SHEs Organized

I finished up the last granny square last night yea!

Wow Nancy, that's great progress.

Still basting away here. I am thinking a lot about why I'm doing this. And why I do all the handmade blankets / quilts I've made for babies over the years.

I'm interested in your opinions of why you are doing this stuff and what the reactions of the recipients have been. Do you think any of them have any idea of the work involved, the time, do you think the appreciation of the gift matches the effort? And does that really matter one way or another?

I know in my family it is sort of "expected" that I do this because I can and I do. I don't know if that equates into appreciation or not. Serious thoughts in my head. Rethinking a lot of family stuff these days.

I know my family appreciates the time I have invested in what I make.
And the grands appreciate what I make them.
They do seem to enjoy getting it.
My family knows how much time goes in to things that I make.

I know it b/c I've heard dson go off on how his ex did not appreciate the work
in a hand made quilt that she wanted to take to the beach!

I do it b/c it relaxes me!
I wanted to add that it is a creative outlet for me also.

My basting is all done. I used up some old spools of thread. Wooden spools that said boilsafe on the end. LOL, I can't remember that last time I boiled my laundry!

So what I read here is that you each do this stuff because YOU get joy out of it. And your family appreciates it but doesn't have a clue how much goes into it.

So if some family member doesn't think you care very much, a gift like this doesn't always say, yes she does? I guess it does if they have some idea of the effort involved. People that don't sew/knit/etc. don't have a clue do they!

Well, I'm happy to be doing this quilt and happy to be giving it, I'm just not sure how it will be received, and I guess I just shouldn't worry about that.

I do know one baby quilt I gave got snatched up and loved very much by older brother. He put it down on the floor all the time and played on it. That felt rewarding.

I did a black strip around a granny square hat and
added tassel; got some white around sleeves on a granny square vest that used to be a sweater and dgd was playing with the granny squares and
found one more that needs the black around it so I'm not done with them yet.

Previously I just made a pram rug made going round the one square.
How do you join crotched afgan squares to make a patchwork rug?

I found some square joining info on line - more methods than I could poke a stick at. Some sewn, some crochet

I'm using varigated cotton, so am reversing direction each round to keep the flow of the colour. Described the colours to dd#2 today and I assumed her approval. lol . she is not a pastel girl so I have red/orange/chocolate-redbrown and musty blue/greens hues, with a few solid colours tan, grey, emerald green. Not sure what the boarder colour will be. Or maybe just sew as invisible as possible. Might not use the solid colours. Jist a nuteral one fot joining.

Pulled 1st square out as I hadn't sussed out how to make a more seamless join to 1st shell first up. With cotton and loud colours it was noticable. I admit. Perfectionist.