fred_mouse

If I've posted about this before, I've lost it, so I can't just point at previous post, but have to remember what I imagine the post said.

So, roughly, I read something on tumblr a while back that said 'if you have art block, that is your brain telling you to go and do exercises' and then something about that being the way to improve whatever skill it is that you are stalled on. Discussion then went on to writer's block, and after some facetious comments about relearning the alphabet, there were some really interesting comments about what might count as exercises (three sentence fics; character studies; writing down the world-building; meta-fiction; drabbles; possibly other things). And I saw it, read it and ignored it. And then the world shoved it under my nose about a dozen more times, indicating that it was resonating with a number of people, and I continued to ignore it, because I neither art nor write.

And then I realised that art and craft are really the same thing, and I've been stalled on patchwork/quilting for Rather A While (Eldest's 21st quilt hasn't been touched since the pandemic started; Middlest's hasn't been started other than buying the fabric). And I have no confidence to work on the trickier tasks. However, I had a stack of 5.5" squares -- five sets bought at some point, each set being 24 or 25 squares. So, I started assembling them in pairs. First pack, distributed them randomly, and ended up with some odd pairs. Second and third, I was a bit more strategic.

Fourth, turned out to be not the same tonal qualities as the first three, and was very little kid pink and ballet themed, so I've made a lap quilt out of it. In under a month, I've assembled the top, found a backing (and done some hacky experimentation with it), quilted it, and trimmed it roughly square. Now I just have to find something to bind it with, but that bit of my brain has gone squirrelly over the whole thing, so I've gone back to the original project.

So, back to the 'throw some squares together' -- this is going to be a lap quilt for me. First pack was purples, and I assembled it into a 4*4 square with some left over. That was finished on Sunday. Yesterday, I laid out the square, the rest of the purple pack, and some of the blue pack duos, and made a 6*6 square. Left it yesterday, came back to it at lunch today, moved a couple of bits around, left it a bit longer, decided I liked it. And this evening I've sewn two seams. And for now, that is enough. Any day I make any progress on it, I'm happy. And when this one is done (or stalls), there are any number to move on to.

1. black/purple blanket (*2) - gift to recipients; photos in flickr; blog.
2. green/blue log cabin - photograph; gift to recipient; photos in flickr; blog
3. green purple 16 patch - finish second white block; sew some more blocks together [needs 3 more complete blocks made]

1. youngest's jacket - get it out and work out how to finish off the current section
2. rainbow blanket - finish purple strip

1. bright stripes - quilt
2. dusty pink - sandwich [started Jan 4th 2014]
3. purple ducks - assemble (25 completed blocks) [started Jan 4th 2014]
4. bright pink - assemble (25 completed blocks) [started Jan 4th 2014]
5. blogging individual squares - work out the next set. [started July 2014]

1. Mondrian 1 - finish cutting pieces
2. Mondrian 2 - finish cutting pieces
3. stars 1 (middlest) - sort out corner block templates
4. stars 2 (youngest) - sort out applique in centre
5. orange quilt cover - make a plan!
6. purple quilt cover - make a plan!
7. green quilt cover - make a plan!
8. 'leftovers' quilt - make a design. 
9. hanging 1 (lounge to music room) - using Virtually Be Quilted. [stalled. Not Thinking about it]
10. hanging 2  (front hall to back half of house) - I want to do a whole cloth quilt, but can't decide whether or not to use a pattern, or to do something fancy with quilting.
11. hanging 3 (main part of house to back hall. yeah, right) - pinstripe hexagons, some with bleaching. This needs some serious consideration/planning/thoughts. 

1. sort out all the books on the kitchen counter
2. order music for eldest, youngest, and me

1. what else on the bookshelf in the front hall can be catalogued?
2. clear All The Tabs from firefox.[progress has been made]
3. pick the next crochet project (I have one. I just don't think I have suitable yarn. This sucks, because I have Too Much Yarn). black and purple baby blanket. Or two, given the amount of black and purple. Not sure exactly what yet, but aiming to do 25 ~20cm blocks. 
4. finish packing up semi-frogged crochet project, or work out what to do with it.
5. start the next crochet project [this is kind of a cheat, now that the project has been selected, as there is already a square done]
6. put up stalled project on the craft board in the lounge, so I can have it there to think about border. Maybe read some of the crochet borders book [alt: do an extra row of edging I thought was done]
7. finish at least one of Wilde Stories; Yellow Blue Tibia; or Am I Black Enough for You (or all three). review.
8. play more Temple Run.
9. remove lots of 2013 emails out of inbox, into archive folder for sorting. [inboxes now at 1260 and 255 items. home email still needs love]
10. sort 2008 email archive into 'personal' and 'work' several varieties of work. Also did some 2013, but not the previous item!

samvara

1. watch the next episode of Downton Abbey
2. cast on the fronts for the jacket I'm knitting youngest
3. look at the entrelac book
4. clear yarn back out of the lounge
5. pull three large pieces of quilt fabric (to be the focal colours for the three quilts), and maybe some small ones as well
6. pick a block to be common to each - maybe cut? Maybe sew?
7. see if there are enough simple 16 patch blocks in the 1001 quilt blocks book to tempt me (looking for 73)