With a smile on my face

I am going to bed tonight with a smile on my face, because
1) I did get E10 together, and
2) I have than a good start on E11 and E11.3.  In fact . . .
3) I have over sixty-five pieces in place (out of 130 total) for the set, and
4) I stitched together the four whole blocks that had been accumulating (E7-E10)

Row E is nearly a memory - after sitting idle for nearly an entire year. I am happy, happy, happy.

Tomorrow I will let myself 'play' for a small amount of time, but will devote more time to absolutely necessary things.  Or, at the very least, I will allow myself to think of those necessary things - a lot - while I am piecing VGS.

UPDATED - 10 pieces to go

That is . . . ten pieces if I don't get caught up in replacing/swapping some of the pieces already placed for things I think are better.  I can kill a lot of time doing the old swap-a-roo thing.

Deepest desire is to have this block stitched together (and dishes washed) before I have to leave the house this afternoon.

Finger's crossed.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

UPDATE:
Thursday, 7/30 10:28 AM
Guess I didn't cross my appendages hard enough, because I ran out of time before running out of spots to fill (and yes, I did wind up swapping a few things here and there...so I definitely put myself way behind in the process).

HOWEVER, I placed the last of everything for E10 a few moments ago, and will head to the sewing machine to 'put the pedal down' - completing E10 this morning - as soon as I finish this update.  With any luck, I will get a good start laying out E11 and E11.3 before losing too much of this gorgeous light.  Perhaps this weekend will find me assembling the final 130 pieces into a block, and then stitching the entire E row together.  Wouldn't that be grand!?!  I will keep you updated . . . but hopefully there will be a photo to prove the accomplishment, and then a huge move forward for August!

What are you working on?

Happy birthday to my lovely mother!

In honor of my mom's birthday, I have given myself permission to use a few hours of the day today to work without guilt or care on VGS.  Yes, that means some wanting things are further back on the ol' burner, but ththththppppbbbbbbt!  Ask me if I care today.

Go ahead . . . ask me.

Congratulations on a milestone day, mom.  And, thanks for the 'time off' to play with the crazy Dutchman.  I know it's not your favorite, but it will be time well-spent.  Just wait and see.

I love you, and I hope to look as beautiful as you when I finally grow up.

Oh, boy

I really should be outside gardening (= cleaning the front flowerbed and planting), but I am moving along fairly well on E10, and am too jazzed to quit at the moment.

Is that wrong?

E9 is complete

Yup . . . it is!

Forward momentum (at the expense of getting anything else done - most notably any garden work).  But it feels so good, especially since it's been one year since I last touched it.

Two-point-three blocks to go before I am really moving on.  Watch out, Row F - I'm comin' for ya!

From left to right these show: the loose pieces; the joined pieces; the same portion of an image I am re-creating.

This is a comparison shot showing the layout of the pieces and what it looks like sewn together.  One-hundred 1" postage stamp bits, stitched into one block (almost exactly) 5.5 inches square.

I should mention that the last photo, to the right, is much brighter ('yellower') than it really appears in person.  The lights in the sewing area bounce off paper, making it appear more vibrant than reality.  Fear not, I haven't lost my color-sense.

Final E8 update of the day : )

TOTALLY finished E8, and have moved on to E9!  Must work tomorrow, so very little will be accomplished on VGS.  : (

Rain, rain; came to stay

...Giving me time with VG today.

Alright, so the pentameter is off.  However, "this concerns me not," as one of my former managers would have said.

For those of you in the know, VGS is a project I have been working/not working on for a couple of years, now.  Lacking the sunshine necessary for finding and placing pieces will make today's efforts a little sketchy, but I am resigned to the idea of it somehow, and that feels very liberating.

Just an example of the block configuration. E8 is very different.

There are two 'squares' - or, patches (100 piece blocks) - that have been left largely untouched for the better part of a year, and I am picking up there. One was slightly more than 50% complete when I walked away last year sometime, and the other block was less than 20% laid out.  I am finding the return to matching colors difficult after such a lengthy lapse.  I will have to take my time to allow my eyes become familiar with the pallet once again - not an easy process.

I've not been in this portion of my brain for a while, so it will be a slow go for a bit.

Photos later.  For now, there is some picking up and sorting to do (a little cleaning) in order to get back into the swing of this particular quilt and its process.  Here are the notes I managed to unearth; they tell me where I left off precisely, and how far I've yet to go:
 ~ Left off on Row E, Column(s) 8 and 9 - '8' would be the 50% completed block I referred to earlier ~

UPDATE -
It appears that I walked away mid-August last year.  Yikes!  So it has been nearly a year.  I'd made the notation that as of July 12th, 120 blocks remained to be put together for this quilt.  Somehow, I let my enthusiasm wane, and more's the pity.  In only 29 (and three partial squares), I will have HALF of the quilt complete.  Now that's a target worth sticking to for the summer.

Of course, 29 squares also means 2,900 pieces (not to mention the addition of those partial blocks, at 30 pieces each).

Be my cheering squad, won't you...shore me up and bolster me on?  What else have you got to do?

UPDATE - as of 5:30PM, EST
Ready to stitch block E8 together!  This process takes anywhere from 2.5 - 3 hours for seaming the perfectly square 1" pieces into rows, then the row-to-row joining, until at last . . . the one-hundred bits make a 5.5" square unit.   Stay tuned ~