the back porch stitcher

Overthinking was slowing my progress!

Rosette 1 (below) began with a burst of great color dreams and ideas. Purples! Pinks! Greens! Blues! When I got to the first star row, where you’re supposed to stop for the only full circle, Rosette #1 (this photo below is minus one star point atop each of the 10 pentagons around) seemed destined for even greater greatness:

I was so excited to make it BIG!! So I cut pentagons, laid out fabrics, thought it all through. I even blurted out in the last post that this would be expanded! Make it bigger! Make it #2 and do #1 later!

But (long pause for lots of thinking, tossing of fabric)…what if I stop like I’m supposed to for Rosette #1…can’t I make an even better first BIG #2 Rosette?  So…Rosette #2 began. Uncertainty was my middle name for a while. Back/forth/back/forth, should I, should I not? Have to get this “just right,” you know?

Waitaminute. NO, I DON’T. If I mess one up and it doesn’t look right, I’ll have the great privilege of doing that one over! And it does seem like a privilege; this is great fun. Already I’ve learned so much by #2, just think of all the color/pattern knowledge I’ll have stored up by #38!

Thirty-eight rosettes in a variety of shapes, considering all the spots left open for joining (Thank you, Willyne, for figuring all of that out!)…as my quilting-loving mom would have said, “Ohhh myyyyy!” 38!

Note the diversion into a non-symmetrical Kaffe Collective fabric center that wasted 11 diamonds-worth of pretty fabric as I tried over. And over. And over. Don’t worry, I saved it.

A couple of weeks in and I’ve learned a lot, including this valuable lesson: do not leave your Sewline glue pen open overnight. *sigh*

I also learned that the little paper pieces come out just fine when you’re about to run out. Tug the seams so very gently to pull them away, and there it is. Just don’t take them from the outer edge of anything.

The main lesson is, just go with it. Relax and enjoy the process. You might be graph-oriented and have it planned out. You might have your three favorite fabrics lined up and don’t know where to go from there. It really doesn’t matter. The fun is in the making, the learning, and the thinking up new ideas in the middle of the night while you should be sleeping.

Millie and I will be hanging out this weekend, probably indoors. The back porch gets a little uncomfortable when the temps reach the mid 90s. (That’s “Fahrenheit” for all y’all in “Celsius” land. Yep, I did just say all y’all. Just because it looks so…so…symmetrical. I’m from Kentucky. I’m allowed to say that.)

I brought a little bit of the back yard inside, though…even the flowers seem to like it better in the a.c.

Have a great weekend!

The Back Porch Stitcher. Stitching indoors for now.