But Not There Yet

I’ve been in an absolute funk this week. March is such a difficult month here. It’s spring and it’s not spring. We’ve had lovely, sunny weather, but I can’t get outside to work yet. I have had no desire to machine quilt, so Big Top is still sitting, half-finished, on the table with the Q20. I spent Wednesday morning and yesterday morning cleaning the upstairs. We have so much dust here—our road wasn’t paved for the first few years after we built our house, and we’ve had a lot of ash drift in from wildfires over the past couple of summers. We don’t have A/C and have to keep the windows open when it’s hot. The result is that a thick layer of dust accumulates. Every so often, I have to take whole rooms apart, wipe down everything with a damp rag, and vacuum thoroughly. Swiffer dusters are no match for this kind and amount of dust—they just stir it up and let it resettle. I’d love to have one of those houses where I could keep quilts out on display, but the dust makes that impossible.

As I go, I’m also trying to make piles of items to donate. We just don’t need all this stuff.

I have been sewing in the afternoons. All of the green and purple star blocks for the lilac quilt (for lack of a better name) are done, and last night, I made all of the four-patches for the chain blocks (they are white and dark purple).

I decreased the number of star blocks to 13 to make the design balance. Even so, without borders, the top is a respectable 60” x 60”. I’ll look for some suitable border fabric(s) on my next trip to town.

The chain blocks shouldn’t take to long to finish. This top may be done and basted before too long. It’s pretty even though it’s not my style, and it’s just what I envisioned when I was searching for flowers a few weeks ago.

I need to get a handle on things and prioritize what I am going to work on. I hate having half-finished projects of any kind, and I certainly shouldn’t start anything else. Being so mentally unfocused is psychologically uncomfortable. It doesn’t happen very often, but it’s frustrating when it does. I prefer to attack my schedule with laser-like focus, LOL.

Of course, this was released yesterday (and it’s currently 25% off if you’re interested):

BlockBase+ is a standalone database program with over 4000 quilt block designs researched and compiled by Barbara Brackman. It is put out by the same people that bring you Electric Quilt 8, although EQ is not required to use BlockBase+. I haven’t done a deep dive yet, but I did check to see if Noon and Night is included (it’s not) and what the Beginner’s Choice block looks like (it’s the same as the one in the Jinny Beyer book). I’ve been waiting months for this, although I have no business mucking around in it right now, because that will release an avalanche of quilt ideas that I’ll want to play with. Bleh.