UFO | threadonthread

I like it when things are in their place. I’m not obsessive about this, but when things are where they should be there’s a sense of calm in my world. Recently, in the book shops, I’ve picked up a book called the life-changing magic of tidying up: the japanese art of decluttering and organizing. It’s a pretty book and a nice size too. It’s a New York Times #1 best seller, written by Marie Kondo. So, why don’t I buy the book and find out what the magic is? Mainly because it seems to me that it would just add One More Thing that I’d need to declutter.

Three weeks ago I had some dental surgery done, and was instructed/ordered not to exercise for a week. That week ended up being almost two weeks and then, just when I thought it was OK to get out there, I got a nasty cold. Minor stuff, but I listened to my body and just hung about. The benefit of this little break was having lots of time to clean up my sewing room and finish some niggly bits and pieces.

I got down to the bottom of my ironing bucket. I finally sewed a hanging loop on my jean jacket. Honestly, it took less than five minutes and I’ve put it off for two years! I sorted fabrics that are leftover from three different quilts. I put aside fabric and notions that will be donated or swapped. I put hanging sleeves on my wall quilts so that they can actually hang and not spend their days in a pile on the floor. Everything is labelled now.

This quilt, which was started over two years ago, was promised to Project Linus. It will be my second donation to them. Their donated quilts and blankets go to a transition house in North Vancouver.

It’s free motion quilted with different patterns on each block and then a meander on all the white. I hope that it brings comfort and joy to someone.

There is one more UFO, (unfinished object), waiting to be quilted and I’ve just ordered some thread for it. I’m sticking to my goal of not buying any new fabric as my collection is full of wonderful pieces that are calling to be used. And, this afternoon I began working on a lined linen blazer. That fabric’s been around for a while, but linen is timeless, right!?

Yesterday marked five weeks until my Half Ironman race. I’m definitely not where I’d like to be as far as training distances. Three weeks off, at this point, isn’t recommended, but I had a good solid base and should be able to build up the mileage.

My mind and my sewing room have been decluttered. Order has been restored and I can get excited again about new projects and spending time in the water, on the bike and on the road.

Thanks for reading.

Creative Threads Conspiracy is a three-day event that happens on Denman Island every October. The website for 2016 isn’t up yet, but if you’d like an idea of what goes on, you can click on this link, Creative Threads Conspiracy , from 2015. I’ve taken part for the past two years and eagerly await the schedule for this year.

This past October I joined two workshops; Collaborative Quilts and Coptic Bookbinding. Each workshop was a full day, lead by knowledgeable instructors. For the quilt workshop we were to bring a box containing roughly 4 yards of fabric. The fabric could be small bits, scraps and larger pieces, but they needed to work together. I went with one of my favourite combinations of red, black, white, yellow and grey, with a few bits of text fabric thrown in. I also had a 3″ x 3″ square of Linus, from the Peanuts cartoon.

There were 11, (12??) in the class. We each started with our own fabric box and had 20 minutes to do the first block. Then, every 20 minutes, the boxes and quilt tops were moved to a different person, who added her own touch and a surprise piece of fabric. As the quilt tops got larger it became difficult to formulate an idea, cut it out and get it stitched on before the bell rang.

At the end of the day we took our pieces out into the sunshine and had show and tell. The pieces were approximately 24″ x 30″, perhaps a bit larger and all were very creative. Each person respected the work that had already been done and carried on the theme.

My piece got put into a box and tucked away. Yes, it became a UFO, or UnFinished Object. I had a few other things that I wanted to get done. And there was Christmas, a trip to Hawaii, my Mom’s 90th birthday and, well, life in general. Recently, I decided it was time to get this project finished and pulled the box out.

Having let it sit for almost three months seemed to breathe new life into it. Where I hadn’t been in love with it, I saw possibility. I did need to reposition and trim a wee bit in order to straighten it and make it a reasonable size. I used some scraps for the backing and bound it with a black background/white dot fabric. There’s also a small insert of text fabric in the binding. The binding is attached front and back by machine. A machine-made label sewn on to the back completed this project.

Back of Collaborative quilt.

Collaborative Quilt

Oh, I forgot that I added five buttons for sparkle. And, the best part, is the little insert along the bottom row that says ‘being partial to chickens roasted’. Isn’t that just random and so much fun?!

It turns out that I love this little hanging as it makes me think of a great weekend of learning, sharing and working together. I hope it brings a smile to your face as well.

Thanks for reading.