Aunt Sally

 Some people have lots of projects in pieces and parts.  Friend Marilyn used pizza boxes to store her projects in but I don't have that kind of space either in my sewing storage or my brain.  I get itchy inside my head if there are too many things started but not actively being worked toward completion.  I have the mindset that if I can spend lots of time working on little parts and pieces of projects then I can devote that same amount of time and make real progress on ONE project.  Same with books.  I don't understand people who can read several books at once whereas I devote that same amount of time to ONE book and finish it then move on.  Besides, reading more than one book at a time just gets them all tangled up together in my brain. 

So, before I start Charlie's quilt for his graduation next year (remember I work by hand) I needed to clear up the projects laying out on the spare bed in Jenny's room. Yes, Jenny, I still call it your room.  The bed had parts and pieces and piles and I had to clear my brain of them.  So, three are now layered and pinned and yesterday I finished putting together Aunt Sally.

Remember a few posts back when I told you about the bag full of Aunt Grace pieces and parts Friend Sally gave me at retreat?  There was a center medallion possibility.  There were 8 inch squares and 3 inch 9 patches and a bag of spare fabrics.

And that's how I treated them.  I used the center medallion and decided this was going to be a Frankenstein quilt top.  There were three extra flower blocks so I used them to even out the 8 inch block layer.  Then I squirreled around in the pile for a border and found the blue.  Then I put the 9 inch blocks on as another border and they fit perfectly if I did NOT divide the blocks with a sashing.  They just lined up.  Then I hit a wall and the dining room table looked like a kindergarten art class for a few days while I tried to find something to do an outer border.  I knew it had to be pieced.  Blue was my first choice but there wasn't enough of any of the spare pieces.  I had a perfect blue gingham but again, there wasn't enough of it.  I'd audition colors, leave it and come back hours later and take it all apart. Pink wasn't right.  Then I dug around in the bag of pieces and found I had enough yellows of the same depth of color to piece the border in yellow.  I like it.

It isn't ironed here, it's fresh off the machine after the last stitch was put in so it looks wonky in the photo but it isn't in real life. I think it turned out just fine for a Frankenstein quilt.  There are still some nine patches left but there wasn't enough to do a double border so they might become pillows. For now, till I get more batting, it's folded and living with its cousins in the basket. But it's finished to the part I can live with.

The point is I now have a bed cleared of pieces and parts and can begin for real on Charlie's quilt.  My head is cleared.  Well, except for that retreat challenge I'm spending way too much time on. But just one more evening will take care of that.