Cheap Therapy

Hand piecing really is my therapy. I'm never more relaxed or content as I am when working needle through thread to create something beautiful as well as useful. My mind calms and goes to a good place of contemplation and restfulness. I can't really think of any other activity I do for pleasure that exceeds it.

As I'm in constant need of therapy I almost always have some hand piecing with me. My sewing kit for on-the-go is a small-ish sized faux book (that is actually a phlox lined box...), which it fits easily into most totes or handbags I carry.

Inside

Outside

Almost all my hand pieced projects are worked on this way with very little actual sewing happening right in my own home. I'm so a customed to piecing under natural light that I find it frustrating getting the lighting correct when I do sit in my living room to sew.

Right now I have two hand piecing projects on the go.

Civil War block on the left - CW Star on the right

One is the year long Civil War Quilt weekly block post from Barbara Brackman and the other is what I'm calling The War Against My Brother quilt. I'm using Civil War reproduction fabric in blues and grays to create a repeating star block to represent Union and Confederate forces. Lately I've been sticking to the Civil War theme simply because I have sooo much repro fabric! I wanted to accumulate a fair amount for the Barbara Brackman year long project so whenever I saw CW reproduction fabric at a good price, I'd buy some. Now my stash of the stuff is massive. Even doing the second CW themed quilt will hardly dent my accumulation. Before the start of this year I had no CW repro fabric at all. Most of my stash consisted of solids, mottled solids, and brights. And for a while I began collecting 70 retro prints - so to see so many traditional prints among my collection is very different for me. I think it's good to expand your horizons occasionally and strike out in another direction.

Speaking of another direction, I recently purchased an e-book copy of Block Party - The Modern Quilting Bee by Alissa Carlton and Kristen Lejnieks. Their bee focus is on modern quilts. I just love their stuff. I think I'm going to have to give this style a try next. Good God, by this time next year I wonder what fabric style will be spilling from my stash!

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