Thursday, August 26, 2010

Stitch in the Ditch.

It won't be the Swallowtail Shawl. For some reason, I could not follow a simple repeat of, what, four? six? stitches. So I ripped and found the L'il Bunny Foo-Foo shawl on Ravelry, which I have also begun and ripped out several times. I am now counting every row, in hopes of not fucking up too badly. I feel very stupid anymore.

Today, though, I scrabbled in a box of fabric in my studio and came across two baggies filled with 2-1/2" squares. So I began to piece them together, light and dark. I have almost completed a quilt top that measures 40" X 50", or thereabouts. There were several odd quilt blocks in the box as well; ones I had made myself or ones I received in exchange back in the way back of the mid-nineties, before I had the internet and back when I actually wrote letters to other quilters. And exchanged quilt blocks. I think I have enough of them for the back.

It's interesting to me, handling these little square bits of cloth, that I can remember from whence so many of them originated. That one is when I worked at Hancock Fabrics, that one is from Judy who bought it in England, that one is from Susan Marple who gave Production Values, Inc. a ton of fabric back in the mid-80s. That one is from a shirt I bought at the thrift shop across the street, that one is from a dress I made, that one is from a shirt I loved. Yet, I cannot remember movies I have seen or books I have read or people I have met.

I have not brought down the plastic bins of dyed fabric from the barn yet. That would be work. I am merely piecing together these little squares of fabric that have been waiting for me, all these years. I have a cotton batt even, salvaged from a wrecked house. I always loved a cotton batt.

The weather is moderating. I am sleeping under a quilt I made several years ago. It is just the right weight for these cooling summer nights.

4 comments:

Mouse said...

Sounds cool-- the largest amount of quilting I've ever done was a single lopsided potholder. lol.

FUZZARELLY said...

And yet you have done so many things I have never tried1

Blueball Mountain Spindle and Needle Works said...

Oh how absolutely fun! I keep wanting to go back to those kind of projects...it's wonderful to find them when you can actually work on them. I understand about the memory thing although not quite sure how it works. I too can remember the source of things that I have collected and yet cannot remember so many details of regular life. I'm sure there is something in there about what is really important to us.

Love your new header too...are those your quilts? I am in awe!

Luna

FUZZARELLY said...

Awe? Pshaw! Those are quilts I made from the late 1990s. Trying to get back in the groove, to get past some associated baggage as well.