Zen place

I had every intention of doing more gardening this morning while it was still cool, but I was just feeling so rotten.  After we got done outside yesterday I wound up with pain and pressure in my chest and having to use my inhaler, and felt yucky and nauseous for the rest of the day.  I couldn't figure out why I was wheezing so much, but The Tramp suggested maybe there is a lot of mold in the compost/soil mixture I was working with.  That's entirely possible.  I was still feeling pretty lousy this morning so I opted to sit quietly at my sewing machine and just chain-piece.  I'm not usually so focused.  :-)  But today I just felt the better for having some mindless sewing to keep me occupied.

See those 16-patches?  Those are made from four-patches I received from my bee's swap.  We swapped six-inch four-patches and half-square triangles because they can be cut down to any size you want.  Problem is, the pattern I've chosen to use them in meant some major cutting down.  340 of them down to 3 1/2 inches!  Also 336 half-square triangles.  I thought I'd be strip cutting half of what I need for the quilt but Mom gave me her share of swap blocks too so it is more than enough for the whole thing.  (Thanks Mom.....I think.)  At least I've been cutting for several months so the process has been somewhat bearable.  :-) 

This is what 85 16-patches looks like.  A day's worth of sewing.  :-) 

This is for Bonnie Hunter's Patches & Pinwheels pattern and she makes all the 16-patches from strips.  Easy peasy.  So not only was I doing this the hard way to begin with, I took approximately half of the four-patches apart and mixed the fabrics up a bit.  Call me OCD!  So in the end, most of the 16-patches have two four-patches made from the original two fabrics and the other two four-patches are mixed.  I was so deeply content in my Zen quilting state, I even "twirled" all my seam intersections as well.  Sheesh.

Now the 84 pinwheels.......