Sunday Progress

Details from a work in progress:
Yesterday was one of those days when a new project got the upper-hand, and there wasn't a thing to be done. I'm not complaining, just explaining. It didn't have to be this way, but as soon as I saw the little lunch bags at Sew Mamma, Sew!--I wanted to make one.

Right then.

No oil cloth? Well, somewhere there was the iron on vinyl I purchased a couple of years ago, all I had to do was find it.

Later. Vinyl finally located.

Had all the scraps from the munkey quilt (as in Funkey Munkey from Moda). Had to piece a couple of things, but finally had all of the parts cut out.

Then had to iron on the vinyl to both the outside pieces and the lining pieces. Quite a large segment of time has elapsed by now.Sew it together. A little difficult as the the layers of fabric and vinyl accumulated. And slippery. And not a whole lot of fun. The flexibility of the vinyl-ed cloth was not all that great either.It could have been fast and easy, but wanting instant gratification meant more time, trouble, and difficulties than would have existed otherwise. I will order oil cloth before making another using either the first or last tutorial on the page. But I also want to try the other two, as well; when I'm ready to tackle the project again (and have oil cloth).

The vinyl was purchased a couple of years ago to make bibs. Which never happened, but which would still be a good project. At some point...

How many projects do I have in the works right now? I love being able to flit back and forth between them as my mood dictates. Some sit for days without being touched, some are getting a wee bit of work each day. Some are so simple they can be begun and completed in a sitting, like the burp cloths or the onesie embellishments. Some are not ready for exposure. Some are discarded before investing too much energy, some (like the lunch bag) will serve as practice and learning experiments.

The important thing is that most of them are able to fit into those extra bits of time. I only have 30 minutes before having to leave? I'm going to the country and will spend part of the time just sitting and talking? Embroidery or hand quilting are perfect.

Certain projects, like wet felting, require a longer period of time, partly because of the mess and partly because if you make the mess, you might as well make more than one item. Right now, however, I have several little projects and several new techniques I want to try, and most fit in to whatever amount of time is available.

Back to the Complaint-Free attempts--a couple of things have become evident as I continue to observe the tendency to complain.

1) Complaining is not a real conversational gambit, although I've uses it as one.

2) Complaining has less to do with the actual words than with the intention (although the words count, the spirit of the words is more important)...sometimes saying, "I'm tired" is simply a statement of fact, but it can easily become a whine.

3) If I start to say something like "my shoulder hurts" out of habit, but catch myself before verbalizing , it doesn't count because it has been circumvented, but if I carry on an interior monologue of complaints --you know, one of those wah, wah, poor me internal conversations -- that does count.

4) Maybe I should just say 21 days of complaint consciousness, because 21 days in a row of no complaining, whining, criticizing, or gossiping may be beyond me.

Ended up at Raft Bayou yesterday afternoon and enjoyed Fee's fried catfish and hush puppies.