Sitting and Stitching

It rained most of the day yesterday, as it will for the next few days. It was a perfect day for slow-stitching. First up, I finished the section of the embroidery hoop I was working on. 

Now I've moved the hoop north to encompass the watermelon. I think this would have been better stitched during the summer. With such wet weather, the idea of watermelon just makes me sad for the long winter that's coming.

Not to worry though. I just snuggled up under the Snow Globes quilt and went to work stitching the binding. Now I've turned the first corner.

Don't you love a quilt that's large enough to snuggle under while you hand stitch the binding? Slow-stitching at its finest. I was still in my pajamas at noon. And, honestly, isn't that the best kind of day? So when I finally got over my slovenly ways, I headed into the sewing room. 

It's true I said I was going to make another row of blocks for the City Bank quilt. But then I took a look at my white board to remind myself of my October goals. My goal for each month of 2020 has been to finish quilting one large quilt, finish quilting one small quilt, and sew one set of blocks into a flimsy. This "one set of blocks" goal has included my "trashy series" of quilts made from bonus triangles and other cut off bits from finished quilts. Already I've accumulated yet more bonus triangles, and so I decided to work on those instead.

Some of these are cut off triangles from sewing binding strips together, and so they were matched sets. I decided to divide them up so that each half of the half square triangle was different. Now they're all sewn together, and they are a mostly mismatched bunch of different sizes and different "genres" of fabric. I have in mind to sew the same-sized groupings into different kinds of quilt blocks, and then sash them together into a single quilt. The name of this quilt will be "Waste Not Whatnots." 

I was just about to give credit to Benjamin Franklin for coming up with the phrase "Waste Not, Want Not," but then checked with The Google just to be sure. According to The Google:

This adage was quoted—and perhaps coined—by Maria Edgeworth (The Parent’s Assistant, 1800), who wrote that those very words “were written over the chimneypiece . . . in his uncle’s spacious kitchen.” It was widely repeated throughout the nineteenth century, but has been heard less in the current throwaway society.

So there you go...another myth busted. Did you think Benjamin Franklin got the credit? This being the stupidest holiday of the year, Columbus Day, seems like a good day to be busting some myths. And, nothing against Columbus, but really...why do we celebrate him? Couldn't we just as easily celebrate, say, Vasco da Gama? And when you think about it, Columbus was one of those men who refused to ask for directions. He was looking for India, but he got lost and ended up "discovering" North America. And since North America was already inhabited, it was hardly "discoverable" by Columbus who just happened to bump into it. On the other hand, Vasco da Gama actually did find India. I rest my case.

Okay now that I've had my little rant, perhaps I'll be better behaved in the grocery store today. We have a long list, which is at least half fresh produce. Fortunately, the produce section is the first stop on our path through the store. Except for that, it'll be all sewing all the time.