Day #5 - Sewing Circle

Today two of my lovely sisters and I sewed together 252 squares, which combined (top, bottom and middle) makes 84 total squares...it was soooo tedious to cut all those squares out and I think I am short by about 40 totals for my ginormous quilt, which means cutting out an additional 120 squares (plus or minus)...OY.

I've never really been part of a sewing circle before. I have tied knots in a quilt for a young women's class, but I haven't sat around sewing. It was kind of fun; plus it went much more quickly with both Keri and Amy helping me. We completed all those squares in just over 2 hours and it took me at least 3 x's that amount of time to cut them out by myself.  I kept getting frustrated because several of my squares ended up a bit lop sided, but Amy assured me it would not be tragic in the end ("although, I should try harder to keep it straight") and Keri kept reminding me this quilt will be "home made" and to not sweat it. Sure it is home made, but I still want it to look nice.

What is that saying, "Many hands make light work"? Well, in this case, that is definitely true. I seem to be from the other school of thought most of the time, "if you want it done right, do it yourself". I'm not saying I am a perfectionist by any stretch of the imagination, but sometimes it is just easier to handle things. The problem with this stratagem is it creates a victim mentality (at least in me) "why do I have to do everything?" and it takes very little provocation to utter those words out loud to an unsuspecting loved one in a fit of resentment filled w/"whoa is me" guilt agendas.

On the other hand...sharing the load always should be better than going it alone. When I did Relay For Life, I missed some golden opportunities to get other members of my team to "get 'er done" on different tasks. True, I did try to delegate, but I would get back one gift cert (unsatisfactory, must have more) and end up "doing it myself" yet again only to have the whole thing rained out.

I did have one amazing experience with the various City Youth Councils. A bunch of teenager's met the co-chair and me on a Saturday to pop in on all kinds of shops to ask for donations for prizes at the Relay. I really didn't expect much from a bunch of young kids, but thought it was great they were all willing to spend their precious Saturday running around for us. There were probably 10 youth there; they broke into 2 groups and each took one side of the main street to go down and we agreed to meet up in 2 hours. I kid you not, they came back with handfuls of prizes - some "in kind" donations and lots of gift certs for free sandwiches, ice cream, pizza and other food stuff, car washes, movie tickets, gym punch passes, etc. Do you know how long it would have taken me to do that on my own? Those kids ROCK!! Many hands REALLY does make light work.

I think by the time we started to experiment w/the layout of the quilt today Amy was astonished by how big I really mean to make that bad boy. One thing is for sure...there will be no washing this sucker once it is complete - it will just be too big; I will just have to spot clean it I guess. I can at least congratulate myself that some of my squares might be straight by the time we are done, thanks to Amy.

I Am Grateful,
HB

Diva Quote: “Life is a learning experience, only if you learn.” ~Yogi Berra

PHOTOS: My cuttings...I am prepared for my sister's visit...I should have gotten some shots of us at work...oh, well - hind site and all that.

All those squares turned into this...

I think I like the red in the middle and it will be on the bottom as well...What do you think? It is nice to know some things never change (i.e. Bart has already found his way to sit and lick his paws on the new bedspread - naughty dog).

vs. mixed pattern