To Bee or Not to BEE!

I got a lovely surprise in the mail yesterday.

I had been complaining about the foot pedal to my featherweight, about how I hate that “one toe” button ---- how it would slow down and speed up and slow down, and it’s just not fun to sew with.

Randy picked me up a new “gas pedal” foot pedal for my featherweight when she was at a show last week! Yeeeehawww! I had to plug it in and see if it worked….like a charm, baby, like a charm!

Tomorrow my bee is having a Sew Day at Leann’s barn. I’m hankering to go. I haven’t spent time with these ladies much since we went to Camp Dogwood in January. I also know that Saturdays at home with my family are few and far between, so I’m kind of on the fence between what I want to do – and what I should do, when both are things I want to do, you know?

The last Saturday I was home, before going to Florida, DH and I had a lovely afternoon driving over to Welcome, NC to check out a new burger joint that had just come in. I love visiting small independent restaurants and places that are not “chain”. And this place was very well worth the drive it took to get there. We talked as we drove and caught up and just relaxed into normality for the afternoon drive there and back.

So I guess I’m waiting to find out what HIS plans for the weekend are – before I go running off to sew with the ladies. I can’t choose both – but I’m weighing my choice on his! I don’t leave for Virginia Beach/Norfolk until Monday morning, so we would have Sunday as an option to spend together too, depending on what he has already lined up.

And in the back of my mind I hear the voice saying “But I really want to go!”

I’ve even decided that I need to pull out those “Nearly Insane” blocks and start working on them again. Paper piecing small blocks on the featherweight is perfect as a “to-go” project. I can try out my new foot pedal! What do you think?

So off to the drawer I went --I had to go pull this stuff out and see if it was all there --- I thought I was half way done with this project. I know why it got way-laid---we moved to NC 4 years ago and I haven’t worked on it since!

The bag of pulled scraps separated by color family is still in tact. As far as I can tell, EVERTYTHING I need is already in here.

((What did we ever do without ziplock bags?!))

The sashing fabric is here. The cornerstone fabric is here ----I’ve got it all ---

I’ve got my binder with my foundation papers, I’ve got the half blocks that finish the edge already done waiting in page protectors. My book is right here – I had it spiral bound so it would lay flat – love that! But wait – I’ve got WAY more done than I thought!

Look at this diagram:

There is an X through each block that is complete?! I’ve ONLY got 14 blocks to go! How come I thought it was more than that?

Here is the whole thing laid out on my floor. I’ve been assembling the rows as I make them. I like to see progress, and it inspires me more to KEEP GOING than just a binder full of page protectors filled with blocks. But how come I thought this was only HALF way done?? Holy Moly!

I have been in love with this quilt long before it was called “Nearly Insane’. Back then it was just the “Salinda Rupp” quilt, and I first saw it in Robert Bishop’s book “New Discoveries in American Quilts.” The book was published in 1975. I bought my copy from a guild “for sale” table for $2.00 around 1992. I’ve poured over the quilts in this book….this page has the most wear:

Can you tell why? It’s even got a binder clip to hold my page open! I’ve taken magnifying glasses of different strengths to study the fabrics up close in each and every block until I was driving myself crazy ---and then I finally let go and decided to go with my own choices.

One year for Christmas, DH gifted me with this huge coffee table book. It’s also so worn out that the pages started falling out ---so, it’s probably against all the “book rules” but I took the page out and kept it in my binder where I could refer to it:

Which photo from which book shows the “TRUE” colors in the original quilt? Who knows. The colors are all so different between the different photographs that I just gave up and again went with my gut. After all, this is MY quilt. My interpretation of Salinda Rupp’s beautiful work of art.

This book is also a favorite: The Ultimate Quilting Book by Maggie McCormick Gordon. Gorgeous antiques in here….can you see where I got my love of Cheddar, Red, Purple, and all things “Pennsylvania Dutch” era? Bring on the color!

There is not a picture of the full quilt in here…but look at the close ups we do get of the actual blocks! While the “Nearly Insane” book gives good diagrams for the blocks, the colors in the photos and the fabrics used in the “modern remakes” don’t capture the feel of the original quilt to me, so I’m glad to have these other sources to show me the quilt as close as possible since the quilt is owned by a private party and is not view-able to the public anywhere to date.

I look at these blocks and get excited all over again!

I think that I need to take those last 14 blocks and get them DONE, don’t you?

I started this in 2003—can it really be that it’s coming upon it’s 10th year UFO-anniversary?

Bee Sew Day? Home Day with DH? How can a decision be so hard?