Easing Into the New Year

I have a hard time shifting gears. Which is why I prefer to keep working on a single major project until it's reached a stage of completion. I find the holidays very disruptive (and I don't even get to go the parties and events that accompany them!). As a result I've learned to make copious notes about the projects I'm working on so that if I do get interrupted it will be easier to get back on track when opportunity finally does present itself. Mostly this works for me. Except when I forget to make those notes!

On this occasion it's not so much that I neglected to make notes - except that I did. Still, they're not crucial. It's pretty obvious what I was doing and where I was headed. What happened this time is that part of the project has disappeared.

This all began in the fall of 2017 when the local community college thespians needed a quilt-in-process for the play they were mounting. I provided them with a small flimsy, a string of blocks sewn together, and some loose blocks. The only documentation I can find about the inception of this project is this blog post. I knew better than to expect a prompt return of the quilt parts when the play was over. I also knew that there was a good chance we'd never seen the pieces again. Still, I hoped to get everything back again because I wanted to make that quilt!

Amongst all the gift exchanges during the holiday season the box of quilt parts was finally returned to us. The flimsy, individual blocks... but not the loose row of blocks. I didn't realize that until I put the pieces back up on the design wall and it just didn't look right, no matter how I arranged or rearranged the elements. Finally I found the November 2017 blog post and verified that the row of blocks was missing.

This is what I had:

This is what I have (with a slight downward shift of the original flimsy):

So, what now? I can probably maintain the color palette but since I was using up scraps and remnants I don't have more of most of those prints. I think this is going to have to be a smaller quilt than I originally intended. I bet I was going for something on the order of 60" x 72." Now I'll settle for 48" x 60." Obviously I'll have to make at least one more block, an Ohio Star. I may very well end up making others, or framing up more 8" sawtooth stars, as I'm not as happy with this as I'd like to be. I have to release the vision of what this could have been too. At least it gives me a way to ease back into the work that makes me feel like I have a purpose in this world. 😊