Coping mechanisms

Phew -- what a day. I finished two books - the one about the food industry - Salt, Sugar, Fat. It was a great book and lots to think about when you go to the grocery store. The second one was a novel. I've already got the next physical book picked out and that'll be the last of the loaned books. Now to get in gear and finish off the rest of the non-fiction library books. I must also find a new audiobook.

Let's see - I also got the magazine quilt quilted. Yeah - needs to be trimmed and bound today so I can get to UPS office tomorrow. I started cleaning up, sorting, and putting away stuff. That's a HUGE eye-opener. And I worked on a quilt.

When I was filling the laundry basket for the week, this twist and turn quilt ended up in the basket. I'm not sure why, but it was there. There were four blocks completed, the backing was in the box, the ruler, and all the fabric.

Opening up the project box

Seriously? I kept the cutoff edges? OK - those went in the scrap basket. Some days, I wonder about my habits. 

Scraps in the project box? 

This was a project that I started years ago. It was for a demo at the CreativFestival where I was talking about various rulers. Well, the quilt never got done But I had made a couple of sample blocks for the demo.

The Wonky Tile Triangle by Creative Grids

It would appear from the video that you should use the Wonky Trim Ruler to trim the blocks. Ah - I just used a regular ruler. I'll watch the entire video later to see if I missed anything!

Here are four blocks that were in the box.

Four blocks that were in the project box

The blocks are constructed with a partial seam and to get the triangles positioned in the right spot, a dot had to be marked on the squares and the triangles. So while I watched an episode of The Quilt Show, I did all the marking.

Marking the blocks

 I got busy and started to sew the blocks together. When I had several blocks together, I realized that I was still going to have to trim - I guess that's why you need the Wonky Trim Ruler. The dot wasn't in the right spot (according to my liking) and I would have changed it, but I was too far along by then. It doesn't matter - the blocks got trimmed.

Sewing the blocks with a partial seam

I worked on the green blocks and two nights ago, this is how the project looked on the design wall.

Part of the quilt assembled

Oh - how did I decide how big to make the quilt? Well, the blue fabric is a kiddie print so let's make this small. Small is good! I looked at the backing fabric - there was at least three meters. I decided to make enough blocks so the quilt would fit between the selvages of the backing. That meant making 30 blocks for a quilt that measured 37 by 47. Perfect!

As I was merrily sewing away, the bobbin ran out. No worries - I have five more wound ones sitting there. In a few seconds, I was back at work.

The bobbin ran out

So I had no issue making all the green blocks. Then it came to cutting the orange which had to be cut in the opposite direction and do you think I could get that through my head? I had to recut some of those pieces several times.

I also abandoned the marking thing. I could eyeball it and no problems with matching things up. That saved a lot of time. What's the point of being precise when you're going to trim?

Before I went to bed last night, all the blocks were completed and on the design wall. Yeah!!!!

All the blocks are done!!!

And the cutting table was clear! OMG - I'm totally obsessed now. This is bad!!

The cutting table is clear

The quilt top is now together. I was up bright and early and sewed it together. It went together like a charm!!!  The backing is cut and there's enough backing to make another quilt the same size. I don't have enough of the blue fabric to make a second quilt so that the backing fabric will go back in the stash.

The quilt top is done

The binding is cut and just needs to be sewn together. I'm on a roll!!

I know that everyone has different methods of coping with any kind of stress. It seems that I'm coping by sewing! And it's amazing how much we can get done by following habits! Check back to the comments on yesterday's blog to see how Elle gets a TON of stuff done by having good habits. I agree wholeheartedly with her attitude and her approach. If you start to think too much about things, it's going to take forever. Just do it!

One habit that I have is I'm a piler. I just need to pile things up or I need to move them from one spot to another until I finally deal with them. Why do I do that? I've no idea, but it drives me crazy! What I need to learn is to touch things ONCE - deal with it and move on. But I can't seem to do that.

However, I'm training myself with the laundry basket of projects for the week. I've got the next project on the cutting table and will get to cutting later today. By my count, there are still 7 or possibly even 8 projects in the basket. Small stuff - but small stuff sometimes takes even more time than the big stuff. I will NOT be needing to add anything to that basket this week.

I piled a couple more quilts on the bed. This one is one of my favorites. I designed it with the provincial panels that Northcott printed for the Canadian Sesquicentennial. Did anyone buy the kit? If so - have you made it???

Oh Canada quilt

Border Creek Station quilt

 See? I pile stuff on the cutting table in Studio B. But this is kind of my staging area. When I'm finished with stuff upstairs, I take it downstairs to be put away since all the storage is downstairs. Most of this has been put away.

The cutting mat in Studio B covered with things to put away

BUT as I was puttering, I found more stuff from the worktables that needed to be dealt with. This stuff has been floating around for a long time and doesn't have a home. That's why it floats and how many times have I moved it? Well, while I'm babysitting the long arm over this coming week, my goal is to deal with this stuff.

Stuff that needs a home

Then I got a little zealous and pulled out another blue bag of scraps for the pet mats. That project hasn't been touched in a while. So this is going to be my job today while I quilt. Get this stuff on the cutting table dealt with. I'm going to get this place tidied up if it kills me! I want to keep working at the same time so it's going to take a little bit longer than if I just dove in. But I don't want to do that either. 

Stuff to put away in Studio B

I could have left it on the worktables, but that seems too daunting. I like to break it up into chunks. This is probably way too much to expect to get done in a day. I'll see how it goes.

BUT - look there are actually some empty spaces on the worktables. It doesn't look like it, but if you look closely, you'll see some empty space.

The worktables with EMPTY spaces

There's also a huge stack of empty containers on the table. So that's good news as well.

I also started sorting - UFOs and brand new projects. This is one thing I found and I know there is lots more like it. I actually think I'm going to find more new projects than UFOs. The challenge pack from the Riley Blake challenge from 2018. It's not so much the challenge kit that I didn't have to buy, but it's the $75 of coordinating fabric that I bought to make something and never made a thing. That's sad. But it's beautiful fabric so I think this is going to be kept as a project. I just need to find a pattern.

Riley Blake Challenge kit fabric

Extra Riley Blake fabric to coordinate with the challenge kit

I emptied more reusable bags so once we're out of our crisis, I'll be donating these to the local food bank.

More reusable bags

Hmm - may have a problem with some of the UFOs as those plastic containers do NOT fit in my boxes. More on that tomorrow.

Hmm - project box does NOT fit in the cardboard box

Let's just say that after the exercise yesterday that I feel like I'm FINALLY on the right track to getting this last area of my quilting stuff organized. How long did that take? 20 years!!!  But it doesn't matter - I'm on a roll and that's all that counts.

I found another poster that is perfect for me! I don't have room to hang it so I won't be buying it, but I thought it was cute.

Poster for books and sewing

On that note, I'm out of here. I hope that you're all finding some way to cope with the crisis that is productive for your mind, or your soul, or for someone else (like making masks or quilts). My only advice is to NOT watch too much news. It's so repetitive and while I know they are trying to keep us informed, we do not need to feed this doom and gloom into ourselves all day long.

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!