patience in crafting

So the quilt? The quilt I've loved working on so far? It's driving me a little bit nuts right now. I'm still working away on it and enjoying it, but the bit I'm working on is a little bit trickier than it has been so far. What's ironic is that this is a part I thought would be fairly easy.

I'm just stitching my blocks together into six rows of four. Right now I'm on the last of those seams, actually. This bit is a little fussy though. I have to line the seams up pretty precisely in order for things to look right and come out relatively even and square. It's harder than I thought it would be. I actually had to pull out my stitch ripper the other day and remove a seam so I could restitch it with better alignment.

This part of the process is trying on my patience. I'm so close to having the quilt top finished but at the same time it's still so far away. I want to be able to move on to the actual quilting, and cutting the fabric for the next quilt but there's still work to be done here. For me this is always one of the hardest parts of a project: when the end (or the end of a stage) begins to be in sight. When I'm cross stitching it's when I get to go back and do the detail work, the couching and backstitching and French knots. Sticking it out has always been worth it though for the end result. Which is what I'm focusing on right now. Making a blanket by hand.

Luckily the hard bit is also rewarding. These individual blocks are coming together, I'm seeing my blocks completely surrounded by borders and in strings. In a few days I'll be starting stitching my rows together, and I'll get a view of what the piece will actually look like in a more finished state. At this point I've got a mantra when I'm stitching and wish I were farther along: six more seams. (Well, the number is ever changing, but you get my drift.) Right now that's all I have left of the quilt top. Six seams. Those six seams just take awhile, when you're doing it all by hand and when you're sewing six feet per seam.

So here I go, toddling along towards completion.