Good News

[ysabetwordsmith]

Good news includes all the things which make us happy or otherwise feel good. It can be personal or public. We never know when something wonderful will happen, and when it does, most people want to share it with someone. It's disappointing when nobody is there to appreciate it. Happily, blogging allows us to share our joys and pat each other on the back.

What good news have you had recently? Are you anticipating any more? Have you found a cute picture or a video that makes you smile? Is there anything your online friends could do to make your life a little happier?

Comments

Good news

[dialecticdreamer]

Well, after spending literally the first four hours of my day UNABLE to write more than a hundred words, I picked a different "ADD siphon" -- I set a timer and spend half an hour focusing only on the new thing, then when the timer goes off, I usually need another fifteen minutes to get my head out of the distraction. For the first time, I'm trying crazy quilting. Tough for me, because my geometry and spatial relationship skills extend to... spelling those words, basically.

In the same day, I fixed a project bag that needed the pocket re-sewn, cut and assembled a coin purse and a pencil pouch, and did all of that by piecing together scraps the size of my palm or smaller into the fabric cut into the pieces for the bags. I haven't installed a zipper since 1998, so the repeated practice has really helped.

Then I got back to the computer and wrote 3400 words in three pieces.

It's pretty sad that the best news in my life right now is that I'm feeling no worse than usual and everything else centers around a hobby I've been trying to turn into a vocation for more than a year.

Re: Good news

[ysabetwordsmith]

It's a lot easier to scrap a block than a whole quilt. There are multiple methods for making crazy quilt blocks:

https://www.scrapish.com/crazy-quilt-block.html

https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/crazy-quilt-pattern-4689151

http://blog.followthewhitebunny.com/2014/09/double-dutch-random-sampler-quilt-along.html

https://www.favequilts.com/Block-Patterns/Crazy-Nine-Patch

I suggest that you try different ones to see which works for you. Crazy quilt blocks are very easy to turn into bags, pillows, etc.

Also to save work, look at your scraps. Do you have squares, angles, long strips, or weird shapes? If you have a lot of similar shapes, you can probably find a crazy block tutorial based on that. If they're all different, you can A) try to piece them together as is, or B) trim them into more regular shapes.

You can also make what my Waterjewel folks call a kiss-me quilt. The easy version starts with a sheet or other large piece of fabric. Start at one edge and sew pieces on top of that. Keep going until you've covered the whole thing. If you like fuzzies, you don't even have to hem the patches, but if you want it smooth, turn their edges under before sewing down.

When it gets a hole, slap another patch over it. Forever.

Re: Good news

[dialecticdreamer]

It's the figuring out spatial relationships, and accidentally sewing the narrow end to the narrow end instead of the wide end that is hardest to deal with for crazy quilting. I mean, taking 3" scraps and squaring them up ALSO leads to quilt blocks, but I figured that this would be a good use for the batch of scraps in six styles I had leftover from making face masks.

Defintely have from that pile of scraps: a Japanese knot purse (x2)), a box bag that started out with four pieces 7*10 when trimmed, a coin purse the size of my palm (x2), a project bag that I made the size of a sheet of printer paper, just to make the squaring up easy, and a pencil case (two 8.5*5.5 project pieces).

I've learned not to put seams too close to the project edge, to press twice, and if a seam angle is wrong, press it until it cries, then stitch along the valley and trim to make a better seam! So I'm not great at the process yet, but I definitely enjoyed the challenge of turning a gallon zip bag full of cloth scraps into new and useful things.

Total cost to me, time, a couple of swear words, and the zippers offered from the person who gave me the scraps. I haven't needed any band-aids, which I'll count as a great win.