Monday Muddling

Today started with errands and appointments, so there wasn't a lot of studio time. Still, I managed to accomplish a few things and keep the forward momentum going.

First, I finished my UFO inventory. I ended up with an even 60. These are projects which, with two exceptions, have pieces cut and at least some piecing done on them. The two that are just piles of fabrics are baby quilts that need to be finished this fall, so they went on the list. A couple aren't really even on the radar for ever finishing, but I liked the idea of ending with a nice round number, so I included them. The total number was about what I expected it to be, although I was hoping it would turn out to be less.

Now I will pick what one of my online groups calls "The Fab Four." These are four projects that will get the majority of my attention until they are finished or I get to the end of the month, whichever comes first. At the beginning of September I will choose four more - maybe some of the same ones - and keep the process going. I like to pick projects that are in different stages of completion, so that I can rotate from machine piecing to basting to quilting. Sometimes that isn't possible, and I have to be fairly monogamous when I have a project in the machine. Each project has it's own needs for how the machine is set up, and changing the settings to work on more than one at a time isn't worth the time wasted.

Right now I have the baby quilt going through the machine. I finished a couple sets of blocks today and should be able to start assembling the top by the end of the week. I'm hand piecing the Grandmother's Flower Garden, and that's a good project to work on in the early morning while I'm having my coffee. Then there is a quilt that is getting hand quilting. I haven't pulled that out this week yet, but I will figure out some way to work on it without having the whole thing in my lap in 100-degree weather.

I was trying to find some other form of needlework that I could work on while sitting in the easy chair with my feet up. Hand piecing works, and so does tatting, but I needed something else. So I went hunting for counted cross-stitch. I knew I had a partially completed angel that I started back in the 90's, and I found it as well as the directions and the box of floss, so that has now come up to the den. In the process I found a couple of kits for cross stitch and beads on perforated paper; I will work those up first and figure out something clever to do with them.

While I was pondering and thinking about embroidery, I suddenly had a vision of a piece of crazy quilting, with all the embroidery along the seam lines. I remembered that I had started some crazy pieced squares using necktie silk remnants that I bought in New Orleans. I haven't dug those out yet, but I'm inspired. Something will happen along those lines before the month is over.