Scrappy Saturday

In the absence of home-made soup, I found a package of dehydrated chicken noodle soup in my cupboard - a poor replacement but it seems to have done the trick in fighting off whatever it was that laid me flat yesterday, though I did get half the binding done on a bed-sized quilt.  Soup, along with the aspirin and a good night's sleep, and I'm feeling completely refreshed today.  I finished ten log-cabin blocks for my Crumb-Along project.

This brings my block count up to 57.  The funny thing is that my crumb bin still looks as full as if I had never started.  Granted, I've been adding a few bits and pieces to it from other project trimmings, but it seems rather fantastic to me how full the bin is.  When I consider that the stack of finished blocks I've made using crumbs wouldn't fit in the crumb bin, and that it should still be full without the fabric pieces I've pulled out to make them.  I was thinking I'd stop at 64 blocks (8 x 8) but at 6" each, that would only make the finished top 44" x 44", which doesn't seem a good size at which to stop.  I guess I'll just keep on crumbing.

I had to stop and put some order to the mess I've been building for the last three days.  I've got in-process projects on every surface, in bags, boxes, plastic containers and just stacked one on top of the other. 

There's the bonus half-square triangles from my Shady Lanes project... I'm keeping them separate from the box of 1200 scrappy half-square triangles for now, in case I want to use them in the Shady Lanes border.

And the skinny 1" strips from the crumb bin that I've pulled out to use as Leaders n' Enders for my next crumb project.  When you see how many I've pulled out, and add the 57 crumb blocks, it just boggles the mind that the crumb bin is still so full that it has to be ruthlessly compacted before it will close properly.

I have three UFOs sitting (rather optimistically) on the sewing table as visual reminders....

And the box of components for the Shady Lane quilt top.  Hmmm.  Yes.  I think I'll make up the sashings for the next row of blocks today.  Drawing sewing lines on the backs of dark fabric squares goes better in daylight, as does sewing them.

And I still have a box full of two-patches which I've been using as Leaders n' Enders forever.  I will admit that I'm rather tired of making four patches.  And the Shady Lane project box is full of more four patches and sixteen-patches than I can use in one quilt top.  I think I'll put the two-patch box aside for awhile.

I can't help thinking about the Law of the Tomatoes.  My Dad is a good gardener and enjoys tomato sandwiches, but there always comes a point in the summer where the tomato production outpaces his capacity to eat them.  He feels obligated to eat tomatoes just past their prime, rather than those of perfect ripeness.  (He grew up during the depression and can't bear to throw out edible food.)  This results in him eating over-ripe tomatoes in an endless futile attempt to catch up.  He'd never get to eat another good tomato if my mother didn't step in and claim all the past-prime tomatoes for a soup or sauce she makes only to get him out of his predicament.

Sometimes I feel like I'm working with fabrics I don't like anymore just to use them up.  At this rate, I'll never get to use the good stuff.