Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Finished..or perfect..

"Finished is better than perfect"...I forget who it was said that... but this week I decided to take it to heart.

I've almost finished an Amish style 9-patch, and have restarted working on a jelly roll star (fig Tree Quilts pattern) that I started in a class a couple of years ago.  I stopped working on it when I discovered that the  star points that I'd pieced in class on one machine turned out to be a different size to the ones I completed at home on another machine... I couldn't make them match up without pulling one whole set of star bits to pieces or starting again completely...I was using an out-of-date fabric, couldn't get more, and with all of those diamonds cut on the bias, I couldn't unpick and start again.  I'd never get them to match up no matter what machine they were sewn on.  So, this week, being back in Dubai, I decided that I could just sit and stitch, by hand if necessary to make them go together.  My centres are a good centimetre out between one half of the star and the other, but the whole block came together.  If the other star centres do the same thing then I'll just applique circles over the centre...who is going to look at a finished quilt and say...I know why she put those circles there! ...are they?  well, I dare them to say it my face anyway!! Lol.
The 9-patch I started eons ago, and put it aside when I didn't have the right fabric to do the corner posts.  Again, I've decided that it's better to have a finished quilt and a compromise.  And I really like the finished result.  Now I just need to go to the fabric souk to get some black fabric to make the borders.  And in Dubai I don't think that the right black fabric will be hard to find..famous last words, but every second female here is in black...  then it will be deciding whether I wait till I go back to Australia to quilt it on my machine there, or quilt it by hand here.  The machine quilting is speaking to me, but on the other hand, that's a while away.  I can't quilt it on my machine here..it's a Singer Featherweight, which has the smallest throat ever I think!  But it does do a lovely straight stitch.
I have also decided to 'go back to school' so to speak.  I made a quilt top earlier this year and I was really unhappy with my piecing and accuracy. I bought Harriet Hargraves 'Quilt University' book 1 of the series and will start from there.  I've read the first few chapters and already learnt some very useful things, some of which I'd already learnt piecing that awful quilt top earlier this year, like trying to keep your fabrics similar weights!
Well, typing this up won't get anything concrete done.  Ciao for now... and remember...if it's a problem getting it done...finished is better than perfect!  But I do like perfect...
                                                          The 9-patch Amish style quilt...with borders yet to be added.
                                                                   The very difficult jelly star - first finished block..

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Rationalisation

"Rationality is holding ourselves accountable to the bounds of logic and evidence, even when it is uncomfortable to do so." from the website www.wisdomcommons.org

For the past month we have been opening boxes that have been stored under our house for the last 8 years!  We no longer remembered what was really in them, and it has been a kind of Christmas month, but also a month of having to rationalise why we are holding on to things that we haven't seen for over eight years.  We moved from a big house to a very small house.  Sofas, sideboards, tables, bookcases, you name it, it was under the house and couldn't fit upstairs.  The sofas went a while ago, after the neighbour's chooks caused a rat plague.. But the rest has been sitting there. 

So, we finally couldn't bear it any longer and decided that enough was enough.  It started with my youngest son, who is at home looking after our house while my dh and I actually live overseas.. I came home for a break, and we have continued his beginnings.  Many many boxes to the tip, many many boxes to charity, and some stuff to a new self storage unit. 

The 'uncomfortable to do so..' bit is my having to get rid of books and fabric that I just know I am never going to use, no matter how much I like it.  The bounds of logic and evidence say so...

I will start up a new blog, and put up a bunch of books and fabric on it over the next few days, so watch this space for the address.  There's bound to be something someone might have a home for.

That's my WOW for Wednesday this week!  No pics...the mess we are in downstairs is unbearable and a picture is more than anyone should have to see! Lol.

Update:  some books were uploaded to EBay... look for griffo1910 and see which books I added there.