20140227 Building Blocks and Cleaning Cupboards/Closet

Quilting Progress
I did manage to get up to date again with the Building Blocks project with Leah Day.  The blocks require marking, which so far is the most difficult part of the process.

Building Blocks - 2.2

Block 2.2 was my first time doing circles. Except for two places they went very well. Leah did without marking, but I thought I'd better mark just to be sure to get circles!

Block 2.3 has some stitching that can't be seen really in my example as my thread is so close to the color in the material. She calls it a Wiggly Pasta design.  It was pretty fun to do.

Watching her video of how she did the design in the 9-patch helped with the order of the stitching.  The outside of the block I marked, but didn't really follow with the thread as I had the block oriented so I only had the border to hold on to.  I should have turned it so the border was at the front of piece as it goes thru the machine.  The marking will disappear once it's washed, I think it will look okay in the final piece.

Building Blocks - 2.3

Next Monday we will sew the next three or four blocks in the Building Blocks project, then each week in March will be guided thru the free motion quilting.

I'm hoping in March to be finished with taxes so I can start my going thru boxes in ernest so I can find the quilting projects I was working on when we left for Boston.  I know I could start yet another new project, but it will be more satisfying to finish some quilts first!

Click to see my previous Building Blocks posts. 

I'm linking up to A Quilting Reader's Garden and to the 350 Blocks Project (so far I just have 6 blocks for February but there are a few more days to sew!)

Personal Status
I'm starting to feel better, but not completely tip top yet. This cold/sore throat and now pain in gums keep popping up and going away.  On several days I have forgotten to brush my teeth in the morning so I do in the afternoon and then after flossing it gets irritated, so I need to be sure to only floss in front of the mirror to double check this.

It sprinkled this morning so would have been a perfect day I think to weed as the ground would be soft and the weeds would come up easily but then I could feel that throat and was afraid I'd make it worst with outside work.

Reading
Mrs Lincoln's Dressmaker.  I'm actually listening to the book.  Sometimes they say things related to dates, if I was reading I could flip back to verify if what I was thinking was correct.  It's an interesting concept for a story, but full of fake stuff so I'm not sure about it.

House Cleaning
So instead I continued on my cleaning cupboard/closet project.  Earlier I cleaned and reorganized where I have food in the kitchen, and the containers that hold my whisks and grabber devices.

Today I emptied the hard to organize closet under the stairs.  Should have taken a photo of the resulting piles!  I had things all over the den and counter - what a mess.  I knew the way I had put the shelves in before didn't work so thought how to rearrange things.  I think the new way will work.

The way I have it now the shelves are at the front right of the closet and even though they stick out a little in the doorway, since I do not plan to put anything in front of the shelves it will be easy to get to the paper plates, cups, napkins, and plastic silverware that I stacked in the shelves.  The space behind this is just for storage of table clothes, napkins, lace - mainly from my mom that I still need to go thru and decide about.  But the way things are arranged I have space to put more if I find more in my travels through other closets and spaces so that will be nice. I have to go thru everything and do a preliminary toss and organize to remind myself what we have - so then I can go thru and really cull the extras and unneeded items.