Already a better day

There are over 40 pieces in place - nearly fifty, even - and much more sun to work with today, so I am going to "get jiggy wiff it"...I hope.

However, my son brought to me another several sets of jeans requiring mending.  Those will need to be done toot sweet to get them off of my pile of needful things, and out the door with him when he and his girlfriend move into their own place!  So, some of my free time will be given over to three sets of jeans.  Boo!  I feel it's a worthwhile loss of time on the quilt (if there can be such a thing), but it's still a setback.

Ah, well.  Let's get back to a little more searching and placing before I need to step away from it for a bit.

What is it good for?

Today is a Thursday.
Another day in the week.
Another week in another month out of the year.
Another year coming to a close.

October is spent and just limping to a close.  It's a cold, blustery, inevitable end, covered in leaf-strewn yards, bare trees, nearly dormant plants, and chimneys puffing madly at the approaching November chill.  Soon enough, crates of pumpkins at the supermarket will be replaced by red kettles and bell ringers.  The smell of Thanksgiving diners will be overtaken by the aroma of pine trees and baking cookies.  New Year celebrations will give way to school kids wistfully dreaming of the end to the school year, while parents long for a more tangible mid-winter break.

Me, I simply see the day as a way to spend several stolen hours either FMQing or - since it's mostly sunny - trying to finish up G2.  Hey, there are only 75 inches or so to find.  LOL

Of course, there is a trip to the bank, some cleaning to get knee deep in to, jobs to search for and apply to, and undone yardwork to attack.  Decisions, decisions.

A semi-sunny Thursday...what is it good for?

What will you do today?

Happiness. Happiness. Happiness.

G1 completed within the last twenty-four hours, and 24 inches are in place on G2. [happy sigh]

Sweet dreams in this little one-inch-square corner of the world.

Oh, bother and dagnabit!

This photo shows where I began this morning, but not where I ended up.  Three niggly pieces stand in my way.  THREE.  Wasting a couple of precious daylight hours on a couple of things completely unrelated to this happiness is what kept me from meeting my goal, too.  Darn.

And tomorrow will be a total drag since I will not be able to finish this up as I would like to.  Darn, darn, darn.

What are you working on?

Why so much cleaning?

To put it simply, if your workspace looked like this, and you had gone from a color palette of golden browns and ooshy-colored oranges, tinged with green under- or overtones, to lightest smokey lavenders and baby-to-sky blues, you'd have to make room and find the bottoms of your piles, too.

I've been amassing and putting aside particular bits and pieces, swaths of perfect background material for quite a while (well over two years), and now I am getting the chance to use them!  Wheeeeee.  Unfortunately, that means clearing space and shifting piles - and finding the stuff my dreams were made of.  [groan]

The palette board is going through a huge change, and I have very nearly collected and stored most of the unnecessary inches.  All of that (now-no-longer-needed) meticulously cut material will have to go somewhere a bit more permanent, but for now I am only concentrating on forward motion.  I began assembling the layout of G1 in earnest, but have taken some time to also (smartly) sort and clean along the way.

Who knows.  Maybe I will get everything back to a state of very little confusion and piles of perfection (as when I began this whole undertaking)...but even I wouldn't hold my breath.  Happiness is knowing most of everything I will need is down in that area somewhere.  LOL

One smart thing I did do was move my machine out of the work space and to another location entirely.  There is now quick access to more of the table for cutting and sorting, and the machine doesn't require a clearing off when it's time to sit and sew.  Also, I won't be turning on four bulbs overhead for three hours at a time whilst I stitch the 100-piece blocks together.  That should become a bit of a $aving$ factor from my wallet to the power company, and in costs for replacement bulbs.  We shall see.

For now, G1 is better than one-third complete, and I am tickled to be so close to the halfway point.

What are you working on?

I think it's time

Time to invest in the experimentation portion of VS thread painting.

My little postage stamp monster will have a two-fold thread/quilting finish - each step to be completed at different points during the quiltmaking process.  Even though there is progress in the piecing, I am feeling  a need to 'color outside the lines' a bit.  Just to do something a little different...beyond the routine and monotony.

Now is the perfect time to investigate whether my idea for accomplishing a brushstroke-effect is possible using a method I've not encountered before - either in print or in person.  I'll let you know how it goes.

In the meanwhile, here's a neat image of the goings on today.  Pinning and sewing rows E and F together.  Don't you just love it!?

Phwew!

Mop that sweat off your brows...I've OOHHH-ficially moved on to RowG!

[cue the marching band and acrobats]


Sadly - it will have to wait until tomorrow.  :v(
Today will be taken up entirely by working in 'that dreadful place'.

What quilty happiness are you creating today?

Eight more to go

However, the lighting has become hideous, so I am finished for the day.

Tomorrow will see this block - and row - at an end!

Holy moly

UPDATE - 4:32PM
Whoop-eeee! Seventeen to go.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Down to a scant twenty-one missing inches for F11.3.

Picture Snoopy dancing over his food dish.  That'd be me right now.

Happiness comes in small bites

UPDATE: 12:29PM -
Currently at 101 in place, missing twenty-nine.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
We begin the day with only 35 missing inches.

"Only?" I hear you questioning.

Yes, "only" - and here's why.  Remember, I am at the last block and one-third of the row.  All the rows are comprised of eleven full blocks, and a final three full columns of ten pieces.  One-hundred-thirty pieces to finish the row; and way back when I began assembling these as one whole block instead of the normal 100-piece block...and then the last thirty pieces.  It's just more expeditious (sometimes).

Anyhow, I am thrilled to have located and placed several more at the end of the day yesterday.  I am filled with hopefulness and cheek, and have decided I am finishing this row TODAY!

What are you slaving over?