Saturday, December 07, 2019

Waiting, Wondering, Working

The Seven Deadly Sins and 
The Four Last Things
Hieronymus Bosch (ca. 1450 - 1516)
It's the Season of Advent...a time of waiting and wondering about the meaning of life; to whit, death, judgment, heaven and hell -- also referred to as "The Four Last Things".

Christian eschatology is pretty heady -- and heavy -- stuff!  And as the days in this hemisphere get shorter and darker (literally as well as figuratively!) I've decided that spending too much time contemplating such things is not a particularly good idea for me -- at least, not this year!

So I've turned to Fabric, Fibre and Floss Therapy.  It keeps my hands and mind occupied, and soothes my soul.  😊

My weeks are punctuated by hours of work at The Shop, and my days are filled with knitting, stitching and quilting -- mainly, but not exclusively, focused on Christmas gifts.

My son's socks are finished -- as I showed in my last post -- and my daughter's pair is 50% complete.  My neighbour John will soon have a pair of grey "How Quiet Mitts" to match the purple ones I knit for his wife.

And I stumbled upon 3 embroidery patterns a couple of weeks ago -- ones I'd put away years ago -- simple and fun, and not yet done!  So...I'm making them up as gifts for various friends.  Alas, Gentle Readers, some of them read this blog so...no photos!  No peeking till Christmas!  πŸ˜‰

What I can show you is what I've been playing with in the fabric department.  Since the quilts for the latest family of refugees have been finished and given away, I decided to try to sort out the remains of my scrap box, calling on  Bonnie Hunter's Scrap User's System for help. 

As a Born Organized Person, I tried to incorporate this some years ago, and got side-tracked by what were -- at the time -- Far More Interesting Things to Do.  So while I have a collection of zip-lock bags with some semblance of a Carefully Cut & Curated Collection of Scraps, the rest of my scraps have been gathered in a deep cardboard box that could have been called "Mount Scrap-More"! 

"Enough of this!" I told myself, and dumped it out on my studio floor:

"Mount Scrap-More"


Now...look at that carefully, eh?  See the sharp corner at the top right of the pile of scraps?  Let your eyes follow to the left and down to the right toward the floor.  Maybe you can even see the ridge along the top of the pile.  That's the sign those fabrics have been stuffed in that box for far too long! πŸ˜†

The remedy?  Well, for the past 10 days or so, almost every day, I've been taking a handful of those scraps and dealing with them: ironing them to get out the folds and wrinkles, and then cutting them into squares or rectangles in some of Bonnie's recommended sizes -- ones I know I can use for future charity quilts.  I stack them in Light/Medium and in Dark piles, and put them in labelled zip-lock bags.  Though I'm determined to keep as much as possible out of the land fill, anything that's too tiny or too narrow to sew with successfully has been tossed.  I resolve to keep this up till that pile has been eliminated!

In addition, Bonnie has announced her 2019 Quilt Mystery, this year entitled "Frolic!", with colours that are not only right up my alley, but also in my stash.  So...I am following along and have finished the first clue:




True to form, bit by bit this Fabric Therapy has calmed me...along with the aforementioned knitting and stitching.  All of this ironing, cutting and piecing gives my mind time to ponder art pieces to make in the New Year.  Earlier this week we had some of that powdery, sparkly snow.  When I went out to clear the walks and fill my bird feeders, I was struck by the beauty of it on the trees, just waiting to be captured in stitch:





And one more thing on the art quilt front: this week I received the photos from my daughter that she took last month -- beautiful shots of the quilt I planned to enter into the SAQA all-Canadian exhibit, "Colour With a 'U'".  The online entry process opened December 1, and on December 4, my entry was in.  Done and dusted!  Now to wait...notification is in mid-February.

While Gina was here to take the photos, we took a tour around my new lot and she tried to get photos of the birds -- who didn't cooperate.  She did manage to take some wonderful shots of my Miss Pookie, though, so I'll end this post with my favourite one...and a link to Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend...







5 comments:

arlee said...

OMG i <3 that crisp corner on the dumped pile!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm pretty sure i have a few of those boxes still too!

Julierose said...

These "dark hours of the year" certainly make one think of those four final things....
I am trying to offset too much of that thinking in my sewing room also. Hugs, Julierose

Kate said...

I love Miss Pookie in heir tree. She is the queen of all she surveys.
Bonnie Hunter's mysteries have always intimidated me. I think it might be the " make 114 four patch blocks." Good luck in keeping up with it..

Giddings Art said...

I am impressed by your resolve to sort that big box of scraps! It's good to try to use every scrap you can. I have never tried a mystery quilt. I'm interested to see how it turns out! The photos of the snow and your Miss Pookie are beautiful!!

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed the link to Bonnie's scrap saver system. A system can be a good thing. I have my own system of storing scraps that has worked well for me for many years. Clear sterlite "shoe boxes" labeled by color (light/dark where appropriate). I don't sort by size though they are all strips or rectangles. Since I free piece a lot I find I go to the scrap box before I go to my yardage. You'll find a system that works for you and it will be easy to keep using it and make the scraps appealing.

Miss Pookie is a beauty.