Friday Ramblings

I don't need a long sleeved shirt today, it is on its way to pass yesterday's high of 88. It is absolutely beautiful. I made a pitcher of iced tea and enjoying every minute of the day. Big T and The Dude are doing yard work and I am sandwiching a quilt so I can quilt it later today or tomorrow (if I get motivated).

I am so loving these new art quilts I am playing with. I don't know if there's a right or wrong way, but it feels right. I actually have some creativity starting to sneak into some of my work. Imagine that - uptight, control-freak, inhibited little-old me letting a little creativity through my filters. Instead of planning something out for hours or days (or weeks), I am just doing what comes into my head. I think Melody and Barbara call it playing. I wanted something different for my Study in Purple wall hanging but I wasn't sure what. All of a sudden I realized I had picked up the scissors and had created an entirely new shape - and I love it. I would never have done that in the past.

These are on my design wall right now. I'm trying to get a feel for what these will look like together. I'm not sure the center one goes with the other two. Any thoughts?

I didn't make it to the sewing studio yesterday. We had banking and a few other errands to run. One of the drawbacks of living in a rural community is that everyonce in awhile you have to go outside the local area for errands. AND then it takes all day. So we save them up and try to do everything at once. We were all the way home before I remembered that we didn't stop at Joann's. How we did that is beyond me. So my 'small Joann list' will be even bigger the next time. Maybe this was a subconscious message to do it online. Seems like everytime I go to Joann's the shelves are empty, or styles and colors are extremely limited. I think there if you exceed a certain amount, the shipping is free. (Or does anyone else know a good, inexpensive online shop for notions, batting, etc.?)

Hugs to all. I cherish each and everyone of you.

Marie

Life's Lessons Continue

Learning lessons the hard way does not mean I did it wrong - right? I think I would rather say "well I won't do it that way ever, ever again". And learning valuable lessons is a good thing - right? If that's true, I must be really, really good right now. There's just one itsy, bitsy problem - I learned what I did wrong, but I didn't learn a better way to do it.

I sewed all my strips together just like Barbara at bslartquilts.blogspot.com said and then I cut them all apart in various widths to reassemble and sew back together. (Ok so far!) When I sewed the seams to reassemble all my newly cut strips, all my original seams were coming apart. (Not ok at this point!) After reinforcing (resewing) all those little horizontal seams (mutter, mutter, mutter) I was able to sew the new seams reassembling in an entirely new look. (Not ok at this point either!) That is when I realized that I should have used the 'sew as you go' method and sew my long, varied-width strips onto a muslin backing to support and reinforcement. It is very difficult to sew long strips together without that extra support.

Now, I realize the rest of you have already figured this out and are sitting there shaking your heads at me. The only thing I have to say is - "I won't do it that way again." Meanwhile, you can all feel free to comment and tell me everything I did that was wrong. (Oh by the way, I do like the way it turned out - just not the process of getting there.) Today will be sandwiching, quilting and binding. (Ambitious aren't I.) I'm hoping to be able to post it to Hummingbird Treasures tomorrow.

Hugs to all of you who are sharing my life's adventures (and the lessons learned - but do they always have to be learned the hard way?) You are a very special part of my life.

Marie