2019 Kitchen. Come in for a Cuppa (General Messages)

This thread is for miscellaneous chit chat, questions, ideas...whatever.

A thread for chit chat - I'm jumping in!



Just wondering how others here deal with production blockages, or even (gasp) halts. On New Year's Day I sat down and in a lovely new journal made a list of my rug hooking UFOs. "Too many" I cried. I was so overcome with the resulting inertia I couldn't convince myself to show up yesterday at the first meeting of my group for 2019, usually a fun event! The time for telling myself it is due to the disruption and consequent disorganization of the move is over at eighteen months out, although more painting and shifting is happening in the house today.

Knitting and quilting projects are each at a respectable 2-3 UFOs each, so not bothered there. Meantime, I'm leafing through my books finding yet more wonderful projects I would like to do!

So, where to start with the rug hooking? Suggestions please.

>3 SassyLassy: Pick one...any one...and hook for 15 minutes. Repeat tomorrow. Repeat the day after. Next thing you know, 15 minutes won't be enough and you will be past the inertia!

>3 SassyLassy: Oh, too bad you didn't make it to that first meeting, that might have broken through your blockage.

I can't speak for hooking specifically but I've certainly had that feeling of "too many" and that inertia. I can't tell you how many quilts-in-progress there are here. Sometimes I think I need to get the idea out of me and once out there's the buzz and a nice release. Then I have to push myself to finish them. I'm happy when they are finished, of course....

How about finishing something small? And then I'm going to encourage you to post it here because the resulting praise and encouragement that follows is energizing. Then perhaps you'll do another hooking project, or take on something else?

>4 lesmel: Oh, I like that idea.

I think lesmel has the right idea and, if you pick the smallest like Lois said, it will go that much faster. I once had a cross-stitch project that I made great progress on until I reached a section that was mostly white on white. I started making a lot of mistakes and had to pick it out and put it aside for something like 4 years. Then I decided I would do one needle of thread per night and go on to something else I was enjoying. It did make it seem not so daunting. I have tons of quilting UFOs (more than I've mentioned on my thread) and all I want to do is start something new. I have soooo many ideas.

It seems we are all plagued with having too many ideas :-) (I'm not looking for a cure, mind you).

Wow - thanks all for your immediate and positive support! This really is a kitchen gathering.

Putting these ideas together, I like the idea of 15 minutes a day from smallest to largest, expanding into who knows where or what.

There are things you don't think about when you move. As an example, my smallest project just needs to be backed to complete it. Last week I found a great Kaffe Fassett fabric for it, in a store 30 km in one direction. That store is wonderful, but sells mostly hand dyed yarns and wool yardage, along with Kaffe's fabrics and Valdani threads (these latter I could never find in my old town). What I need now is plain old thread to sew the backing on. Having found my own thread supply last week, I realized I didn't have the correct colour, so off to the closest sewing store, 30 km in the other direction! That same trip will help with a binding colour of thread I need for another project. I knew before the move that there were all the wool stores in the world I would ever need here, but a simple thing like thread hadn't occurred to me! Where I lived before there was a number of quilting stores selling thread, but no good wool stores.

For want of a nail...

>7 dudes22: That one thread idea definitely helped me take up and finish a tapestry project three years ago. Nothing too daunting, it can be done while the laundry is on, or something is in the oven, or whatever will interrupt you soon completes.

>8 avaland: Oh where those ideas lead us!

>3 SassyLassy: I received a latch hook kit that was in my wish list for Christmas. When I came home, I couldn't figure out where my latch hook is so I ordered a new one. I searched several days before ordering one late last week. It arrives Tuesday.

>10 thornton37814: thornton37814, will you be setting up a thread here of your own so we can see and hear about your current work?

>10 thornton37814: Latch hook was how I started. Tuesday is tomorrow, so you will be working away happily. What is the project?

I now hook using what I would call strip hooking, where the wool is not knotted as in latch hooking, but pulled through in continuous loops to form the pattern, known here just as rug hooking. Looking forward to seeing your work.

>11 avaland: Since I didn't do much last year, I was thinking I'd just continue last year's thread. I might start a new one though. I will be doing some cross stitch as well.

>12 SassyLassy: This is the pattern: https://smile.amazon.com/Patons-Wonderart-Moonlight-Meow-Latch/dp/B00DTV0PP2 (I love cats!)

>13 thornton37814: That looks like fun. Are you the kind to dive in and work until it's done, or will you noodle away at it as time permits?

Well, more chitchat needed here.

Inspired by avaland's and others' photos of reorganization and order, I started to wonder; once all these things are neatly arranged, for those who follow the often recommended method of having fabrics and related items such as thread, trimming and so on out in the open on shelves where it can be seen and inspire, how do you protect it from dust and fading? I love the look, but know I would fail miserably - although now that I come to think of it, my book shelves have always been a sea of calm and order in the chaos around them.

>14 SassyLassy: It will definitely be as time permits.

>15 SassyLassy: I've not noticed any threads or fabrics fading but surfaces can get dusty. My shelved fabrics don't. I can't speak for yarns and wools (what I have of that is wrapped up in plastic, as is also any textured fabrics set aside for Victorian Crazy quilting). I do run an air filter/purifier, more for my lungs than the fabrics :-)

I don't arrange things for the look so much as for the ease of use. Sure, my wall of fabric sorted by color...etc looks great but it's that way because I when I'm looking for a blue green I want to go straight to that pile and find the perfect (or...not-so-perfect) one. Oh, and they don't stay this neat: when I play it gets really, really messy :-)

>13 thornton37814: Awwww, make a nice, new shiny thread for 2019....:-)

Well I finally have a reasonable idea of where things are here, I'm home alone for a week, so I have hauled out some things for a small (very small) quilt, in an effort to get back into it after the move.

As I cut I started to wonder how others approach the idea of "How small does a left over piece have to be before you decide it's not usable?"

I know everyone will have different ideas, so chime in.

Well - For a while I was keeping some really small pieces, but I decided a little bit ago to go through all my scarps and cut them up into what sizes I could and throw the rest away. I have sooooo much fabric, it seemed like the thing to do. The smallest size I have now is 2" squares. One of my thoughts was to cut out some of my whites and put them together by using them as leaders and enders when I sew and then make a scrap quilt. I also cut some larger sizes and thought I'd either do the same or make some random blocks like Lois does.

ETA: I think too it depends on the kind of projects/patterns that you do. I don't do as many of the scrap type projects as Lois does, so I'm probably still fooling myself that I'll use a lot of the scraps I'm saving.

>18 SassyLassy: I'm so glad you have orientated yourself and are hauling things out! You know we will love seeing your work!

Like Betty I was keeping much smaller pieces than I do now. A 2.5 inch square or a similarly-sized right triangle is my limit now. For strips it's probably an inch wide and 4 or so long. If the fabric is something special I might save smaller pieces. I do have to routinely go through my 5 scrap containers (small pieces, triangles, "large" pieces, short strips, long strips) and purge.

That said, I have two - one gallon-sized plastic bags full of equilateral triangles made from 2.5 inch strips cut in those last weeks before I moved in 2014, some not very accurate, but I don't have the heart to chuck them out yet.