Bird Brain

My brain cells are getting a good workout on this cardinal project, even if my body cells are not. Yesterday I made the first section that was all bird, and nothing but the bird.

When I sewed it to the rest of the third row, the bird was really starting to look like a bird.

The next section was the most complicated thus far. You can see it in the lower right-hand corner of the image below.

It requires full concentration in order to keep all the colors and their values straight. When you start adding in a lot of half square triangles of different colors and different values, it gets downright crazy-making. Once I have the pieces laid out, they sew together pretty quickly. Laying them out correctly and in the right orientation is the challenge.

By day's end, I'd finished the third row, and the bird was half done. You can also see that one of the holly leaves is completed on the right side of the bird.

I got all my housekeeping and gardening chores done yesterday, and now there's nothing on today's agenda. It means I'll have the whole day to work on the bird. I'm not sure I can take another day of it, and so I might take a break from it and quilt The More the Marinarier quilt. You might remember it from last summer.

It's a small quilt...table topper size. I bought those tomato seed packet panels at one of the quilt shops we visited while we were traveling. I'm planning to keep the quilting pretty simple...mostly straight lines...and so I could have it all finished in an hour or so. We'll see. I want to keep plugging away at the cardinal, but I might need to step away from it for an afternoon.

It was surprising how many of you responded to the "purging" part of yesterday's post. I'm proud to say that I followed through and purged one full drawer. When I started, I found the intended drawer had already been purged at some point, and so I moved on to a different drawer. There, I found some memorabilia I couldn't part with, some pictures I didn't know existed, a whole shoebox full of empty cardboard jewelry boxes (why?), and a very ugly bracelet gifted to me by my mother when I earned my master's degree. It's never even been out of the box. I'm not sure what made my mother think I would like it. There's a hand-written note that accompanies the bracelet. My mother passed away in 1997, and so the hand-written note from her is much more precious than the bracelet. In the note, she tells me, "It wasn't cheap. Believe me." And I wondered, as I did then, what made her think I needed to know that.

There were also splints from when I had carpal tunnel surgery. Those went into the donation box since they're far too bulky to be of any use to me now...unless I break my arm or something, but I'm not planning ahead for that. So, I kept the bracelet...can't really part with it...recycled the empty jewelry boxes, kept the memorabilia, and made a little space in the drawer for putting mittens, earmuffs, and knitted caps. Basically, it's my warm drawer now...warm clothing...warm memories. Next up, I'll tackle the drawer filled with swimsuits and swimming apparel, but that will wait for another day.

Today it's NBS...in one form or another.