It's a beautiful day... dammit

i7 has been on my radar, but not in my work schedule for most of the past week or so.  This morning I attacked the twenty-five-to-twenty-eight missing inches with gale force fervor, and put a good dent in the 'hole', but there are still around a dozen bits to locate (and/or swap) before the block is complete and ready to stitch together.

I hate weather days like this - blissfully sunny, and the temps will be in the 60s.  PERFECT!

"So, why do you hate those types of days?" you ask, scratching your head like a dog with a flea.

Well, because I am forced to make a tough decision when days like this happen, and I usually end up making myself either very mad or just totally disappointed because of the ultimate decision.  I either
1) use the gorgeous light to forge ahead and build blocks so I can make up lost time on the overall project, or
2) go outdoors and utilize the waning beautiful weather for gardening chores which are long past due.

Now, perhaps, you can appreciate my conundrum.

No pithy title

Taking a long overdue moment to play a little with my Dutch 'boyfriend.'

i7 is still too far from being done, and all I really want to do is put together i8 and i9, and 10 and 11point3.  Thread painting the mega row sections is on hold for a little while longer - but I will let you know when it happens.  For the time being... facial hair.

An irksome thing

I have kvetched about this before - and I suppose there will never be a time where I can see myself clear to just letting it go (and more's the pity) but there may be an explosion in my future if I can't.

There is a quilter whose work I like very much, to the point of admiration, really.  And she has only very recently chosen to walk away from her acclaim in the machine quilting realm.  She is fed up with (as she put it), "...the bullshit in the industry."  She will not quit making quilts, but will simply do so only for herself.  Huzzah, and more power to her.

So? I can hear you bellow.  What's your gripe?  What about that has you near boom-boom level?

Well, it isn't really Krista's decision to bow out of the quilt making spotlight so much that has my hackles up, but it's the quilt she is currently putting together that has me fuming. Some other quiltmaker/pseudo designer has decided to rename a glorious - and fairly straightforward - quilt 'pattern' something entirely new, just to make it seem as though she developed the pattern and instructions for others to follow.... AS IF IT'S NEVER BEEN MADE BY THOUSANDS BEFORE HER, for Pete's sake.

Heck, I've made my own string quilts by sketching out the desired size of the finished block so that I could readily duplicate and piece the silly thing accurately.  It didn't require much time or heavy thinking - and I certainly didn't rename the quilt pattern because it was something I drew up.  I looked at a few photos of older "Spider Web" string quilts before diving in, just to get some ideas of possible color placement and angles, and then I went to work.  

I totally resent J Sampou thinking it's OK to rename a standard, and well known, pattern; what an incredible ego trip she must be on. "Octagon Shimmer," indeed!  Shame on you for trying to cash in by using something that is in NO WAY your "original" creation, tagging it with a different name and calling it your own design.  I hope the people who follow you like sheep can eventually see through your flimsy veneer. 

Okey dokey - rant's over, but I am still steaming around the collar.  Has anybody got a few ice cubes handy?

Good news

Overcame the i6 hump and have moved on.  Whee!  Now, i6 is nothing but a color-filled memory.

i7 is nearly half found, and I couldn't be more pleased.  Plans are to walk away from the design table with 50% or better in place today, but it needs to happen in a hurry, so... we'll see.  Shorter daylight hours = less time to 'play' on weekends.  Overhead lights are not conducive to assembling these 100-piece blocks.

What are you working on?

How in the heck?

Even though I completed amassing i6 a couple of days ago, somehow this morning, I had second thoughts about a tiny handful of choices.

Yup.

Oops.

Currently on the hunt for two replacement pieces. Dagnabbit!  I'll let you know how I fared in a few hours.

How the day ends

Back and forth and back and forth.  A little bit here and a little bit there, but mostly I worked in one place - over there.
LOL



i6 is not complete, but it is about as close as can be, and once I get the mess on the table out of my own way I should have no trouble finding those last few inches.  i7 is one-quarter in place, too, so the day wasn't a total loss.  Not really.

Nope

I did not manage to complete laying out i6, but I did begin i7.

I KNOW - what the heck is up with me, right?

There are just under a dozen missing bits to i6, which I totally intend to nail down today... throughout the day. . . eventually.  Please, God, let it be so.  But there is a top I would like to allow myself to complete for work, and housework to get to that has also been skillfully ignored for a while, so in all honesty I do have a list of needful things to get to that should supersede i6.

LOL - who do I think I'm kidding?  See you in a while with a photo and a wickedly pleased grin.

Moving in the right direction

Wandered into my quiltmaking hole about 10AM intending to make a positive dent in i6.

And I did!  Down from 20 to 16, and made a few substitutions along the way.

Today will be a good day

Over the last week I worked (so, no time with my dear Dutchman).  I also ferried 'people' back and forth to school and tutoring and appointments - and I had an appointment or two myself.

Then there was the lost time spent searching for my keys. Holy crap, what a pain and time drain.

But, I have found my keys - quite by accident - and things are nearly back to normal, so... YEA!

In truth, I actually tried to sneak a bit of time in here and there working on my 'color dance', but didn't get very much accomplished.  In fact, I began the week with only seventeen missing inches, and was determined to make a dent the moment I could return to it.  And did I?  Did I make a dent?

Yes, I dented it, but I dented it in the wrong direction.  Somehow I find myself with twenty missing inches to fill in this morning.  I blame karma and pangs of guilt for the turnaround in progress.  So let's see if I can reverse the tide and finish i6 today, shall we?

What are you working on?

Thirty to go

Having a tough time finding the rest of i6, so I suppose there's a mighty amount of picking up and sorting to do before I can/should proceed.  Also happily using the last of the true yellows.