A Moment of Calm

I’ve about reached my limit of social interaction this week. I think I am going to lay low today. I plan to help at the craft co-op sale tomorrow and Saturday and that will involve more people-ing. I don’t have anything in the sale because I haven’t been in production mode this year, but I enjoy being there.

I was home for a bit yesterday morning, so I nudged the sling bag project along to the point where I am about to sew the three main pieces together. I probably will sew the first two pieces together today, but I am waiting on binding to arrive from Sailrite. I can’t sew everything together until I get the binding because the seams have to be bound in a specific sequence. I am a bit surprised at how quickly the bag came together, although this is not my first bag rodeo.

The center of the Economy Block quilt from Tuesday’s class is in its final form:

I put the 11" and 8" blocks back together the same way I had done them in class—thank goodness for phone cameras—then played around with the 5" center squares. The quilt really wanted those pops of black. I ran back to the store in the middle of the afternoon to get a few more pieces of fabric so I could fussy-cut the remaining 5" blocks. I could have gone softer and less dramatic, but I love the contrast. Putting this together might be today’s project.

Matchy-matchy quilts have never been my thing—I adore scrappy—but this one pushed the envelope. Will I make another? Perhaps. I certainly learned a lot from Kaffe and Brandon about how color and fabrics play together.

While I was at the store yesterday, I was seduced by this fabric (Ammonite), designed by Phillip Jacobs. He is the third member of the Kaffe Fassett Collective, along with Kaffe and Brandon.

I bought enough to make another quilted jacket. Hot pink has always been a signature color for me and this fabric is even more spectacular in person. I won’t piece this; I’ll simply quilt the yardage together with a lining fabric, then cut out the pieces and assemble it the same way I did my BU jacket. Sometimes the fabric needs to be the star of the show.

Brandon asked me on Tuesday about my area of sewing, because I think he believed I was mostly a garment sewist. (Half a dozen pieces I made were hanging in the store.) I laughed and said I dabbled in everything. Back in my knitting days, I was very focused on stitches and texture. That was fine for that time in my life, but now I want to try it all.

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I need to sort potatoes today, too. That will be a good project for this afternoon when I can sit on the porch and enjoy the sunshine. It looks like today will be our last warmish day; temps are dropping into the 60s and 70s from here on out. We did get down to about 32F the other morning, but I haven’t gone out to the garden to see how the tomatoes are doing.

Anna came over last night and got a few squash. I showed her what I was planning to use and told her the rest was up for grabs.

I love this cooler weather for cooking, too. I make a lot of soups and stews during the colder months. A nice batch of curried butternut squash soup sounds delicious.