Feathered Star from Who Knows When

Feathered Star from Who Knows When

During December while bloggers were showing their Best of the Year posts, and New Year's Goals posts, and huge stacks of UFO, WIP, and all the other names for personal quilting baggage, I put my head down, and I worked like a mad quilter. The pictures I've accrued--the stuff I've uncovered and gotten done is honestly a little amazing even to me. I am Quilter on Fire! Yeah, maybe not quite that, but you folks should know I've taken myself to task. It's been harsh.

The Motto

You find it; you finish it. Or, you attach a note with details about it, and either defer it while waiting for space to work on it, or pass it to someone who might love it more than you. No more put it up on the wall, and waiting for an inspirational muse to bonk me on the head with how to finish it. She's been fired!

You do realize why there are so darn many projects in plastic bags in quilt swaps and sales, right? It's not that people ran out of time to finish them. It's that there is something either wrong with what they did up to that point, or it's beyond their ability. Or maybe they ran out of fabric. It can happen. Either way, I've decided my lack of attention ends with me, and my kids will not inherit these things. After cleaning out my own parents' house, and moving my mother several times, I'm getting better at understand how important Swedish Death Cleaning is, and at some point it also applies to our quilting spaces.

My sewing studio is an absolute disaster, but I won't apologize. I've been digging through boxes and bins, shelves and cabinets. I decided last weekend I would get my cutting table cleared--it's a ping pong table under my massive ironing mat made of green insulation board, and I had piles of scraps that then needed sorted. I actually looked forward to doing it. I pulled down plastic shoe bins of already sorted and stored scraps to sort into, and found I had also stashed UFOs in a bunch or them! My stomach fell. I was so disappointed in myself, 

This was the one I opened up first so it came home with me to be reckoned with. It fell under the category of Too Hard for Me to Finish or Beyond Ability back then. But as I laid it all out, I could see where the problems were. This was cut from paper templates ages ago, and some of the bias pieces had stretched during sewing. It had other problems and wonkiness, but wasn't beyond hope. So I picked and ripped and resewed and it was together in a few hours. 

Done is better than perfect, and the Quilt Police were off duty so I proceeded without looking up the correct order of sewing a feathered star. I discovered there might have been a better way, but mine also worked in the end. Most points are there. The wonkiest parts are the feathers at the tips. This will have a sweet border finish of some kind in the next days, and make a great wall hanging for my mom's place. 

Kind of zippy, isn't it?

Come on, Doxie girls.

Let's go sew.