GO! Squares

Isn't it nice to use up little bits, the leftovers of this and that?  I find it SO satisfying!

Our department administrative staff has been getting hammered with challenges this summer. They are the best staff ever, and they seem to have an apparently endless store of patience while they deal with faculty and students. I thought a little cheering on was in order.

First, I made up some little fabric baskets.

I used the Pink Penguin fabric basket pattern -- one of my favorite patterns.

Because baskets alone are not near gratitude enough, I actually filled them with chocolate before passing them on.  I work on the principle that chocolate always makes things better.

I used the GO! two inch square die and Pellon's fusible grid. (I did a blog post years ago showing how I use the die and the grid.  You can find it here if you are interested). I also had some leftover blue charms, so I made up another couple little things.

Another basket  and a zipper case. I love vinyl windows -- so useful! Kind of a pain in the neck to sew, but I love the result.

And then, I've still been crocheting up a wee storm -- making up chalkboard wipes for the wedding (which is right around the corner!) -- I am a sucker for little projects.

Of course, my quilts in process collection would be a lot smaller if I was as big a fan of finishing large projects as I am of finishing the small. I'm putting that bit of truth into the "oh, well" column -- as Popeye would say, I am who I am. If I haven't managed to become a more perfect version of myself by now, it's just not going to happen. On the list of sins, I'm saying unfinished quilt projects is small potatoes. I still want to work at finishing them, but I've decided to give up feeling guilty about them.

Am I the only one? How do you justify that unfinished pile?
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About That Sewing Room

Oh, remember when I was so happy about the redo on the sewing room? Such a sad tale it is. The room looked great -- but smelled BAD. Nasty and chemical and potent enough the room was unusable. And it continued to smell bad, as we continued to try and air it out.  For months. We were convinced it was the new flooring. We eventually pulled out the flooring and . . . wait . . .  what? . . .  the room still smells?! Which left the only new element in the room as the paint. And after some research which suggested paint can go bad and, no, you can't just paint over it, my sewing room now looks like this:

Yup. We're removing the dry wall. (That's the royal "we" -- my own true love gets to tackle this one.)

This is what that corner looked like back when I was setting up the room after the redo:

Such a sad story.

But speaking of my own true love, he knows my being without a sewing room for the last five months has been wearing on me. He ever so generously offered to sacrifice out his game area (big board games) to allow me a place to set up while we continue to try and rescue the sewing room. So we did yet another shuffle on the sewing piles scattered around the downstairs and I now have this:

Yes! A working sewing space again!  Bring it on!

I finished the signature quilt for a friend.

(Those are hubby's gnarly feet down there!)

The GO! dies really came in handy on this one. I used the signature die for the signature patches, the 3" finished half-square triangle die to square the signatures, and the 2" strip die for the framing.

And I'm back to working on the GO! Rag Circle denim quilt.

So, that's where I'm at for the moment. I'd love to get back to my GO! Sew Challenge, but there are some other holdups still in the way.  Meanwhile, I may not be on my personal challenge time, but the GO! is back to getting a workout.

Yeah for sewing rooms! Thanks, honey! (So very many reasons to love that big-hearted guy.)

I'm also getting some crochet in for our son's upcoming wedding: washcloths for the showers and wipe cloths for chalk boards.  Aren't those colors bright and happy?

One of the things that pleases me is that, apparently, I have no ambition when it comes to crochet. With quilting I was all about learning new techniques and playing around to see how I could tweak them (which is how I came up with the variation on Fold and Sew that makes the miniature quilts). But with crochet? Nope. It seems I am perfectly happy to make washcloth after washcloth. I really like having this little side hobby where I feel absolutely no pressure to grow at all.  It's a relief.

Sometimes easy, mindless, and unchallenged is exactly where I want and need to be!