I've spent some time most days this week cutting out quilt pieces for my Double Wedding Ring project. I needed 128 corners, 80 melons, and now I'm cutting 768 'teeth' for the arcs. It is quite tedious. Also I ran out of background fabric that I bought in Wales, so my quilt will be 16 rings instead of 20, which is probably a good thing because it's going to be a lot of sewing. I'm trying to split up the 768 teeth evenly across the colour families, so I've been pulling my stash of 30s repros and cutting 4-5 teeth from each print. Mostly by cutting a 3x10" strip, then stacking those in six layers to subcut into teeth. Lots of unfolding and refolding.
At least while I am cutting up fabric, I am putting my time to good use by re-listening to Youtube videos teaching Japanese from the Genki textbooks. Because I'm going to Japan and also Korea next year as it turns out. It came about rather suddenly, I came across one cultural tour that I liked the look of in Japan and put my name down for it, then I came across a second workshop course to sew a yukata in Tokyo. The time period between the two tours spans Golden Week which is a long holiday period in Japan when it can be difficult to travel, so I am avoiding Golden Week by flying to South Korea where I am taking a third tour as well as doing a few days of independent travel. So I've been trying to re-learn some Japanese as well as spending a lot of time researching and making travel bookings. I'll be away for about 8 weeks again, DH is stoic and encouraged me to book up the tours. I think we are both conscious of the physical wrecks that his elderly parents have become so I want to do it while I still can. And DH knows he can survive perfectly well on his own because he's already done it twice. In fact, it has encouraged him to learn to cook which he never wanted to do when he was younger, so that's good.
I finished another stitching project this week which is a gift so I can't discuss details. And I've been putting in some time most days on the longarm frame where I am still quilting the Australian BOM quilt. I've done all the borders and sashing now so am just starting to tackle the actual blocks which is the hardest part because it's a blank canvas. I will stitch around the applique elements but then I need to come up with stuff to fill in the block backgrounds and I'm not much good at freehand quilting. I'm loving using rulers though. My Handiquilter Simply Sixteen is behaving very well, I'm very happy with my secondhand purchase and I feel like I am getting more confident with the machine.
Still downsizing - I've sold quite a few of my vintage needlework magazines this past week and have been to the post office three or four times with boxes. Still quite a few to get rid of though. I also sold and posted a set of quilt templates with accompanying patterns that I bought in 2012 and had never used. It feels good to be getting stuff out of the house, it will be wonderful when all the big collections are gone but there is still a lot of work to do.
