Progress Report

So here it is, three quarters of the way through the 2009 Year of Finishing and how am I doing? Well, I did finish this quilt and it is on my bed. Not a fancy quilt, but a nice every day quilt. I like to have a real quilt on my bed because those polyester fleece blankets make me all sticky and sweaty. (you wanted to know that, right?) This was Project #8 on this year's list. So that's one down and seven to go. Some sort of progress has been made on the other seven projects, but finishing is still a ways off on most of them.

I did deviate slightly from my no-new-projects resolution. I've been embroidering dish towels, which is not as weird as it sounds, if you are not from the world of compulsive sewing. Go into any quilt store and there are baskets of dish towels, attractively arranged, just waiting to be adorned and embellished. I end up in places with odd bits of time on my hands for my job and they are the perfect "few minutes" project to work on. The weave of the fabric is loose, so you're not taking tiny, exact stitches which means any kind of light is ok. I learned to embroider on dish towels as a child and really, how can you mess up a dish towel? You're going to dry dishes with them, maybe your hands, so unless you shellac them, you can't mess them up. They'll make nice little no-reason presents for my sewing friends. If I make some unfortunate color decisions, well, I'll keep them for myself.

In July, I went to visit my brother in Florida. This is the same brother that designed "Karli's Bees", Project #1 on the Year of Finishing project list. We'd both been feeling a bit stale, artistically speaking, and had several long phone conversations about trying something new. I took a jewelry class and Mark starting some copper chasing. When I visited, we spent some happy mornings bonding over the pitch bowl. I was hooked. Yes, that's my brother, father, and me bonding over a cast iron bowl of hot pitch in July in Florida in the garage. Yes, my brother and I are still in our pajamas. When the muse is upon you, you obey. Now I have my own little garage set up and I've been down in my garage, hammering away. I don't think that really counts as a deviation from the year of finishing since I specifically stated I wasn't going to start any new textile projects this year.