Therapeutic Scraps

Back in May while I was having a bad arthritis flare-up I went to the scraps bin to dig out something I could sew on the machine, and settled on a bundle of green scraps and a charm pack in what I think are Kaffe Fassett prints (where I got those is anyone's guess).

I had enough charm squares to make a decent size table topper, and I knew I could sew it all together on my machine in one night.

As I was piecing the top my angst over my hands being too crippled to hand sew eased a bit. I've been struggling to accept my new limitations, and it's difficult letting go of my hand work, but the transition is becoming more necessary by the month. Eventually I won't be able to do anything but machine work.

I pieced the backing, too. Using scraps to make things on the machine is fun, and I don't mind if I mess up (which I did.) These bright colors were also really cheerful, and I need more of that, too.

The final topper came out okay. I definitely need more practice on the machine, but it was nice to get a project like this done in a night versus two weeks doing it by hand.

I used the last four charm blocks and green scraps to make a mug rug to match the table topper. I want it to remind me that it's okay to be creative on the machine, too, and I can always try and improve with what I'm able to do, so the mug rug will head for my home office desk.

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Stuff

After finding this Caron one pound skein of lovely peach yarn in my thrifted lot I raided my stash for two cakes of Mandala in Pegasus, which matches it perfectly. For practice and hand therapy I'm going to make another Worth Street Afghan with this free pattern , but this time I'll use the yarn that was recommended for it plus the one pound skein. I'm not quite ready to do the vintage/recycled linen quilt I had planned (still a bit too nervous about the idea), so I'm going to use some color therapy and make a quilt from these thrifted green fat quarters. I considered doing another Yellow Brick road patchwork pattern, but I might go with a split rail fence like this one.

Better than Fried

I cut some chives from the kitchen garden to make garlic-chive baked fries for dinner. This is a great side dish for veggie burgers. Click here for the recipe from Taste of Home.com.

The Mercantile

If you don't mind walking 33K square feet in retail space, The Mercantile may be the vintage/arts store you'd enjoy visiting if you're ever in Orlando. I certainly did. Because it was busy I didn't take any photos in the store, but it's absolutely amazing and chock full of antiques and artisan creations, most of which were pretty reasonably priced. For $21.00 I invested in a picture of sailboats for the guest bathroom I'm redoing, and a fairy mystery jar of cool stuff. The jaw was hand-painted and decorated, and utterly charming. I think I wanted the jar more than the contents. As you can see the contents were both generous and pretty cool, too. I finally have some vintage gloves to use for my art quilter bingo challenge!

Rayen

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