Off The Wall...

I need to re-title this, "Still On The Wall" as not as much progress happened on the Scrappy Sixteen as I had planned. I'm blaming my sinuses for this setback over the last few days. What began as a mild cold lodged itself firmly behind my eyes and resided there for altogether too long. Today is much, much better! Yay!! I wanted to bring attention this morning back to my guiding word this year, "VISION" and my action plan for 2020: to see what's right in front of me. Let's start with this bin of precut 2.5" squares. This is but one bin (of eleven) that wait patiently (all are mostly full, one is beyond full) on pull-out shelves beneath my cutting table. These are the remnants of projects past that have been dutifully (and deliberately) cut into predetermined sizes employing Bonnie Hunter's "Scrap Users System". My precut scraps are even broken up into lights and darks, the bin pictured here is only 2.5" squares of darks, it has a companion bin of 2.5" squares in all light fabric scraps. Instead of thinking of these as "scraps" or "leftovers" I have shifted my thinking to realize that these are really as good as money in the bank-- they're in my fabric savings account and they're collecting interest! If I decided, once upon a time, that these were worth saving, then they're certainly worth stitching! I began to think about just what this bin would be worth to a beginning quiltmaker, someone who was just starting out and had no scraps on hand. That was me-- a hundred years or so ago. Then my thinking swung around to considering who could benefit from these stored scraps and I realized that my hoarded scraps were actually making me miserly. Did I want to be tight-fisted with my resources, those right at hand? NO! And, sew-- (sorry, that was too easy!) I set to work to find fun and simple scrap patterns. This one is a free pattern called "Perfectly Scrappy Sixteen Patch". It goes together quickly (even more so if one remains healthy) and has great visual appeal. What scraps are lurking on your shelves?

One more thing "on the wall". Lynneligh's artwork was chosen to be displayed at school system-wide art show for the winter term. Here's the proud artist and her work, an example of pointillism, at the reception last week. There was an awards presentation following, she represented her school very well. 🥰

From the wall to the table. I made four more placemats for my son's family's kitchen table. You might remember that I posted about this a few months back. Here's the link and the pattern if you're interested. I told my D-I-L that now they can have guests to dinner, this makes a set of eight.

And, since we're putting things on the table: what could be better than a perfectly poached egg on toast? One that is easy-peasy and quick to prepare! I read about this somewhere on Facebook last week and cannot find the recipe from the original source but will share it from memory-- break an egg into a mug or cup (I use a pyrex custard cup) pour 1/2 C of water mixed with 1 TBSP of white vinegar over the egg. Place a saucer over the cup and microwave on HIGH for one minute (this is  for a medium egg, 45 seconds for runny and 1 min, 15 seconds for hard). Remove the egg with a slotted spoon and place onto your buttered toast. Voila! Have fun trying this. 🍽

Life is Good!

Up next: Getting it Together