Sew I See!

Another blog post, another photo of the slowly growing collection of "Tall Tale" blocks!  Yes, still working on those book blocks.  I think I've decided to make another column of seven blocks (per quilt)-- and that's in addition to the six blocks remaining to reach the original goal of forty-nine.  There should be plenty of time, but I'm still eager to finish so I can start something new without feeling guilty.   So, here's that latest photo of the design wall (where I'm running out of room!):   And the new batch of block kits ready to go: And in between, there's progress on the tray of bonus mini HSTs from the last finished quilt top.  The tray of stitched HSTs is slowly filling up.  Other little things happening around here: Donald's recovering from a painful case of strep throat, we killed a brown widow at our back door (and I think there are at least two others in need of "elimination")...

The "Tall Tales" quilt feels like it's picking up speed-- turning into a real page-turner, if you will. 😉  This is the sweet spot of the project, that part where you know exactly what you're doing in exactly what order.  You have it down to a science.  You're almost sad that you're past the halfway point.  (Well.  Almost. For one minute, before you move on to feeling that you can't wait to be done with it so you can start something different!) I'm up to 36 on the wall (one more added after I took this photo).  There are new kits on the table, ready to go. (Though some of these are already sewn and on the wall, replaced by yet more kits! Things are moving!) Soon I'll need to figure out whether 49 is enough or if I should size up to 56 books.  There's also the possibility of adding a border.  Maybe some string piecing... I'm not sure how that would look.  The strings might turn out to be more time-consuming than just working up another handf...

We're into August, now, pulling ourselves through summer one week at a time!  I've been feeling a little under the weather for the past few days.  Nothing too bad, but generally tired with a few nebulous symptoms that seem to come and go.  I suspect that a lot of it boils down to the typical failure to do what we all should (but not enough of us manage): getting sufficient sleep, managing stress, maintaining a healthy diet (including drinking enough water), and exercising.  I took a two-hour (or longer?) nap Sunday afternoon, which is almost unheard of for me.  I'm not a big napper, generally, but sometimes you need that extra sleep, no matter when you can grab it. - - - - - - - I'm still chugging along with the "Tall Tales" quilt.  Slowly, but making progress.  I probably average about a block a day, slowed down by the days I'm putting together new "kits" and those other days when I spend no time working on it at all.  These blocks seem like the...