I have some sewing-for-work to do. My shop is desperate need of an update and I have a couple of on the road sales coming this spring. I need to get to work! Naturally, this tends to lead to a lot of shuffling around in the sewing room, re-arranging fabrics and teeth grinding.
We've been sick, I've been feeling anxious and powerless and overwhelmed. I needed a clear the cobwebs project. Then, I caught this beautiful post last week. She never fails to inspire, oh how I love to linger over in her space, looking at the photos and plotting my next project.
I've always wanted to make a patchwork quilt, I think that I even put together a top out of vintage sheets when I was younger. I have improvised another top and even backed it AND cut out the binding but have yet to bind it.
And the kids actually use it anyway - which is the point, right? To USE it? That's why I loved Alicia's post. It was all about just going for it so the thing can get put to use and don't think about it too hard!
The problem is, there isn't a fabric shop within two hours of me. And even that one, sweet as it is, does not carry any linen, knits or gray or brown. It's a quilt shop - the best quilt shop, with excellent service, BUT I'm mostly a garment maker. And I'm not a stasher. I tend to thrift or buy fabric to use and get on with it. I don't have the space or capital to keep a bunch of extra hanging around. But, in the spirit of experimentation and spurred on by Alicia's post, on Saturday, when my parents offered to take a shift tending the little sick ones, we jumped at the chance. We needed pellets for the stove (also a two hour drive away) and I needed to clear my head.
After a couple of noontime glasses of Rose (head cold be damned), I leapt into the little quilt shop, thinking spring and just went for it. We were home before dark and the fabric was washed and dried in time for me to chop into it Sunday morning.
And it was liberating, friends! I almost stopped after the first square - the color scheme? Spring, yes but maybe a little to literal... But I just kept going. When I got bogged down, I set the timer. 30 minutes per square roughly and I shot for making squares that were about 16" or 32" x16" for the big ones.
Okay, I'm tempted now to go on and on about the relative garishness of the thing - boy, this is not a combination that I would normally choose. But that wasn't the point!! I just wanted to try something with no expectation except that I would sew and mix things up a bit and that, in the end, I would have something useful. And a blanket around here is a total necessity (says she who is typing in her living room with a down coat on).
What do you do when the sewer in you is blocked?
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