Saturday, April 3, 2010

No Excuses, Just Progress

I'm not going to bother answering where I've been and how an entire year (plus!) could have gone by since my last post. As soon as someone develops software that takes the blogs you write in your head and directly uploads them to cyberspace, I'll be the first in line!

I'm just moving on from here. I think I'll use this space to talk about projects both ongoing and those languishing in various project bags, baskets and plastic tubs. If I honestly listed all the knitting and quilting projects recently finished, underway, in the "time out" corner and in my head, it would be a bit scary even for me. So I'll talk about them a little at a time as I'm inspired to work on them. I'm not a monogamous knitter or quilter so there will always be AT LEAST 8-10 projects being worked on at any one time. Finishing? Yes, therein lies the problem.

Last weekend I took some time and chose backing fabric for three wall hanging quilts. They are now sitting on my new Sew Ezi table ready for an afternoon of machine quilting. One of the project dates back to 2002 and the others have a little less age.

This weekend, I'm putting together two quick lap quilts for friends' mothers, both of whom have dementia. A few years ago, I made one for my grandmother. I noticed that she was always stroking fabric and gathering it into pleats and so I used a variety of fabrics and put together something that she could touch that was a bit more interesting. It was a huge hit and she even managed to wear out the velvet parts with her constant touch.

This time I dug around in many tubs of fabric and in the attic for some discarded clothes. I came up with about 12 different kinds of fabric include a shiny scale-like fabric from my daughter's mermaid costume many years ago.

Lesson Learned: Flannel design walls work really well for cotton. Shiny fabric and leather? Not so much!

Stayed tuned!