Thursday, June 30, 2011

from 'funk' to funky....


Things have been a little quiet around here lately. Sorry about that. This is one of those times of the year when things are crazy busy at work, I end up staying a little later than usual, and arrive home feeling (more than) a little fried. So there has been a lot of laying about reading, playing Catan on my iPad, watching movies, napping (!), and not much of anything else.

I was reflecting on my sorry state the other day, and realized that I was in a funk, to be sure....and then I got to wondering whether my recent lack of hooking might be to blame. Just because I couldn't hook didn't have to mean that I couldn't do anything else in the creating department....so I resumed knitting on Juliet. Knitting is is definitely a slow practice for me, and one that usually conflicts with my need for some instant gratification and real creativity (unless I'm mixing lots of different yarns together -- and I'm not on Juliet).....so it helped a little bit, but not enough. Enter: the sewing project.

We bought some new furniture for the family Campsite this year....including two new glass topped tables for dining, game playing, etc. While more durable (and way prettier!) than the plastic ones we had before, we've come to realize that the glass is not always the most practical. The idea of making some extra-large, table-sized placemats was born, and I volunteered to make them. I started sifting through my fabric stash and found my pile of Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably prints -- a little on the bright side for inside my place, but very pretty and perfect for the summertime.

The stack was washed, some charcoal/black denim was purchased, and I started cutting and sewing and pressing. My initial plan was to keep things simple and just have varying widths of strips, laid in stripes along the tops (which will each be 40" by 70")......


But then last night, after struggling with figuring out how I was going to measure and cut my too-big top to be a perfect fit for the table top, I decided to cut up each one into more strips and then sew them back together. I like it much better (you can see a sneak peek up top) ....but at the same time I am realizing that it's a whole lot of work for what started out as a quick and simple project. I could almost combine the two mats and make a quilt top.....but then I would have to go and buy something else to make the table mats, and what would I do with the quilt? Hmmm.......

I am resuming work on it when I get home tonight, so I still have a bit of time to decide :-D