10/16/18

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.

8 comments:

Debbie said...

What a brain work out! Good job on sewing all the details together. It is looking so good and will be a very bright cpot of color all year long! Yea for the purge.....keep it up. I recently purged my closet and now have about 5 outfits to wear:) But then that is just about enough.

QUILTING IS BLISSFUL, DI said...

Mom's can be 'funny' sometimes--I remember years ago--my mom decided I liked owls and she was always buying them for me--only thing was--I did not like owls then!!! I think she really liked them--and enjoyed buying them but didn't want to keep them!!!!
that Cardinal is growing into a lovely bird--
enjoy, di

crazy quilter said...

You are moving right along with the cardinal! I bet it is s mind teaser to be sure all the right choices are laid out correctly. Keep on sewing it is going to be an epic finish.

piecefulwendy said...

You are making good progress on the bird, but I can see why you need a break. I managed to go through all of my Cook's Illustrated magazines, and I'm actually going to donate some of them now. I have trouble letting go of them but, truly, I don't use them so they need to go. Then I cleared out the cutting mat storage, since some of my mats were old and gross. Not much purging, but a little!

Lynette said...

Whoa! Yes, that looks like a superb puzzle work-out to make the cardinal. It's so gorgeous, though! Purging - is happening this week in my closet. I'm going to pull everything out and lay it on the bed in my longarm room and just chip away at it each day, putting back only the keepers, until the monumental task is finished.

Brown Family said...

I understand needing a break! It is fun to find those treasures that we thought we could not live with out!

Cheryl's Teapots2Quilting said...

I've already been purging this summer, but I'll be doing lots more (intense) purging in the next little while, since we may be moving (after 16 years here). Not fun, but it's got to be done.

quiltzyx said...

The Cardinal is looking amazing & you're doing a great job of completing that puzzle!

Ugh, purging. I have so much stuff to go through that I just can't seem to even get started. Ah well. Eventually.