How many RSC Projects? And a special birthday.

 I thought it was time for an update on the collapsed wardrobe fittings.  You may remember that I had to get a workman around when the wardrobe rails came away from the wall and had to be replaced.  But first I had to take everything out of the wardrobes.  The back bedroom/sewing room wardrobe was the most difficult, with everything from winter coats, crates full of whatever, and innumerable bags of projects.  So much stuff!  And it all spent quite a bit of time on the floor of my sewing room.  It wasn't easy, but I managed to still sit and stitch at my sewing machine, surrounded by all that clutter.

There are piles of it

Where to start?  I really wanted to check through those crates and  bags so I knew what was there before putting them all back in the wardrobe.  I started with the multitude of jackets, I had forgotten that Robin had so many tucked away.  Six were donated to the lady who deals with refugee families, and she was delighted to take the men's jackets off my hands.  A couple more were donated to the Op Shop, and Grandparents raising Grandchildren were happy to take two bright yellow vinyl rain jackets for their older boys.  Plus  I sold an oilskin, warmly lined sleeveless vest, practically new,  from Robin's 4 wheel driving off road club days.  It had been many years since he had belonged to that club, and we had  certainly enjoyed some fun trips driving up in the hills with the group.

Two crates were quickly replaced  in the wardrobe, one with batting, and the other holding quilt backings, flannels and fleece.  That was easy, but what about these other crates?  I pulled everything out and looked in the various bags, finding some long forgotten projects tucked away.  One crate now contains groups of fabrics, not yet started - you know how we often have ideas for future projects and gather things together.

Projects not yet started

Into another crate went another lot of bags, these contained block sets waiting to be constructed.  Most of these are Rainbow Scrap Challenge  (RSC) monthly blocks from previous years - Happy blocks, framed four patches, Hollow nines, string pieced blocks.  Also some appliqued scotty dogs, and another bag of appliqued butterflies I had worked on.  It was so easy to stitch these blocks each month, and then they got left.

A whole lot of RSC block sets

There were plenty of  finished quilt tops in various places  these are now residing on the spare chair in front of the wardrobe.  A couple are pinned up, ready to quilt, others have the backing folded up with them, and I had planned ahead and  made the bindings for several of these quilt tops too.  

Waiting to be quilted

You may remember that I have often stitched simple draw string bags for kids in foster care.  I found a bag full of bits and pieces to turn into bags, colourful kids fabrics and linings, pigs, monsters, lots of novelty fabrics here.  There are probably enough for about 20 small bags here.

A bag full of bag makings

So..... where to from here?  I've decided I'm not going to count up all these projects waiting for me, I really don't want to know the answer.  First of all I'm going to make three children's quilts for a special family, more about that later when I've finished them.  I've still got a quilt to make for my  great niece from her beloved Pop's clothes - I made one for her brother earlier in the year.  And I have two big bed quilts of my own I'd like to finish one day.

After the three special quilts are done I've decided that I'll start on this bag, the first one pulled from the crates and examined.  It contains string pieced blocks, and chickens, both long forgotten.  And I'll leave the bag full of draw string bag pieces out and work on two or three regularly in between other projects.  

Chickens and string pieced blocks

Then I think I'll alternate between machine quilting and piecing blocks together.  Guess the point is not to get too stressed out about it all.  

I did sell some special fabric online.  Who can remember the pretty Flower Fairy range from many years ago?  I purchased some to make my granddaughters a quilt, but they were both much more interested in horses than fairies.  I also had two Laurel Birch fancy cat panels, that was snapped up too.  And as I find it too difficult to take my heavy Bernina to classes these day, I was happy to let my Bernina trolly case go to a new home.    So at last the repair and tidy up of the wardrobe is complete, thank goodness, it has certainly been a bit of a challenge.

Yesterday was my beloved Robin's birthday, he would have been 78.  That was a sad day for me, and yes, there were tears shed.  As everyone knows after a death, there is a year of "firsts".  First Christmas, first birthday without him, and then my birthday and our wedding anniversary to come.  Friends have been kind and thoughtful with messages, so that was very nice.  It's not the same without you, Robin.