“All is well with me. The rain doesn’t reach me, my room is well heated, what more can one ask for?” (Paul Klee)
And before I forget, Happy Fourth! Cuddle your dogs or give them sedatives, we will get through this if we can stand a 30# dog on our laps until about 2 AM shaking and drooling- and hot in her Thundershirt! Dark Dog will be right there under my feet since I am not his source of comfort. We've never figured out what is.
Something loosely resembling a squirrel
The really nice thing about being alone is I can run out of here in a flash to get to the studio, no rush to get back or get the dishes done first, or throw in a load of laundry. The really bad thing about being alone is I have no structure to work to, I'm not 'under the gun' to finish this or that and thus put things off. So there is no best way, it's all a quest to achieve balance and keep the dogs happy. I did get to the Fourth of July dinner last night and had a good time schmoozing with actual humans after a couple of weeks of dog conversations. Limited, to say~ as much as I enjoy a wag and a nuzzle, I'd even like a good argument with a real-life English speakin' human now! Plus it was my first real meal in days- I've been grazing and trying to empty the refrigerator of all the bits and pieces.
But yesterday I practically swam over to the studio so I could cut up the two twin bed quilts I made years ago for the guest room. I think I had them for a season when we got bigger beds and now I have no use for them so away they go to the Tower o' Quilting Shame! I documented a bit of my (choke choke) very involved 'process' for you:
Here is one of the twin quilts before alterations, a wish mash of fabrics and very traditional. Nobody wants it, so away we go!
I join 2 corners and flatten out the victim quilt on the cutting mat. I use a 24" Nancy Crow acrylic ruler that I have had since the 70's and it pretty banged up, but it's most convenient since I am cutting 24" squares. Originally the plan was I would bind the cut edges I expose but that got old VERY fast so now I am happy with a clean cut exposing the layers. Usually two sides or one side is bound from the original but that is a detail I dropped into the 30 gallon wastebasket! Shown above, the first two 24" squares cut from the bottom edge of the folded quilt. There was aprox. an 18" waste piece smack from the center of the quilt but I trimmed the length to be 24" and set is aside to piece with more scrap as it became available.
Next very scientific part, I fold the square when the center and put the folded edge against the 24" cutting mat, find the number 12, and place the template on top matching the centers. The (ahem) template is one of the previous circles pinned in half and with a big black sharpie marker dot at the center. At fistI drew the cutting line in pencil, but that got boring fast, so now I just hole it in the center and free-cut around the half circle. Corner- and circles- cutting tricks. I abandoned drawing and tracing the circles because the marks are on the back side and will be against the tube and nobody will ever see them again. The weight of all the prospective squares will keep prying fingers away, plus the edges that we do see aren't finished for the most part. So there ya go.
Here are some of the waste pieces that I sew together (fast zigzag down the seam, cut the hole, and away we go! I save these for the end and use the biggest pieces first and hold back on the smaller as they may be needed along the process when I get to the vast hoards of smaller quilts coming up.
And here is is 'installed'. As you can see I am slowly moving on up- the first quilt took me up to 35", and I don't have the second one finished yet- today's project, and maybe, just maybe I can hit 36"! Stay tuned.
I know these are getting very boring, but it kind of helps me along to talk about some of the pieces!
And today has an ART PART
eat your veggies
Foods for thoughts
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