60 Minutes

I got two little packets of these squares, one blue and cream, the other, red and cream. These would be one more thing cluttering my sewing room, so I decided to work with them right away and make two little quilts.

Now that the blue one was together, hand quilting will be my prefered stitch for this little piece. I pondered straight lines on the border, my "go to" design, and then thought, Cables! OK, so how to get a cable design on the border?

Get out a handful of acrylic templates and give it a whirl. Flop!

 Look through all my stencils, none fit. Per usual.

Pull out this book with step by step directions and get the perfect double cable drawn all by my own hands. Beautiful. One of the things Gwen writes about is living on an island and needing to "figure it out". 

She shares so much of her findings, and truly, in the time it took me with all the other ideas, I could have had it done from scratch.

One hour, simply not enough time to play once you get going on something.

 
If you don't have this book, look for it.  It's invaluable in your sewing room.  This process made me realize how an artist really does need the time to work through things, try new ideas, abandon some along the way, and have success.  This cable session took about 1 hour, and honestly, I enjoyed every second of it.  I could have played for the whole afternoon, but yard work was calling me.

The biggest lesson?  When I need a design to fit a space, draw it myself.  Now to sneak this project into the hand quilting line up, in between my BTCT.

Sharon