Perfectionism: The Bitchy Stitcher gets it

The Bitchy Stitcher: "A pep talk, in case you need it":

If you make ANYTHING, you are a magician. A quilt, a table runner, a placemat, a block, even just two pieces of fabric sewn together and dropped on the floor—hell, even one piece of fabric cut out of a larger one—none of these things existed in that form until you brought them into being. You are Minerva freaking McGonagall, transmogrifying fabric and thread until it becomes something new, something that, no matter what it looks like or how skillfully it was constructed, is greater than what its parts were before you brought them together. That's magic. That's art.

Go read the whole thing, which also discusses social media's way of making us feel like The WORST, when we are much more likely The Averagest. (Shut up, Blogger, that's totally a word.)

"Friday" "Night" Sew "In" -- Preview

(All the quotes are in title because (A) I started Thursday afternoon, and (B) my apartment is currently suffering from a dearth of cleared flat surfaces, and my folks are out of town, so I did the work at their house. It did involve sewing though.) Here's a preview of the pictures; more to follow:

FWQAL – Status & Plan

I've been participating in the Flickr FWQAL in fits and starts -- I joined in a bit late, came charging out of the gate for my first 30 or so blocks, and then have been producing blocks, shall we say, intermittently since then. Last weekend, I made another block (#59 - Night & Day), photographed some others I'd made in the past few months but never posted, and made a mosaic of the 64 I had completed:

FWQAL: 64 Block Mosaic

Now, I never intended to do all of them; there were some that were practically duplicates, some that seemed more trouble than they were worth, and one that looked too much like a swastika for my taste, but I still didn't feel like I'd made "enough". So, I was talking this over with my therapist, and I actually hit on what feels like a good idea: however many more I get done by the end of this year (2013) is how many are going into the quilt. My general target is 1-2 a week, which would put the block count in the range of 80-100, and I'm planning to set them in a Garden Maze setting, so that, plus borders, should be plenty big enough.
I'm now up to 67, including the one I made last Friday:

FWQAL #059 - Night and Day

FWQAL #074 - Ribbons

FWQAL #056 - Maple Leaf

I feel like I've been working on these forever, so it's comforting to know that there's an end in sight.

FNSI - FWQAL - OMGWTFBBQ

FWQAL #059 - Night and Day, a photo by funkysmama on Flickr.

Oy, this block was a pain! I actually tried making it before by cutting out the pieces using the provided templates, then paper-piecing, and I just couldn't make it work.

This time, I started with the big triangles, then used oversized scraps for the others, which worked, but required a lot of trimming to be done.

While I was working on it, I kept asking myself whether I shouldn't have just put it in the FWQAL "skip" category, but once I finally finished it up, I was glad I did it. It's such a great graphic block.

See what other folks got up to on their Friday Night on Flickr!

FWQAL #080 - Single Wedding Star

Hey, just a quick post to show off the FWQAL block I made last night:


FWQAL #080 - Single Wedding Star

ScrapHappy Saturday!

So, I haven't blogged in million billion years (blame Pinterest).  Anyway, I did finally step away from the virtual and towards the concrete, if only for a few hours, in order to make these blocks:

I'll see if I can get myself to sew/blog some more soon. Thanks for stopping by!

Be sure to stop by Angela's page to see what other folks have done with their teal scraps this week.

FNSI / Think Pink!

Decided to knock off two birds on Friday--1 for just doing Friday Night Sew In, and 1 for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge's final pink Saturday.

Before I could do anything, though, I had to clean up the pile of miscellaneous junk that had accumulated by my sewing area (right by the front door, unfortunately):



I didn't get an "after" photo, so you'll just have to trust that it was improved enough for me to actually work there.

First up was a partially done Farmer's Wife block, #50 Honey's Choice.  I'd gotten the sub-units done (with some wrassling), but hadn't put them all together yet.  This was also the first 5-patch block that I made using my new Marti Michell templates, which worked pretty well.

 

I'm not entirely crazy about the block--not enough contrast, and the colors aren't my favorites, but hey, it's done!

Next up: Disappearing 16 Patch in pink.  This month's challenge had suggested sticking to hot pinks, but I didn't have that much selection, so I went with the pinks I had.

First I laid them out:


Then I moved them around:


Then I told my inner perfectionist that it's a scrap block, so quit fussing & start sewing!  First rows of 4, then all together into a 16-patch, and then cut on the diagonal.




Walla!  Tucked them into the folder with the previously made orange, purple, and blue triangles and patted myself on the back.

I then spent about 15 minutes practicing free-motion quilting--just parallel-ish straight lines, noodled around with an idea for an AAQI quilt, and called it a night.

So that's my first sewing of 2013, and I say yay! In celebration, allow me to share the "Think Pink!" number from Funny Face: