Tuesday To-Do '21: Week One

A whole new year of To-Do Tuesdays are upon us!
The projects!  The possibilities!  The finishes!


Just not this week--lol.
We're still winding down from the holidays around
here so my to-do's continue to take a back seat.
Son 1 went back up to school on Sunday; Son 2
heads back next week.  The mad checking off of
to-do's will likely resume after that but for now,
it has been a nice, easy pace of just-whenever.

1) Fireside reading & sewing
Done.
A little reading, a lot of sewing.
Good progress on sewing up old trimmings.
We'll call it Project Scraps-To-HSTs.
(Not very catchy, I guess.)


Here's one set of 340 HSTs.  I have 4 sets
now sewn but only one has been trimmed.

I know normal people throw these things away
but a lot of us aren't normal, are we?
Who's with me here?


Once I started working on these, it was like the
darned things heard me and suddenly every drawer
and cabinet I opened produced another bag or jar of
trimmings!  At first, tackling this seemed like a
fun little side-project that I could complete in a week.
Now I'm wondering if it'll even get done before
spring.  Maybe by the Super Bowl if I'm diligent?
I'll have to do some inventory and next time I'll
have to post numbers on how much I have.

2) Finish Pine Tree Lane
Not done.
I did trim it up and make the binding.
Tackling more today.

3) Load Pumpkin Patch, quilt, bind and label.
Partly-done.
Half-way through quilting.

4) Bring knitting back out.
Done.
Ok, it's out--but that's as far as I got.
(See Project Scraps-To-HSTs!)


This year, for a little fabric accountability, I'm going
to try adding this at the end of my lists (for fun):

Fabric used:  none
Fabric obtained:  none


Back to my membership in the "abnormal club".
For kicks, I decided to collect all the spools
that I empty in a year.  If there is one thing that I
consistently excel at, it's that I come up with
all my great ideas too late.
(I also consistently lose track of recipes but that,
my quilty friends, is a whole other basket of
scraps that is best left for another post.)
So of course this great idea of seeing how many spools
I go through in a year came to me about, oh, March.
Above is my 2020 9-month collection of emptied spools.
I didn't think the above picture was a proper show so:


Much better.
I call this picture "Trophy Window at Sunset".
(Watch for it at the MoMA.)
The basket has now been emptied and I 
can actually start in January this time.

I'm still trying to take things a little slow for the
ol' shoulder.  So many of you asked how it went!
How nice to be thought of!  The doctor was able to
break up the calcium deposit completely so now
with that out of the way, I wait and see if the tear
heals by itself.  My cortisone shot doesn't seem to
have done much so there's yet another reason for
making a list of just-whenevers and -whatevers.

1) Finish quilting Pumpkin patch, bind & label

2) Bind and label Pinetree Lane

2) Knit
Anything.  Even if it's one row.

3) Project Scraps-To-HSTs
Anything.


If you missed my 2020 project wrap-up
please give it a look.  I take a bit of a different
view on the year while looking back over the
quilts I was blessed to finish.
Til next week...

Happy quilting!

Linking up to

Comments

Hope you are feeling 100 percent soon! Lovely photos of your work in your summary of 2020, love thsoe chandelier quilts! Have a wonderful week and feel better!
glad the calcium deposit is broken up and hope it heals without surgery that would be great for you. I am not sure how much thread I use in a year, I have never added it up. I have so many partial spools that I use that it wouldn't be accurate
Joyful Quilter said…
To me the first week of January (sometimes all of January) is a tweener - transitioning between years / holidays / priorities / attitudes. Kind of a regroup and restart, so if not much gets done that's okay. Enjoy it.

I know what you mean about the HST. I started back to trimming mine up last night. I do think they procreate. I'm excited to see what you do with all of yours.
I love that photo of your spools all lined up along the shelf in front of the window! Sewing and trimming up all those HSTs will keep you busy, and you never know when they'll come in handy. It sounds like your shoulder procedure went well - sending good thoughts that the healing is happening!
grammajudyb said…
Good news on the shoulder issue! Hopefully the tear will heal and you’ll be back to normal! I giggled at your post today! Thanks for the smile! I haven’t kept spools for a trophy window, but have been known to save them for, Christmas tree ornaments, rewrapping pieces of thread long enough to use in basting hexies, and making kitty toys! Egad!
Home Sewn By Us said…
Hi Cheree! A new year full of possibilities . . . and new fabrics and new finishes! Ahh, fireside reading - I did a LOT of reading over break and I'm still doing it. THREE-HUNDRED-AND-FORTY HSTs????? and four sets of them??!! Yowza. Whatcha gonna make with them? It sounds like you need to rope son #2 into trimming help - it's a good time for chatting, right?! HAHA - I adore your Trophy Window at Sunset. The used spools are much more appealing there than in the basket. YIP-PEE that the calcium deposit was broken up completely!! Yes, please let the tear heal on its own - and it will do so amazingly quickly, I'll bet. And finally, enjoy that pretty snow that you've been wanting. {{Hugs}} Thanks for linking up today. ~smile~ Roseanne
piecefulwendy said…
Hope your shoulder continues to heal. That's a pretty impressive line up of empty spools. I don't seem to use up much with all the little quilts I make. You spurred me on to get my yarn and knitting needles out. I knit and (thought) purled, and then ripped. I tried again, and ripped. Pretty sure that squirrel has left the building! Hah!
Sharon Kwilter said…
That's a lot of HSTs. I'm curious why you store your scraps in half-square triangles. Wouldn't it be better to store them as squares so you have more options?
I save most bonus HST's, BUT I sew them when I stitch the first seam, then when they are cut apart, they are already sewn. Of course, I haven't ironed or trimmed most of them. I don't have as may as you do.
chrisknits said…
Good luck with the list and the shoulder healing! If I tried to do an empty spool collection I would just end up throwing them away thinking, why did I keep an empty spool?
LA Paylor said…
I'm not normal people apparently.... yea! Unique and quirky are good qualities!
Kate said…
Just whatever obviously worked for you. It's nice to slow down a bit, enjoy the kids before they have to head back to school. Fingers crossed your shoulder heals up and starts to feel better soon. It's hard to stitch much if your hurting. Good luck with this week's to do list.