Running out of steam

I did a great class with Nancy Smith on Craftsy, called Strip your stash. Strips I can do. Piecing anything very intricate is not for me. I don't have the patience, nor the accuracy. Quick and colorful does me nicely. I can't even cut straight with a rotary cutter. My Accuquilt is my saving grace!

So I dyed lots of fabric, some batik work, some shibori, some LWI.

Then I made about a bajillion strips, and was off to the races, stripping up some quilts to go with my Jane LaFazio cushions. 

#1 - Although it is hanging crooked off a chair, the rows are actually straight lines. I love the fractured look. And I love that it wasn't difficult to do. Cut strips. Sew them together. I can do that.

#2 - The illusion begins. I start to think I can piece. Squares are just strips cut short right?

#3 - Accuquilt also has flying geese cutters, which helps me enough that I don't cut off too many of the geese's noses sewing them together. So much more time-consuming than the strips though!

#4 - I finally come unstuck. Triangles from strips reveal all my slapdashitude. I love the look, but when I sew the first 2 pieces together it becomes clear that accuracy is sorely missing. Triangles are tricksy little things. They stretch, they unravel, they have points. They demand actual piecing skills. Things have to meet. They don't.

I had intended to make 4 lap quilts. I had romantic illusions of the family snuggling around the fire at Christmas. 3 quilts are made, bound and in service. Number 4 languishes on my design wall, glaring at me reproachfully as I start new projects. Sadly, this project is done in my head, even though it still clutters up my sewing room. Maybe it was too ambitious to do so many quilts at one time. I got bored. I got beyond my competency level. Maybe I'll finish #4 some time in the future. But I wouldn't hold my breath...

#4 will be consigned to the BUP - basket of unfinished projects. This is a limbo where things sit until sufficient time has passed that I can admit that they will never be finished. At that point they are quietly dismembered, and the corpses disposed of inside pillows for homeless animals.


In the mean time I have 3 colorful quilts, nicely folded and ready for family snuggles.

Ahem, Ms. Thambile, those were not intended for you to shed all over. She is the original princess and the pea. Why sit on one cushion, when you could sit on a pile of quilts?