Man, was I in a bad way last week. I don’t know if it was the steroids and antibiotics I was taking for my sinus infection or the fact that the week started out with my husband enjoying MLK Jr. day off while I worked away. But I was fussy and annoyed all week. By the time Thursday rolled around, I found myself thinking, “If I could just sew…” or something, anything, that was real.
I’m lucky that my job does involve making things: books and online classes. But still, books don’t become real until well after I’m done with them. And online classes get posted, but it’s not like I can touch them. After a hard week of making virtual things, I needed to make something that I could touch.
Friday night I finally got my chance. I worked on the crocheted wrap above while we were watching TV. As I was happily going along, I actually found myself thinking, “Oh, I’d better save.” But that’s the great thing about making something real. You don’t need to save! It’s right there! Yeah, it took me a while to get out of the work frame of mind.
Saturday, I finished sewing the rows onto my yellow and pink plus quilt top. It’s not squared up yet, but another big check in the “done” column.
And I was still so intent on working with my hands that I actually started working on my T-shirt quilt again. I had started quilting it at least 6 months ago, but I had decided I needed to start over. And unsewing the quilting is the worst, in my mind. It seems like such a huge step backward. But the quilt was going to sit there until I did.
Once the old quilting was out, I re-basted it, and started again. For right now, I’m just quilting around the blocks of fabric (be it T-shirts or other). I’ll go in and add a bit of quilting to the T-shirts (I got the idea to use a decorative stitch to tack down the T-shirt blocks here and there from a blog post by Nancy Zieman). And I may add some more quilting lines to the fabrics, too.
There’s still a long way to go on all of these projects. But, man, did it feel good to work on them.
Carrie
/ January 30, 2013I just love seeing your T-shirt quilt, Chris. So colorful and nostalgic and all the things I like! Hope you’re feeling better!
Christine Doyle
/ January 30, 2013Thanks, Carrie! I do love that quilt. And my sinuses have cleared up nicely, thanks for asking!
Andie
/ January 30, 2013These projects are so lovely – youhave a great eye for color! Can’t wait to see that plus quilt in person…
Christine Doyle
/ January 30, 2013Thanks, Andie! Not sure when the plus quilt will make an appearance at a CMQG meeting—hopefully soon!
Rose Horvath Doyle
/ January 30, 2013I like the yellow and pink together on your plus quilt.
Too bad you had to take out the quilting on the T-Shirt quilt, but I’ve done it too.
You will like it better this time around.
Gina Rath
/ February 6, 2013A steroid frenzy appeased! Great work once again. I know what you mean feeling you need to save, I’ve wanted to type into a search box when I’m looking for a physical item I’ve lost.