Thoughtful Thursday....

I've been blogging nearly 4 years, having started this blog July, 2005. By 2006 I stretched my wings and opened the Riding the Orphan Train blog also. None of that has anything to do with a Thoughtful Thursday title, does it? There are many "day" titles out there....Wordless Wednesday, WIP Wednesday, and Frugal Friday spring to mind. My choice of a Lenten contribution, one food item per day(for my local food bank) seems to have triggered a more thoughtful state of mind. Thus you may get Thoughtful Thursdays from me for awhile, please feel free to join me. One of the things floating around in my thoughts is the One Project A Month Challenge. I love the idea and it follows my New Years Eve UFO Challange so nicely...more UFO and WISPS(work in progress slowly)completed. The reason it's been in my thoughts is this...I choose something to finished up, take a picture and blog about it. Then almost immediately my focus and interest shift to something I see in my sewing room. For January I REALLY thought I could/would work on and finish the Picket Fence quilt, the red and white one. I didn't, but I blamed it on my Pfaff falling ill,seam allowance size you know. I finished something else instead and made 3 more Strippy tops. Getting the Aurora flimsey made into a quilt was what I selected for February. But my attention then shifted to an overflowing bin of Mile-A-Minute parts and blocks. I completed 12 rows of 9 blocks each. I managed to get two other projects finished instead.
 My chosen project for March was the Cats embroidery blocks and how to set them. I stacked them by the machine and immediately was drawn to making String blocks.
In thinking about those 3 months of projects, I've come to realize I have a real aversion to pre-selected projects. It seems to have something to do with "being told what to do". I'm quite sure it's the "Finn" mindset, that's doing this, and not the "Sylvia"....LOL. More discipline could be applied to "me" by "me", but I'm happier doing what catches my attention. And since the price of rice in China isn't affected by my choices, I think I'm just going to NOT pre-select a project for April! *VBS* Going to see how that works out.
I spent yesterday sewing "bricks", cut from Halloween fabrics, together. I put borders on an Orphan quilt, and got a backing made for it and for the String Blocks I showed on Tuesday. A couple more rows and I will have a flimsey, created from a bin of Halloween strips. The happy part is that I will have another project completed to the point of quilting. The sad part is THAT particular UFO isn't even listed in my project book...bummer!
** The pictures have no bearing on the content of this post. They are Free Clipart from the site on my sidebar.

Thoughtful Thursday....

My head is full of things today. Uncomfortably so. It feels like a Scrabble board with all the letters fitted on, but no words formed. Being the Finn that I am, I must gather them up, and put them in some form of order. And then there are the tiny bits of things that need attending. I've wanted to try one of the pictures from the FreeClip Art website(see my sidebard). Today is as good as any I think. *VBS*I'm giving this one a try. There are some neat ones over there. In the OLD business dept, a couple of you, Mama Spark and Tracy I think, asked where the pattern for the Embroidered Cats was from. It's an older Better Homes and Gardens pattern, from the mid to late 1980's. You may be able to find it in the archives of patterns they have offered. It was fairly pricey for way back then, but it will stamp more than just once, which is nice.
I've had some 1st of the month stuff that I needed to do, and I have been playing in my scraps and MAM stuff. I continue to sew the odd bits together, even though I have finished 12 rows of 9 blocks each of MAM stuff. I still need to join the rows to each other. That will a Frugal Friday effort. Several of you liked that idea, so I'm going to follow it through Lent, every Friday, with Good Friday being the winding up. My personal daily offering of a food item, in a bag, for our local food shelves is progressing nicely. It's amazing how quickly it begins to look like a nice offering. A can of soup doesn't make much of a size impact, but a box of cereal does! *VBS* In our Senior News this month, there are articles with income information, ect, from all the small individual food pantries in our county. As Dee said in a comment, it's not just the children, the econony is hitting the Senior population hard too. Social Security checks went up by $42 a month, and luckily they decided NOT to take an equal amount "out" as a larger Medicare cost. Usually the increase is only a dollar or two more than the new larger Medicare charge. There were increases in both the prescription supplement and health insurance supplement that one must have to accompany Medicare. Yes, I can see first hand how this impacts Senior Citizens. But the children are still growing, and need to be fed. Please donate a few item of food, if you can. *VBS* Hugs for all, Finn

The Doldrums....

It's cold. I'm cold. It's snowy. It's the last day of January. February doesn't look any better except its shorter! I have the blaaaaahs. My toes are froze, my nose is drippy. I need a new Energizer type battery for my get-up-and go, which has got up and gone, apparently. I'm cutting scraps. I'm sewing 2.5" strips. I have no new pictures to show you...I've become boring! Even naps have no appeal, maybe it's cabin fever? Maybe it's income tax time!! Yuk.