It's pouring out.
It started in the wee small hours - I heard it somewhere in the back of my dreams and the rain and the sound of it hitting the metal roof above my head brought it into whatever scenario was playing out in those dreams.
Weird how that happens.
It's now 8:15 am and it is dark and foggy and all around yuck outside.
However - it's bright in the studio, and it's my packing day for my New Zealand trip with Craftours.
Early birthday wishes in the mail!
Or so I thought - until I opened it and saw it contained Y2K fabric!!
What a hoot! Into my Scrappy pineapple blocks it goes (See top photo of this post with it already sliced down!)
I get questions all the time - "I have this fabric, It's dated - I don't know what to do with it."
Stop focusing on the print, fabric line, genre of the fabric and look at is as a color family.
And when all else fails - CUT IT SMALLER!
Busy bag prep for my long flights -
It's too much to take my squares in boxes on the plane. I needed something easier, and not overkill due to luggage weight limits.
I added the neutral pieces to some kitted up main motifs for my hexie project.
As the neutral part is going to be the "not so exciting" part" I decided to do the neutrals around each one as I go.
I simply counted out a random mix and put them in each block kit snack-size zip lock baggie.
My extra hexie papers are in the blue zip bag.
I know it looks weird - but wait until they are set together.
Each of these motifs has 40 hexies. Even though the flight is long I think it's safe to say that I'm not going to blow through these all that quickly, so just 4 kits in my busy bag should do me.
The remaining kits can be in my big suitcase until I need to restock the busy bag.
Yesterday in the studio -
Did I post this photo already? Good grief I can't remember -
But I had been gifted 3 of these aqua colored art bins full of small pieces of fabric.
I put them back, and let them nag me for far too long.
A couple of movies over New Year's gave me opportunity to sit on the floor and sort things about by color family.
Most are small pieces - but bigger than crumbs.
I baggied them up by color family and put them in with the strings thinking they could work for corners of string blocks, or be used in paper piecing.
I did NOT want to press each piece and cut it to whatever square I could get out of them - so just leaving it by color is the best way to work these in for future projects.
That left this bin:
A pile of large random-sized squares.
A bin of odd widths of strips.
This was the last big job of the sorting adventure.
The squares have been sorted by color family and are now in the "waiting to be cut down" bins by color family. Because you never know when cutting into a 6'' square is better than having to iron out and slice a square from a fat-quarter.
They are better saved with the hunks and chunks by color family.
And the strips? I sorted out all of those that were already 2'' or 2 1/2''.
Some less than that went into the string bins by color family.
There were some other "less than a fat quarter" pieces that were larger that went into the hunks and chunks bins.
Some of the pieces will be trimmed to usable strip widths and put in the Scrap User's System. Others will remain as hunks and chunks for future use.
All in all - it took more time than I thought it would - but I now have 3 completely empty art bins on top of my cabinet with the others.
And I have new fabrics in my scrap stash to play with.
But I need to put all of this fabric play aside and PACK MY BAGS!
We are headed to the airport at 7:30am tomorrow morning to get me on a flight to LA through Atlanta.
I hope this weather thing doesn't cause any canceled flights.
I will be in touch when I can, but if you really want to keep up as blog writing time will be limited, please follow me on Instagram and Facebook. I'll try to post there at least once a day when I have Wi-Fi at the hotel.
Also - I jut checked the Quiltville Zazzle Store.
Hopefully more things will be added soon. So far only the mug has been made available - and it only appears through THIS LINK.
It may be a few days before the store has all of the Indigo Way merch uploaded, but I'll keep you in the know when Forest Jane lets me know as things come through.
Okay. Packing. I need to finish packing.
And I'll catch you when I can!
Quiltville Quote of the Day -
Let's face it, last year was a stressful year!
I had a long talk with myself over the past week of the new year working out things I can do to minimize the stress and capitalize on the happiness.
Like everything else - it's an ongoing fix and adjust kind of thing.
Okay - packing.
Have a terrific Tuesday, everyone!
Thanks, Bonnie. Someday, could you share that talk you had with yourself? I know I could benefit from less stress....
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