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WIP = Work in Progress

CW:  Self harm.

I’m not exactly setting speed records here, but I’ve made a little progress on my projects since last week.  The combination of a lingering cold and gloomy January weather is so very un-great for your motivation to get things done.  😦

Above is a picture of my Maybe Quilt top–or 1/4 of it, to be precise.  I’ve been thinking about how to quilt it, and had to face the fact that there is simply no way to do it in two pieces.  It’s sort of grown in the making, and each half of the quilt is about 3 feet by 7 feet!  Sure, there are people who are willing to take on wrestling a quilt that size under a regular sewing machine, but I’m not one of them.  So I took a deep breath and cut each piece in half.  I’m not crazy about putting an extra seam in there, but it was the best solution I could come up with.  Next step is making a pieced back for each 1/4 so that I can finally sandwich and quilt this monster!

I’ve also taken in the sleeves on my PJ top and finished it up.  Pants are next, once Shelby is finished with them.

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Also on the to-do list:  research new camera!

Poor little girl.  I accidentally trapped her in the cold garage last night, which led to a frantic search later when I was ready for bed and realized I hadn’t seen her in hours.  Cue the catastrophizing and visions of worst-case scenarios–YIKES–until she finally came out during my SECOND search of the garage.  I think she thought I’d abandoned her!  She’s been very clingy today; at this moment, in fact, she’s somehow perched on the back of my desk chair, so that she can keep an eye on me.

Anyway, I also acquired an interesting new project this past week.  I came across an organization called Social Justice Sewing Academy that holds workshops in which teens make quilt blocks about the social problems in their lives.  Those blocks are sent out to volunteers to be embroidered, then returned so that they can be combined into quilts.  I love the idea of high school kids having their concerns heard in this way (and seeing where they can take such an ancient art form), so I signed up to embroider.  These are the blocks I was given to work with:

There’s an interesting challenge here:  how to use embroidery to enhance a message that’s beyond the usual “here’s a pretty thing” point of embroidery.  How can I help the people who made these get their message across to the viewer of the finished quilt?  Between that and the actual issues dealt with in the blocks, I suspect I may learn a lot from this project.

Also in that vein, we had our local Women’s March this past Sunday; last year my partner and I went to Spokane, but this time I just drove across the bridge to Richland.

I just took a few pictures to give a size of the crowd–best estimate is about 1,000!  Not bad for such a conservative area on a drizzly, windy day.

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Couple of handmaids showed up . . . .

If nothing else, it helped us all recharge our batteries a little bit, and I’m glad for that.  Because I suspect things are going to get a lot worse before they get better.

And a song that we sang before we marched:

Have a great week, folks, and take good care of your lovely selves.

STH