Sally

    I'm calling this one 'Sally.'  Awhile ago Friend Sally was making the move to a condominium and she decided to purge some of her fabrics (does anyone REALLY do that??)  She came to a bee meet with big tubs - yes, tubs - of little squares all cut up.  Sally does eentsy, teensy piecing and her work is intimidatingly perfectly beautiful.  Some squares were 1.5 inches, some 2, some 2.5 but not bigger than that.  I went through the tubs and chose a small tote bag full, color coordinating many, of the squares thinking the whole time, "Dang! Sally did all the hard work on these!"  These particular squares were already sewn together 2 x 2 and I packed a baggie of them.
    One day last week I was rummaging through my stash for something and found the basket Sally's squares are now living in.  Not a big basket, I wasn't greedy that night, and I have enough of my own projects to think about to ever imagine I'd sit down at a sewing machine and piece 1.5 inch squares together.  I know my limitations.
    Anyway, I found these and thought, "you know, take a break from the ravens for a day or so and sew some of these into 4 x 4 and see what happens."  AND it helped me to get them off the shelf. 
 

   I remember now why I don't like sewing with a machine.  Ugh. BUT I did combine what there was and further digging into my stash I found a few possibilities for alternate squares.  After asking PH for his opinion I found this blue calico from probably the mid-70's and loved it. I wanted this to look scrappy and old.  I do love blue.  Cut,cut,cut, count and there were exactly 8 more blues than I needed.  Not bad for a find in the bottom of a drawer! 

    It isn't finished.  I decided I want a border but again, taking only from my stash.  In the middle of the night, when I do my best thinking, I remembered I have something that might work and take this into a whole new direction. For me. Sort of. If it works it will be one of those things I've looked at and thought "I wish I had the nerve to use those fabrics together."  When I get it done and show it you will either love it or think I've forgotten who I am and what I do. The floor in the hallway is being sanded and refinished so I can't get to that room for a couple of days.