Two Kinds of Progress

What's so special about this empty bookcase that I'd be blogging about it, you may well ask? It represents another step forward toward settling in and putting down roots in my "new" abode. How much longer can I refer to it as new? In just a couple of months I will have been here a year, yet the garage is still full of boxes to unpack. I've got lots of good reasons and lame excuses for that, including the fact that the books could not come out until I decided what to do about the book case. It either needed to be repaired or replaced, and I ran out of time to decided. It was easier to let the movers load it up with everything else and store it in the garage while I decided.

I've been missing my books though and the boxes that held them were holding up my plans for reorganizing the things that will legitimately stay stored in the garage. And I'd left a space in the studio to accommodate the bookshelf. I've been excited about this studio space being large enough to hold everything related to my quilting, something I've not had the luxury of before. And the bookcase is a sturdy one, not needing much in the way of fixing. I had company coming who could help me carry it up the stairs to the studio - a golden opportunity not to be missed. So I figured out what I needed to fix it, completed the repair, and here it sits, ready to be filled again with reference books, inspirational books, pattern books and more. I've been bringing armloads of books a little at a time from the garage between stints at the sewing machine, the full boxes being much too heavy for me to manage. Some titles are greeted with "well hello old friend" while others beg the question "and I decided to move you because...?" I did let go of bags and bags of books before the move, but I probably could have winnowed even more. That's the way nearly every move has gone for me, always a few things that come along for the ride but upon arrival I question why I thought they should.

The quilting on the half-square triangle quilt is coming along, all the horizontal and vertical seams stitched and the diagonal seams as well. I'm starting to quilt the diagonals going the other direction, but there is no seam there for a guide. I pondered this a bit, wondering if I could eyeball a straight line from row intersection to row intersection, but although the space to traverse is only 4 inches, I know from experience, I'll wander off the line. I thought about using masking tape as a guide, but decided that if I just had a mark to shoot for in the middle of that cross seam in each square, I could keep the line straight. That pin looks to be the perfect solution - quick and easy to place and remove as I sew.

I have to admit that I'm starting to tire of this mindless quilting which was just what I needed when I dived into it a week or so ago. My mind is thinking it wants a bit more of a challenge again, which is probably a good sign. It is toying with an idea for fabric postcards using up some more leftovers from Judi's African quilt. It just may let this quilt take a break while it sees if the idea will work. The nice thing about having two machines is that I can switch to the postcards without having to change the set-up on this machine. The other machine is ready and waiting...