Waiting In The Wings

Saturday, December 18, 2021

Heading towards the end of 2021

Only 13 more days before we reach the last day of 2021,
 I'm hoping that 2022 will be an improvement!

There's nothing exciting to show in this post, frankly I haven't had the energy
nor enthusiasm nor health  this year to enjoy much time in my little sewing haven but I'm hoping
that will change in 2022. My batteries desperately need re-charging, my little studio
needs an overhaul and I'm going to work
on both over the next two weeks.

Two areas I need to address:


the contents above  from one of my four scrap bins.
For many years I just tossed pieces large and small into these bins, no sorting whatsoever,
no neat storage containers for each colour and now I am paying the price!

The mound of fabric you see above actually measures 35" in width,
29" in depth and 18" high - that's a lot of sorting and as I say, I do have four bins of the same size, at least I thought
I had four but it seems I do have two more in a spare closet, I had forgotten about them but DH
found them!


You can see I also have a good collection of strips and strings,
one container of three shown here, 18" x 12" and these also need sorting.
I see a lot of time spent with an iron in my hand remedying the situation!

Before making a start on these chores in the last few days of 2021 my time will be spent, I hope,
relaxing under the maple tree in the garden with a stack of books,  sharing
 lunch on Christmas Day with our family at our eldest son's home, very
handy because  he lives on the opposite side of the road just five houses along.
We are still wearing masks and living lives under what is known as the
Traffic Light System, hopefully it will work with managing Covid cases. 

One good thing right now is that the garden is blooming - good for the soul -
I was able to collect a few flowers to place on Mum's resting place remembering her
birthday on the 9th.


Alstromeria, hydrangeas, lavender, dahlias and one of my much loved
roses Buff Beauty. The yellow and pink dahlia is one from my new collection,
named Pacific Ocean.


Reverse  I placed a sprig of Philadelphus, this has a glorious perfume.


Well, I think I'm going to finish up now and leave you with a photo of
my Pacific Ocean dahlia and wish you all lots of love and happiness
for Christmas and see you in New Year 2022.


Love and God Bless
Maureen




                                            

14 comments:

Marly said...

Best wishes, Maureen, for 2022. I love your new dahlia, I wish I could grow them, but it's too windy here; everything that pokes its head over the parapet (of the balcony) gets its head blown off - literally! Rest well this week, and you'll be ready to face the fabric sorting after Christmas. Then it'll be back to the sewing machine.

Julierose said...

Thank you so much for the glorious bouquets of flowers--we are in a spate of grey days here and barren trees...
I know what you mean about not having accomplished much in 2021--Since June I have been unable to do a whole lot...
I hope to get out all my cut off triangles (Lord, help us!!) and work on them
and the cut-offs, too...
And--the rest is SABLE (stash accumulated beyond life expectancy!!)--I also would like to try using LARGER pieces of fabric in some kind of a landscape piece...aerial view type--we'll see..

I hope that your days leading up to the Holidays are calm and healthy hugs, Julierose

Elle said...

The flowers are fabulous. I love Dahlias :-)

May I suggest, rather than spend tons of time sorting scraps and ironing and placing in 'new' boxes sorted, set out your boxes next to each other. Decide on a quilt you want to make and a color palette. Pull the scraps that will work, press and cut those. Time saved and the joy of piecing commences right away. Yes, it could likely take a few years, yet you can enjoy the journey this way :-)

Happy 2022!

MissPat said...

Thanks for the flower show as I sit watching snow change to rain. That's a lot of scraps to sort so pace yourself and do some fun things in between. I'm wishing you an enjoyable holiday season and better health in the new year.
Pat

FlourishingPalms said...

Oh my! Your scrap bin dump has me drooling! I love, love, love to work with strips and scraps. I'd be all over that pile, pressing fabric and sewing strips onto telephone book pages to make string blocks! So much fun! Let me know if you need info. I think I still have a hand-out from when we made donation quilts that way. I'm not familiar with the COVID Traffic Light System and had to look it up. Preventative is the best protection, right? Glad you will spend Christmas Day with your son. A long trip I see! Ha! Take care of yourself.

Quiltdivajulie said...

Oh how I wish I lived close enough to help you with that utterly delicious scrap bin pile (and the others as well). Fondling scraps is high on my list of favorite things to do! And your fabric stash is fabulous so I can only imagine the treasures lurking in that pile. We just bought new fabric masks and added our own filter layers. We had gone to wearing the disposable surgical masks but with the arrival of Omicron, the three of us in our household are back to higher levels of protection. There are folks who aren't wearing masks at all - I truly don't understand their logic. THANK YOU for sharing your colors (fabrics and flowers) - they're food for the soul. Enjoy your relaxing time in the garden and Merry Christmas!!

Quiltdivajulie said...

p.s. After going back to read the other comments, I quite like the suggestion to create groupings for a variety of quilt ideas (and don't press anything until you are ready to begin actual work - no matter how carefully you fold them, they always get wrinkled again). Have fun!

Anne / Springleaf Studios said...

I have a similar bin of large scraps just tossed in willy nilly. Currently I am organizing my usable fabric cuts and am discovering just how much fabric I have. It's sobering to say the least at the amount of fabric I have purchased over the years. Hopefully I'll use a lot of it in 2022. Wishing you a very Merry Christmas with your family and a much better 2022.

Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson said...

The flowers are so pretty. I have only planted Dahlias once in pots and they didn't do very well. I think they are so beautiful.
I would be sorting the scraps by size and not ironing as I did that. I would probably have large, small and strips as my three categories. Maybe add a medium size if there needs to be another group. Then if your next project takes larger pieces you won't have to dig through the whole bin to find them and you can press them when you are ready to cut.
Merry Christmas and may God bless you and all of your family.

Linda Swanekamp said...

Oh, such lovely flowers, thank you for sharing them. I pray 2022 will be a better year for your health. I love scraps, but I hate sorting and storing them. Your card is somewhere in the mail system, but who knows when it will show up.

Linda @ kokaquilts said...

Ah, the never-ending scrap sorting issue! Lots of good ideas here in the comments. I've loved following along with your posts this year, very inspiring Maureen. Merry Christmas. And lets hope 2022 will not be as messy as 2021.

audrey said...

I spent quite a bit of time sorting through the scraps last year but then never really did anything else with them! Sure felt good to address the mammoth pile in the corner though! Hope next year is a better one for you in many ways!:)

gayle said...

Thank you for sharing your flowers and your bright scraps - a needed burst of happy color! (We're in the midst of gray and gloom here. I feel like someone pulled out my batteries...)
Merry Christmas to you and all you love!

Kaja said...

Good luck sorting your scraps. Hopefully you will be inspired to make some wonderful quilts as you work your way through them. Your dahlias are gorgeous - I have always loved how vibrant the flowers are. Wishing you a happy and healthy 2022.