Spiraling Out of Control - Obsessions With Baltimore

Okay, so Sunday started out on a high note. While I didn't actually do a block or the homework for Mimi's class, I did embroider the little trailers on the grapevine block.

And that made me feel like I had accomplished something. But the warm fuzzy feelings didn't last.

And before long, the studio turned into Chaos.

Chaos, with a capital C....that spread to the cutting table. You may see a minor mess here, but I see a house from Hoarders. I am not a fan of disarray.

And this, my friends, is the cause of the upheaval. I put the design wall up again and laid out the blocks that were mostly finished (aside from adding a ribbon to the Fall wreath). We've got 4 papercuts in the corners...okay. Top and bottom center are laurel wreath (open) shaped...good. Side center blocks are round...balance...check. The center is the problem.

I've already scrapped the original plans for those blocks (and learned a lot about how to get pencil out of fabric--see previous post). The plan after that was to make two vases with a basket in the center.

Then that evolved to two baskets with an undecided center.

And then I thought what if I used an elaborately pieced (think Mariner's Compass) block for the center, or some kind of star block....or maybe a star block out of a single fabric with some more piecing around it, also out of the same fabric, which happens to be the fabric that will be used for the fleur de lis on the setting triangles and the applique around the border?

And that was too much thinking because it triggered my deeply buried borderline OCD.

I sat and stared, and I decided that....

This squirrel looks stupid. He's just floating in the air in the center of the block. Yes, it's the design, but really, unless this is David Squirrel Blaine, it is going to bother me. Almost as much as his ultrasuede tail bothers me. Okay, okay,  I can replace the tail but what if....

I added in a little branch for him to perch on. BRILLIANT IDEA!  For about 20 minutes. Which is how long it took to search through fabric, and scraps and drawers (hence the photos above), only to find that I do not have any of the fabric left that I used for the blueberry bush. SERIOUSLY? What on earth would possess me to throw away whatever scraps there might have been? (Probably some random third martini was the likely culprit, one likely being drank while an episode of Hoarders droned on for noise in the background). What can I say? 'Shit!',' Fuck!', 'Crap!', 'Idiot!', 'What's Wrong With You?', 'Shoot Me Now!', 'Piss Me Off!'...they all crossed my lips, some more times than others, but none of them made a tiny scrap of that fabric reappear.

Not even the string bin would yield a tiny little piece of that fabric to use as a perch. Sigh.

Now I know what you're thinking. A normal person would just use another fabric, maybe even a brown fabric. Who will even notice? Let me remind you that I am not a normal person, and I would notice.

So it's starting to look like Mr. Squirrel is going to have to become part of the quilt back, and along with him goes...

"Birds in the tree where the leaves are way smaller than any other leaf in the quilt, whose berries are ultrasuede (who wanted to make all those circles?), and who just seemed so dainty and out of proportion for this quilt that even planting that strange tree in a basket to give it some heft, did not help" block. And let's not forget that the birds in that tree are about a third of the size of the bird used on another block.

So, suddenly, instead of needing only 3 blocks for this quilt, we now need 5. One step forward, two steps back. Yep, that would make a good name for this quilt. Write that down.

I walked away....for two nights. And now I'm looking at it and thinking that gee, I really do like the squirrel block, and I could make a different tree block that fits better, but there's still the issue of that damn branch.

So while I'm typing this blog entry, I flip through my Mimi class notebook and look what I found....

HOLY CRAP! I used that fabric on one of the class samples. I think there's enough (there HAS TO BE) to piece together a branch for Mr. Squirrel to perch on. So all is not lost. Once again, OCD prevails--and actually turns out to be helpful.

One step forward! YAY!

Now, I need to clean up this mess so I can get to work and fix that block.