Tidying And Piecing Enjoyment

I have a print out of this sign posted on the door to my sewing room. I have been so, so, sorely tempted to follow its advice. My most recent post on real quilting was as long ago as mid-January. But take heart and persist as I did. Farther along in this post I report some interesting piecing efforts, all the sweeter since I have a freer space to work in. Gretchen Rubin, happiness guru, reports that one of the secrets of adulthood is that "Outer Order Contributes to Inner Calm".

Lately I have been alternating between tidying and producing. Declutter – sort –  pack to giveaway – whip out some burp cloths. Declutter – sort – pack to give away – whip out some burp cloths. Repeat as required. Then do some quilt piecing! My Piddle Twiddle and Resolve post on 2/1/18 was about my efforts to de-clutter my sewing room and donate items to my guild's upcoming fundraiser, our annual silent auction. I am happy to report progress on that front with the following before and after photos.

The butcher block wood on those double countertops is now visible and cleared of  junk. The surfaces are not pristine but they are a definite improvement.

The contents on the left side of my closet no longer tumbles out at my feet and clobbers me in the face when I slide open the door.

I asked my husband to repurpose two white button drawer pulls as hanging  hooks for my tape measures. Who wants to roll those up every time and store them in a drawer? Now they can be draped in a consistent location, not over a chair, not over a railing, not over my shoulder where I cannot find them. I had bought a modernistic white towel holder that never worked right; it held the towel next to the wall, left a damp spot, and the towel did not dry. It was re-purposed as a perfect holder in the corner for corralling my yardsticks. My husband was very happy to add this feature because now he will know for certain where to find my yardsticks to borrow one when he needs it – and he will not have to venture very far into my sewing room to fetch it. And they do not fall over with every slight breeze or inadvertent bump.

And the donations to my quilt guild's silent auction? I have five banker's boxes full thus far. There intentionally are no photos of the contents lest I see something and change my mind about giving it away.

So with tidying behind me for the moment and my warm up burp cloth projects documented in my last two posts on 2/8/18 and 2/12/18, I am moving back to my first love, piecing. My prior post on this quilt top that involves curved piecing was on 1/10/18. This week, here was my design wall as I played with the arrangement of the pieces and added the smallest elements, the quarter circles at two diagonal corners of each block. One block unit is outlined in red in the photo. 

I developed a method for keeping the pieces where I intended relative to each other as I transported them from the design wall to my sewing machine and ironing board. I numbered them and took a backup picture with my cell phone. 

I pressed into service a set of specialty pins I had recently purchased at the Road2CA quilt show, post for 1/25/18. They were perfect for this use. The only feedback I might have for the manufacturer is perhaps to have numbers on both sides of the pin head, not only on one side.

Assuring I had the optimal direction for pressing each seam was a challenge, even with the help of the pattern instructions; it required some pauses for thought along the way. But was worth it. Look at how those points meet and now smooth those curves lie. 

By the end I was feeling pretty confident about my growing curved piecing skills. I was however glad that the corner quarter circle pieces, the smallest elements with the tightest curve were the last to be seamed since they were the most difficult to ease in smoothly. They fit in at the far left of the next photo.

Here is the top assembled and pressed back up on my design wall. The bumps at the lower right are an illusion since the top is not smoothed thoroughly against the flannel for every square inch.

This was a good week. I kept telling myself, "Diane, eyes on the prize". My 2018 goal again? Maximize enjoyment, minimize guilt. I am enjoying working in my tidied my sewing space and have alleviated that guilt that needles at me from looking at a mess. I have alleviated guilt from overbuying by giving some products to a good cause. I am happy I have become comfortable with curved piecing and enjoy doing it. I am enjoying successfully using a new tool I bought and need not feel guilty about it being an impulse purchase. This top may be blue but I am not. 

I am considering naming this quilt Wheels and Webs since I see both shapes in the pattern. I am not fond of spiders though, so I may reconsider. One exception is that spider webs with dew on them are awfully pretty. They do have a graceful shape. See the resemblance within parts of the quilt top?  Maybe other readers will have an opinion; sharing this post now with Let's Bee Social #217.