Relax and Sew

 Hi-Diddily-Ho Quilting Friends!  Today is going to be a yippy skippy day!  The little me time/sew time yesterday evening has recharged my quilty soul.  It was a much needed break.  The last two or three weeks has been spent running around chasing my tail but somehow I was barely moving.  So I put on the brakes, dropped everything, went into my happy place and asked myself "What do you really want to do this evening?"  The reply was...Mindlessly sew and watch/listen to something quilting related.  There's a ton of projects to be finished, imagine that, a quilter with more than one UFO.  In the spirit of keeping it simple I chose the jar of triangles sitting beside the sewing machine.

It has an accompanying little tin of low volume triangle-ish fabrics and another larger plastic bin(to left with blue handle) with solid white triangles.  This is just the tip of the triangle iceberg. 

I've been pretty good about sticking with the leaders and enders project but it feels like it's taking forever.  Patience is not my strong suit when it comes to long term quilt projects, hence the many UFO's.  Boredom kicks in due to the lack of pretty progress, you know, a design wall full of pretty blocks.  So I decided to dig up the original photograph(below) of what the triangle pile looked like in the at the beginning of the project.  You can read more about it here.  I'm making progress!  It may not seem like it when I see it on a day to day basis but now that I see the before and after I'm quite happy with what I've accomplished.  And let's not forget that I'm constantly adding to this jar.  This photo gave me the will to continue on with my triangle journey.  

My instinct is to just keep sewing until the jar is empty.  Forget the leaders and enders, just sew, sew, sew.  Restraint and limiting my time in the jar is a must.

Setting a time limit was easy.  Find a video to watch.  There's a couple of different YouTuber's I like to watch on Sunday evenings.  One is health related and I'm not in the mood to be educated on how unhealthy I am so I chose the other quilting related YouTuber, Tiffany's Quilting Life.  She does two or three LIVE videos a week.  They usually run for an hour or more.

Last night she was auctioning off some of her finished quilts.  Most of her quilts have a scrappy vibe.  They aren't something I would make but I love quilts and quilters.  She's just your average Joe and I like that about her and her channel.  Tiff's hubby runs the camera and will often jump in and help with pressing the units as she makes them.  A quilters dream is to have a little elf in the studio and she has it!  Lucky girl!  

 Many of her videos are her creating a quilt on the fly.  The total opposite of me.  My quilt designing and making process is a little more rigid and structured.  She inspires me to be not so uptight.  Inspires is the keyword.  I'm not sure I could ever learn to be as free with my process but I also was leery about the leaders and enders, so who knows what the future may bring.  Anyway, take a look at this scrappy string beauty she was selling last night.  I fell in love with it and if I had the money I would buy it.   This picture does not do the quilt justice.  The colors are not in my normal color pallet but for some reason it spoke to me.   Some of the quilts didn't sell so if you like buying quilts.... here' a link to the auction if interested.  Of course she doesn't try to sell something in all her videos.  Most of them are just her and her sewing machine stitching away at whatever suits her fancy for that day.  I find it oddly relaxing to sew while listening to her sew.  It's like I'm at a mini retreat without packing, traveling or with sleeping with strangers.

It was time to get back to the triangles.  They are odd sized and shaped.  I do my best to match up sizes but I really don't worry about it too much.  These will be squared up to the largest size possible using my newly homemade locking HST ruler.  

As the video auction ended I knew I had to call it a day, that was the deal I made with myself.  Sew until the video was over.   Like a child I protested.  Mindless sewing is so much fun in my world.  Rules are rules said the mom inside.  She's so annoying.  Being a little rebellious, I reminded myself that I said I could only sew while the video played.  I never said anything about pressing or cutting.   If I can't sew then I'll at least press and trim. 

Well I hate to say it but the mom in me was right.  It's late and I really should shut down the studio.  These will need to pressed on another day.   There was far to many to deal with last night.  

Obviously I was getting tired.  Somehow this happened.  Of course it could have happened because I was distracted by the quilt action.  Yep, that's it, I blame Tiffany!  It couldn't possibly be my fault. HA! It would make sense had I ran out of thread or had a thread break.  Strange things happen when you are tired. 

And then I found this one.  Yep, it's definitely time to shut down the studio.

Before shutting down for the night I wanted to try out my new seam ripper.  A gift from my youngest son, Trever.  He found it at a pop up farmers market on Friday.

I've seen these online for years and have considered buying one.  They are a little pricey so I would always talk myself out of the purchase.   Silly me, this is wonderful!  It feels really nice in my hand.  The larger size and weight makes it easier to use than the many different plastic ones I own.  The points on both ends are very pointy and easy to get under the threads to cut them.   And it's pretty!   Thanks Trever, you're the best!

My word of the year....Moo-ve.   Staying in motion, moving the body, mind or project.   In this blog post I was moving way to fast in some areas of my life.  Slowing down and moving this project along helped to move my mind into a better place.  Which reminded me I can only do so much.  Slow and steady wins the race.

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