Monday, April 10, 2006

Goals for Week of April 10th

Does anyone hit the ground running on Mondays? I often find myself looking for simple tasks to kick off the week, something that doesn't tax my brain too much, and work into the more challenging stuff as the week progresses. Such was the case today as I looked at my set of goals for the week and checked up to see how well I did with last week's goals.

You may remember that I scoped out the entire month of April in advance (see Goals for April) and slotted them into each week. Last week was a bit of catch-up and I did get my tech journal caught up and the last two glues tested. While reading directions, it occurred to me that I may have sabotaged my glue tests by not cleaning the candy foil. I suppose there may have been a little grease on some of them that would definitely keep any glue from working. So I rinsed all the foil in a solution of water & ammonia and let them air dry. Of course, I didn't get around to doing this until Thursday, then glued the samples up on Friday and had to wait 24 hrs for them to dry. Totally forgot to take into account all this dry time before I could test sewing through whatever sample was successful, then having the same wait once I glued up the journal piece. So instead of actually making my sample journal piece or even doing a stitch test, I spent some time with graph paper sketching out placement and stitching lines for both the journal sample and the larger piece. I'll post a the results of the glue tests in a separate post.

The other thing on last week's list was to sandwich and pin baste the Cobblestones baby quilt, and I indeed got that done, as well as marking diagonal grid lines with a herra marker as a guide for the machine quilting. I tried a new Thinsulate batt, which looks a lot like Hobbs Thermore only fluffier and slick. I wondered if I'd have problems with shifting.

The following is on this week's list of goals:
  1. Quilt and mount "Strawberry Moon" for Small Works II contest.
  2. Quilt and bind Cobblestones.
  3. Make large version of quilt using candy foil.
I'll have to hustle to get that third one done because I have to fool with the journal size version first. But since both are small, it may be doable...provided I don't let a couple of forays I must make into the real world derail me. You'd think that would be my first priority today, but I just didn't want to have to THINK today, making decisions about thread and type of stitch and needle and should I couch the thread on before or after adding batting. Or, since the first one actually has a deadline, surely I would proceed with it, but it was the same problem of decision making and perhaps some trial and error that I just wasn't up to today. No, I just wanted to grab that baby quilt and get it quilted up. Straightforward, simple and quick so that is what I did. The batt worked fine using a walking foot and it is lightly puffy but soft and drapy I think it would work well in quilted clothing where warnth without weight was needed. I'll set it aside now and bind it later in the week, or even next if necessary.

By the way, it got into the 70's today - our first real assurance that perhaps winter is over. While some of the other blogs I read have had pictures of flowering trees and bulbs in bloom, nothing has leafed out or bloomed here, although the grass is starting to green up. But with this warmth, promised to last the week, it shouldn't be long until we join the rest of you.

No comments: