For the Sake of My Sewing Sanity

I slept well overnight but woke very early at around 4:15 this morning. I decided to take my camera and the dogs out for a walk with me and catch the sunrise scheduled for 4:38 am.  But no sign of the sun with a heavily overcast sky and just a lot of mosquitoes for my trouble. However, two very happy dogs.

I've written how inept I was at the piecing around the Kathy Schmitz project A Year in Patchwork blocks...said piecing is so pretty and adds so much to each block there's no way I can not do it.  I was frustrated with the hand stitching and avoided it for a few days; let my nerves build up to face working at it again while I went about other things.  Then I got back to tackling it just as I knew I would have to.

My plan is one to make sure these stitched blocks don't become orphans like the redworked birds did.  So I've decided to do the patchwork bits around each block before I embroider them knowing full well that for me the embroidered part is pleasurable. The HST on the corner of the flying geese block was what gave me so much trouble, so I decided to not do them for the sake of my sewing sanity.  Since my stitching is my therapy, to lose my mind over that would be sad indeed. LOL

I like to do a project just like the designer has laid out so this is a bit of a departure.  But I know who cares in the end.  Answer: no one!
 So far I have three more blocks sewn by machine and feel pretty good about them.  I think I have this in hand now.

I don't need to be told this, but reminded as the saying goes.  Valerie Nesbitt does an excellent job of reminding me what precision stitching on a machine is all about.  I found this video very helpful.

I tend to like to have one project well along before starting another.  Getting this one moved along as it were with the trickier bits taken care of, will let me happily join in with Jacquelynne Steeves' new free BOM in August which is what is in the back of my mind.

And speaking of sanity...so many of us in the Northern Hemisphere are busy tending gardens these days.  If you have the time, view this calming little video showing time lapse blooming of some of nature's prettiest flowers.  I find anything time lapse so mesmerizing, do you?

Quick Gardening Question

Speaking of flowers, the Yucca is in bloom and I have two spikes of flowers.  According to the gardening expert on radio, this means I could separate this plant to transplant one somewhere else.  Any Yucca experts out there...is this true??

I am happily linking this post to Finished or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilt, Love Laugh Quilt, and What a Hoot Quilts.