The freight train in my brain got ahold of me last night and I never posted about the quilts.
Yesterday was a quiet, easy day. The kids were playing 'Zoo Tycoon' most of the morning and into the afternoon. I took the opportunity to piece together the strips, thinking I wouldn't get much more done for the day. The neediness comes and goes-I never know for sure whether I'm going to get 5 minutes or 5 hours of time to myself.
But it was flowing, and when things are flowing I like to keep moving. I have a bad habit of completing 75% of a project and then moving onto something else. One only needs to look at all my WIP's on needles to know I tell the truth!
In the span of 8 hours or so, the quilt top is completed. I even tried my hand at free-form quilting, although my machine is old and I have no business doing so. It was fun. It was harder than my practice piece. Now I know why long-arm machines exist!The whole reason I am making this smaller quilt is to practice before I make the larger one for us. It's been many years, and I am out of practice.
The whole time I was quietly piecing, I was thinking about the fact that I have had this fabric for probably 20 years, and have never done anything with it. It got me thinking about the nature of hording, and how ashamed I am at all the things I have stockpiled. It started with fabric, then polymer clay stuff, then scrapbooking, and now yarn.
I come by it honestly-many members of my family are first class horders. My Mom is fighting the battle with my Stepdad about getting rid of some things. Since his strokes, he can't do the things he used to do, and his memory of things' value is gone. It's more than they can handle. I don't want that to happen to me, to my kids, when the time comes. I have begun to step back, and take stock of what I have, and what I can do with it.
Use what you have
use it wisely
enjoy the process
I really enjoyed piecing the quilt together. All I have left to do is the binding, and I have completed one lovely crib sized quilt. I am going to gift it to a friend-someone I know who will appreciate it and love it. And it didn't cost me a thing.
p.s. In the next few days I am going to talk about this.
p.s. In the next few days I am going to talk about this.
3 comments:
Good one. Can't believe you got that much done in one day!
I hoard stuff too. Then I get tired of the craft and a lot of it sits there, unused, but I feel too guilty to give it away to Goodwill or something. I had fabric for 2 quilts after I took a hand-quilting class, but I hated cutting out the strips and never did anything with the material in the end! Now I have tons of paper scrapping supplies, but I've switched to digi and just can't sort out and give away the paper stuff because I spent all that money on it. So I agree with your idea of using up the stuff you've been hoarding. It feels good, I think, to finish what you've started, even if it takes years!
This is great.
I'm trying to use up my various stashes of yarn, fabric, etc. before I buy more.
I love that pink yarn, Sue! Can't wait!
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