My Week, Part II

Well, it seems a little silly to call this post "Part 2" when we're almost through the next week! Oh well, it is a continuation of last week.

When I was diagnosed with the tenosynovitis (sore thumb), I was pretty upset that I wouldn't be able to sew. Then I calmed down and took a look around the quilt studio. Remember these string blocks? Well, I found what was left of the phone book pages that I had cut those foundations from, and they were a useable size. . .they'll finish at 4 1/2" x 10 1/2". So, I just started sewing strings to them. Now there's more of that Spring String thing going on!

I learned to use the little scissors with my index and middle fingers (because of that lovely thumb brace), and I cautiously used the rotary cutter left-handed, while aiming at the brace, not my exposed fingers! (don't need more hand issues!) Well, I'll never do precision cutting that way, but it was sufficient for what I needed to make these! I have trimmed a few blocks, now that my thumb is feeling better, because I just needed to see what they were gonna look like. Most of the blocks are waiting for trimming until my hand is all better.

While I was happily stitching away on these, my mind raced with the possibilities of what I could do with them. The easy answer was Chinese Coins, but I think that's too predictable and boring. Then I thought of a spiral, starting in the middle of the quilt. I tried laying out the blocks for that, and I can't imagine how I would ever put them together that way! Doing the background would be a nightmare, I think.

So, then I thought of making rectangles. Above is the first attempt. I think that may be toooo long and skinny.


So, then I tried this layout. I think this may be it. I might go with the center design being off-center in the quilt, but I'll have to see how that looks. Still have a lot more blocks to sew. I started with about 70 foundations. Someday all those strings might actually be used up. . . . . except for the fact that I keep adding to them!

Last Saturday, my local quilt guild had a workshop on painting on fabric. We used acrylic paints. Now, don't laugh. I'm not much of a painter (stenciling is more my forte), so this isn't anything even remotely close to great art. But, I don't think I totally embarrassed myself. I don't know that I'll ever do anything with this painting, since it's kind of stiff, but the workshop was fun.

When my sister visited, she brought me some cute fabric. When I got home from the workshop, I went into the quilt studio with the intention of pulling fabrics for a color challenge I need to do, but then got distracted by the fabric my sister had given me. It was sitting on the top of the pile on my cutting table. . . . I'm sure you know what I mean! Then I found this cute cat fabric that I bought last year - it has cats on it that were by the same artist (Debbie Hron) that did the calendar I had last year. . . .I thought they were just so funny and charming. Well, one thing led to another, and before I knew it, I was cutting and sewing , and ended up with this:

"Love Notes"

This fabric cracks me up! Some of these "notes" are too true. For example:

"Please put away that suitcase. You are not going anywhere. XOXOXO, The Cat"

"The litter box needs cleaning. XOXOXO, The Cat"

"I would prefer to drink from the faucet. The water in my dish is unacceptable. XOXOXO, The Cat" (my personal fave - this is Dunkel!)

There's about 12 of these little notes. If you're interested, you can see this fabric here.

Here's a closeup so you can see the cats in the border fabric.

Now, I'm trying to get something more done. My problem is Quilter's ADD! I want to do it all, and try to - all at the same time! As you can imagine, I'm not really accomplishing much.

Need to focus. . . .