Wednesday, August 5, 2020

A Little Bit At A Time

Life has been very disjointed and moody lately. We have deadlines and 'have-to's' out the kazoo. Things happening that seem quite heavy. Or at least it seems that way. It could be that our get-up-and-go is feeling recalcitrant, and everything seems to take an extra dose of effort just to get done. Our kids and grandkids came to visit last weekend, so that was a wonderful window of good times. Nothing like the honest joy of little children to make everything seem just a little bit brighter for a moment or two!
Coronacrazy progress
Governor proclamations and mandates have been getting especially wearisome of late. It feels like we're at permanent pause regardless of any available, pertinent data. I have family grappling with the public school question and I'm very relieved not to have to be dealing with that dilemma myself! Feel so sorry for the kids who will have to wear masks all day and not get to have any positive social time with their friends. Definitely time to seriously consider home school options, but if too many do that here in our valley, the result will probably be that our community permanently loses the school itself.

Good time to pull out the Coronacrazy quilt out and make a stab at moving things forward--put my crazy towards something beneficial. Just too many things completely out of our control! This picture above represents three hours of auditioning the layered flower bits and then taking off the pieces not needing to be tucked 'under' the hills. I'm not very much in the mood to do this particular applique at present, but it is all prepped and ready for when the time arrives. Which it always does.
Binding for Sweet Tarts
Lovely to have had the binding all ready for Sweet Tarts! It's well on its way to a post of its own here on the blog, and I must say, it will be very bittersweet to be finished up with this particularly sunny project. It's been a great mood elevator during these past weeks of having it in my lap.
Applique border on Seedpods
The Seedpod quilt has the applique addition all cut out, very carefully fussy cut from the remnants of a single fat quarter. Stumbled upon this fabric when combing through the stash totes and it seemed so obvious that it was the perfect choice to help make this centerpiece shine! Amazing what a little fussy cutting can do! Crossing my fingers all the colors work as well as expected....
Time for a basket!
This has been in the works for a couple weeks. One day I was perusing the multiple stacks of fabric marinating throughout the quilt room. This stack of older blues and pinks didn't seem very inspiring, but mixed with a few reds and greens, just had this little glimmer of possibility. 
A make-do background
On that particular day, I must have been feeling fairly invincible, as it was not the least bit scary to just start cutting and throwing things at the wall. In no time at all, there was a substantial basket looking back at me. Easy as pie to add more width to the chosen background fabric and then, next thing I knew, the preparation for applique was well on its way too. Love when a project barrels along, gaining momentum with every single decision made!
Figuring out the applique
I'm enjoying the faintly Scandinavian look/color palette to the applique, but you probably need to know that all the cues for this flower arrangement were taken directly from the darkest blue fabric in the basket. Still not 100% sure about the white stem and leaves, but am willing to try it out and see. The basket handle still needs some fine tuning, but otherwise, all is ready for hand stitching there too.
Next up in the hoop!
Though we did have a lot of distractions over the weekend, there is generally always a brief window for hand quilting around here too. Thankfully Peachy Cameo was already sandwiched and pinned, ready to be popped into the hoop at a moments notice! I've been dreading working on this quilt for some ridiculous reason, but finally the time had come. No more excuses or procrastination allowed!
Closer look at Peachy Cameo
Now that I've stitched a hoop or two, it seems like a rather silly 'dread' and I'm left wondering why? It was probably the open areas in the applique border that seemed rather intimidating. Sometimes it takes getting a quilt into the hoop before those decisions can ever be satisfactorily addressed in our minds. Gotta go through instead of trying to weasel our way around a problem.
Full view
Up till today, I've not had a boat load of problems with the New Blogger. Little bit of a learning curve, but not too overwhelming. Today was a doozy and I eventually just had to delete an entire post and just start over. Why? Something to do with {accidentally} engaging the link button and then trying to type out the entire post while in that particular mode. Definitely. Do. Not. Recommend. I've been working on getting a post out today for more hours than I want to admit to. You'd think I would have quickly figured it out, but no.... I'm not techy smart and it took me forever to understand why all my defaults had suddenly went pyscho. {Head banging stuff.} Blogger, you picked a fine time to change things up and I sincerely hate you. The end.

So the paperwork has been piling up around here and I've been ignoring it best that I can. {For a long, long time actually!} Thinking... Hmm.. Surely I can put it off till a less stressful time? Yeah. Not happening any time soon. I finally bit the bullet and started getting things organized for a big push in the home office. Will still try to blog here and there, but cannot guarantee any regularity. Or perhaps I will post pictures and leave off the wordy ramblings? Whatever. Will figure it all out in due time. Thankfully I have lots and lots of hand work prepped and ready to go for when I need the down time. 

Am currently trying to get my hand work bag sorted out with applique projects organized in order of priority. lol  Order of importance? Or order of interest? You tell me which ones more important...


21 comments:

  1. I love that Scandinavian look - really neat. Here too people are doing the should I or shouldn't I regarding kids and school vs on line. I think some of my extended family are sending kids back and and I few are not. I am worried for my great-great niece Aniya as I do believe her mom is sending her back and wants her to continue in the pee-wee cheer-leading! I am against that but I have no say of course. Wishing all of yours well!

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  2. I wonder where Peachy Cameo has been hiding all these years, I don't recall ever seeing it, but wow - it's fabulous! Given all the trauma of the year I'd definitely recommend sorting those projects according to interest, we all need to have some Joy in our lives! Yay for grandkid visits, hoping to have some visits sometime this year too ...

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  3. I am in deep love with your quilt...LOVE! I tell you! LOVE!!

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  4. You wrote, "Blogger, you picked a fine time to change things up and I sincerely hate you. The end." I couldn't agree more! So much uncertainty already with everything going on in the U.S. and the world, one would have thought Google could have waited a while before adding one more thing.

    Your Peachy Cameo may be my most favorite of all your quilts! It really is fabulous. I think you are the Queen of Applique!

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  5. Your bright scalloped border on Seedpod really is perfect! And wow your Peachy Cameo quilt is so great. Fingers crossed, knock on wood, I haven't had any trouble with blogger yet. I had trouble a few years ago and found that it helped to always use Google Chrome as my browser.

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  6. oh i love coronacrazy! and the baskets are very fine...sometimes you just gotta wing it and voila!

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  7. So much to love in this post, as always! I am happy you are finding ways to distract yourself. So many things we cannot control right now.

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  8. I think we're all suffering from adrenal exhaustion. I feel so very tired of worrying about everything, too. Some days, it's all I can do to put one foot in front of another! Other days I feel oddly giddy when I decide just to give up on everything and just try to find a moment of joy--like reading your blog! Thank you for sharing your thoughts and your joy with us. You are not alone in how you are feeling, and you are much appreciated.

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  9. Please please please don't stop posting here - you are truly a bright spot in my day. I love your quilts, your process, your honesty, and your style. We are dealing with decision overload here between adjusting to having three of us living here after 15 years of just the two of us, and the ongoing renovation upstairs (new flooring arrived today - only a few more weeks of upheaval ahead). Take care, fondle your fabrics, enjoy your stitching, and stay well.

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  10. Great baskets, all of them lovely. And your birds in the border are beautiful!

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  11. The new basket is very nice. I like you have repeated the tulips from the design on the fabric. The color of red for the background is great. I look at my stack of reds and they are all the same shade - crayola red. This is a good reminder that I need to get some contrasting reds. I haven't been to a fabric store since this whole thing started. I ordered from a local shop once and Etsy a couple of times. I don't know how people are staying in business. Sorry for all the trouble with blogger.

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  12. I love your Peachy Cameo quilt! It’s such a happy quilt. Can’t wait to see it with added texture!

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  13. I LOVE the organic, primitive, hand drawn kind of kids feel of your quilts! SEW imaginative, and fun! Please do not quit blogging nor talking, I NEED both pictures and commentary. Love your blog, you are inspiring me!!!!!

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  14. Loving all your projects (Seedpods - swooon!!). Really can’t help with the priority of your projects - guess what makes you happiest!! Good luck with the paperwork and hope it doesn’t keep you away for too long - I would miss your delightful ramblings! x

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  15. I don't recall Peachy Cameo, but it's so cheerful. Just the right candidate for hand quilting. Hard times for everyone. Just keep focusing on the positive. The only problem I've had is blogger is the huge amount of awful spam. Don't be away too long. We all need to stick together.

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  16. The bird border quilt needs to come live with me! Love it!

    All those pretty pinks in the funky scallops...nice. I have been on a pink fabric want lately.

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  17. Peachy Cameo is so very pretty, I love the colour mix in this! I've got some of that Kaffe (?) that you've used in the scallops, never found a way to use my 1/2 metre! Hope the paperwar isn't too consuming, and you find time to hand quilt at least. Take care.

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  18. Peachy Cameo is gorgeous! Love the birds and I love the border of Circle blocks. Seedpods is scrumptious too! Shoot! When it comes down to it ... I don't think there's anything you do that I wouldn't love! Sorry you have a mountain of paperwork to get under control but do it you must! Crazy times call for a little order in our household. Something we can control and feel content about. See you when you come up for air, even if only occasionally!

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  19. So many lovely quilts-in-progress to look at this time. Wow. I'm impressed you can keep so many going at one time... and seem to keep them out. I am walking on a carpet of fabric; it's time to start a good cleaning here.
    There is something about the colors of Coronacrazy that draws me right in. I love those exact shades of red and pink that you've mixed, the irregularity of the flowers and their placement, and all those delightfully original bias curves.
    A basket beginning and another finishing. How great is that.
    The light green border to Seedpods relates to the center fabrics and pumps up the energy. Before, it had a calming twilight effect. Now it's high summer. Your dark blue corners are a good choice with it.
    Peachy Cameo is sheer delight. The borders are so charming. I'm liking your choice to use white backgrounds with these cheery shades of red, blue, and green. Love the swag, too.
    I don't have a solution for school either. I can see many might close if children stay home but also fear many will close as staff die from this virus. Like you, I'm grateful we don't have kids that age right now.

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  20. I love all your quilts and have ever since I began following your posts! I usually read in my small tablet and find it's not conducive to leaving comments. Now I'm on my old desktop so I can tell you how much I appreciate your posts-your process, your analysis, how you start and how you move along with a design. I feel that you're speaking to me and everyone else. Your imagination helps me with my quilts and makes me smile too :). I like wonky and liberated patchwork and applique, and I only hand quilt--your style inspires me to try something new. Thanks, Audry!

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  21. Your Coronacrazy project is absolutely fantastic Audrey! ❤

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Thanks for visiting! I love getting comments and always try to respond via email. Please leave an email in the comment to ensure a return reply! {Many of you are popping up as Anonymous for some reason, so I have no idea who it is.} Regardless, I appreciate all the comments and read every single one.