I haven't accomplished much today. I did write a blog post, so that is something, but its not much. Actually I have done a lot of things today, but I tend to overlook all the myriad of things that are just a normal part of day to day living, you know, like feeding the children, washing the dishes or the laundry. But other than feeding the kids I really haven't done any housework either today. I started the day writing a blog post about all of the projects that I had finished this past week, but I couldn't even finish that! So I have mostly wandered about the house aimlessly contemplating my next projects. I sorted fabric strips for a couple of new quilts, and cut half the strips for one, but I just can't muster up any enthusiasm for either of those projects, so now I am trying to decide what I do have the enthusiasm for.
I mentioned a while back that I have been trying to use up all those boxes of strips that I spent the winter cutting a couple of years back. They are all calico prints, mostly. Thousands and thousands of strips of different colors and patterns of tiny flowery types prints. The problem is I have absolutely no interest in using any of them right now. When I discovered batik and hand dyed fabrics I lost all interest in all that other fabric I had already accumulated! I think I will probably bag up all the strips I sorted out and put them away for another day, and go back to playing with the fabrics I want to play with.
Thursday looks like it might be a good day this week for dyeing, and I haven't done any of that for a while so I think I will try to plan for that. The boys have to go to the dentist on Wednesday, so I can't dye before that or I will end up having to explain why my hands are funny colors! I did manage to finish all of those pajamas that I had cut out for the boys earlier this month, so they are all set for the next several winters sleep. And I finished six different quilt tops last week from the strips I have been sewing together for the last month. The sad part is, those six quilts, emptied 1 box of strips, I still have like 40 more boxes! I thought about trying to sell off some of the strips on eBay like I have been doing with most of the yardage, but I am not perfect and I do not want to listen to the bitching that I would be guaranteed to get if some of the strips aren't perfectly straight, or aren't exactly the measurement that they are supposed to be. So I will just stack the boxes back in their hiding spots again for a while and I will attack them again another time.
I am still working on that marbling idea as well. I haven't actually done anything yet, I haven't even started buying supplies for it, but I have been reading and thinking and learning as much as I can. I am thinking I will wait for next summer to actually try to do anything with it, but I might change my mind and spend some time playing with some smaller projects before them. I had some ideas that would lend themselves to being done on a smaller scale which might even allow me to do some of it indoors, but we will see how far I get.
At the moment I am working towards the idea of actually having some finished quilts available for sale by this Fall, probably late Fall, but Fall none the less. I can't do the actual quilting on any of them until the weather cools off, but I would like to have several of them ready to go once that happens. I don't know if any one will ever buy any of them, but I have to try. For years I have made dozens of quilts and just given them away to the people I loved, most of whom never appreciated either the quilts or me. I am so done doing that. I have to keep making the damn things, I have way too much fabric and a deep seated need to cut it all apart and sew it back together that only quilting can fulfill. So, either I try to sell them, or we drowned under them! We already have enough quilts in the house to survive a small ice age, we don't really “need” any more, at all. But I CAN'T quit making them, so somebody better buy them.
That reminds me, I have a funny story to share. I was talking with my oldest son on the phone last week, and we were discussing my idea of actually trying to sell some quilts. And he says to me, “Mom, I think you are way too hard on yourself. I know people would pay like $50 for the quilt you made me last Christmas!” I said to him, “Well, that's great hun, but that quilt cost me over $100 to make!” He's so funny! He has no clue what these kind of things cost, much less the amount of time that goes into them. He does appreciate it, but he doesn't really comprehend it. And that's kinda the problem, most people don't do either one.
Oh well, I can still try. I did manage to sell two t-shirts so far, and I haven't really even tried very hard. I still have a bunch of new ones that I haven't listed yet, and more that I haven't even dyed yet! So I may never be able to make a living doing what I do, but fortunately I don't really have to at the moment, so I can keep trying and maybe someday I will!
No comments:
Post a Comment