Let’s Get Physical
Let’s get physical. Quilting is an endurance sport. It takes physical and mental stamina. The older I get the more aware I am of just how important maintaining my body is to being able to work in my studio. So, I make it a point to work on my balance and stamina. When you get physical, it is equally important to take breaks. This allows the body to restore and refresh itself.
SAQA Spotlight Auction
Lola is my quilt for SAQA’s Spotlight Auction. I’ve been working on it fairly intently for the past several weeks. However, I channeled my energy elsewhere for most of this week. I did manage to squeeze in time to thread paint her nose, outline one eye in a rim of dark gray and fill in the mid-gray stripes. I find thread painting more restorative than physical. Quite unlike the physical piecing required for my Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt.
Rainbow Scrap Challenge
I spent most of this week piecing crumb fabric. Is that even a term? If not, it should be. Crumb blocks are created by sewing small scraps together. These are the scraps I once heard referred to as too small to do anything with. In this age of recycle, repurpose and reuse, trashing fabric scraps just doesn’t feel right. I pulled out my red scraps, sorted them by size, shape and other unifying factors. The trick was to find units of similar fabrics to seam together and build strips, rectangles and squares from them. I am happy to share that the trimmings to square each unit were mere slivers. In other words, very little waste.
Yes, it was physical work. If I wasn’t on my feet sorting, I was walking the studio floor going from sewing table, to ironing station and back to sorting station. It is worth the effort. I pieced a 20″ H x 37″W length of red crumb fabric. Boy, did this take stamina.
I used the crumb fabric to cut strips to start making my red HST (half square triangles). Gasp! Turns out I need to make 70. Talk about stamina. The good news I made 20 red HST. Then I used some of these to make my very first complete blocks. Would you believe I not only used the majority of my red scraps, but it turns out I have very little red fabric. Most of my “red” fabric reads more orange and pink. Guess who’s going shopping?
I’m linking up to the following posts:
