take another thread (or 5 minutes) on the priority-project.
So, while my mind flits between the (far too many) options, my hands actually gets something done ...
The bottom-line is, that the priority-project moves along.
Slowly but surely.
And that is also why I usually give priority to a project which has reached a very boring or tedious spot of work. Right now, the priority-project is DDs quilt. Not because it is at a particularly boring spot, but I need to finish it fairly fast. Not for my sake, but for hers :-) so it sees (at least) a thread a day, and moves, slowly but surely, towards completion :-)

... another really good thing is, that after one thread (or 5 minutes) has been done, I can put it away and do something that I consider to be much more fun :-) I don't have to, but I can. And frequently this freedom of choice makes away with the incentive to find the present project boring :-)
Sounds convoluted and weird, but there it is :-)

Winter Wonderland

This is what my back-yard looked like this morning. And here we were, black-birds, cats, plants and myself, thinking that spring was springing.
Not so, as you can see.
There is merit to it, though. It looks very romantic and neat. No-one can really see the mess that is out there :-)

Another good side-effect of it is, that no-one really expects anyone to be out and about in weather like that, so ...what with weather and some sort of throat-infection going on, I've been sewing.
Hand-piecing, thank you :-) well ... mostly :-)
And I now have all the blocks for DDs quilt made.
There they are, laid out on the floor, with baby-cat contemplating whether she should lie down on the blocks on the floor, or rather jump into the chair, with both a finished quilt and a shawl.
Very difficult decision.


The chair won. You can't really mess around with blocks, but you can mess around with a shawl, working it like it was dough :-) and she does.

Well. The setting bits are now going on the flowers, and that does need to be hand-work. I'm using elongated hexagons for sashing, and have figured out, that if I put on all the "same-side" of the corners, all the way round, I won't have to decide, just yet, exactly how these flowers are to be distributed. I can fool around for a bit longer ... and I like that.

This is what the flowers will all look like when I've finished putting the sashing on them. A bit weird, I'll admit, but ... it'll work :-)
In the end, I'll have to put extra on the outside edges of the flowers that end up on the edge of the hexagonal diamond that will be the focus of the quilt, but that'll be ok :-)
.... and I'll deal with that when I get there.

So, progress is being made in Copenhagen. Slowly, but surely :-)

Adventures in machine-piecing

Yes. I decided to go for it yesterday, and decided to attempt NI # 1 ... with Freezer-Paper paper-piecing (FPpp). You can see the result here.
Not exactly encouraging if you ask me. Squares in the middle are not square, neither are the diamond-squares, and the slim, yellow border had a different width in every block I made.

All the more frustrating since I know that I can piece just about anything by hand. AND can make points pointy and intersections meet.
Not so when machine-piecing. Not even when I have paper to help me cheat !
BUT I'm not easily intimidated, and this means, that today was another attempt at FPpp. This time with Nearly Insane # 2.
As you can see, the result is slightly better than the first attempt, but definitely not up to the standards of precision and crispness I can achieve by hand.
What is more, I've come to the realization, that "Nearly Insane " really should be re-named to "Definitely Bonkers" ... but then ... that's my kind of quilt and my kind of blocks :-)

Beavers and Birch-trees

My DH is a biologist. He has a MA in biologi and one in geography. This combination made our son declare, when he was about 4 years old, that when he grew up, he wanted to be a biographer, just like his dad.
But I digress.
During his studies, DH was on 1 (as in "one") 2 week excursion, doing hands-on, old-fashioned, look at birds and bees and plants and animals course. He always claimed, that what he learned was to tell the difference between a beaver and a birch-tree.
Which is why the new toiletry-bag I've made him, has beaver blocks and, on the bottom and on the inside : birch-tree fabric.
The beavers are from BOB, and were originally made in the last millenium ! so ... the blocks are bordering on antique.
They have now been bordered with wild-life fabric and two nice, bright greens, and have been transformed to what you see here. Beavers and Birchtrees for the Biographer :-)

A February Finish

Yes. The sweater is finished !

Pictured here on the wintery veranda / deck that my (new) sewing-room opens up to. I pretend that the style here is shabby-chic, and that the lacking paint and general signs of slight decay are all as they should be.
It will be cleaned up when spring arrives :-)

It's been a fun project. Good to return to a love of my youth, and even if it does look complicated, it really isn't. There is not one single row which has more than 2 colours in it. The trick of this particular designer seems to be, that she shifts the colour on either the pattern or the back-ground occasionally, to make the design come more alive.
Kaffe Fasset has not lived in vain :-) ... even if he would probably have chosen 20 or 30 colours :-) for each part of the pattern :-)
ANYways. It is finished, and even if I did not do all the picots the pattern called for (I'm not overly fond of picots), I am happy with the result. It will now be washed and stretched.

Lent is coming !

Well. It is !
Many years ago, an anglican freind of mine asked "What are you giving up for Lent ?" And I remember looking blankly at her.
Giving up for lent ?
I had never heard anything as silly as that.
But the thought grew on me. And grew.
To me, "giving up for lent" doesn't mean denying myself as much as it means freeing time and means to something else. Time to pray and meditate. Time to just look out the window. Time to commuicate with both God and myself.
And so, I have :-)
Given up something for Lent.
For the past 3-4 years it's been to do with my quilting.
During lent, I have not started new projects, and have not bought fabric.
It was downright scary the first year.
And last year, to keep a commitment to a dear freind, I broke the "not start anything" promise. But apart from that, I've been good.
To be quite honest, I have more fabrics, more started projects, and many, many more ideas, patterns and general dreams, than I can hope to finish in the next many years. To have a 40 day stop on starting new things as well as buying new things, should be do-able.

To me, my lent-promise to myself has many benefits :-)
I do spend less time window-shopping (and real-life shopping) on the 'net.
I work on "tired" projects, rather than starting something new.
BOB is given an airing.
And at the end of Lent, I have - usually - progressed well on at least one project that was all but stalled.
This year, Lent starts February 21st, so ... there's lots of time for you to ponder whether you want to join me in giving up starting and shopping this Lent.