31 January 2011

Managed to do a bit of reading on the train this morning, and I think I am starting to understand why Sartre is going on so much about possibilities and a load of other stuff. If we as humans are the ones who create possibilities then perhaps we can understand something about ourselves if we understand the how and why of them. That’s not to say I agree with all his conclusions about possibilities, but it makes it a lot less frustrating to read when I understand where it is heading.

Only one block today. Which is not too bad. I struggled a bit with this one because of the sharp pointy pieces. When you are dealing with 45 degree angles you just place the two seams up against each other and sew, with other angles you have to offset a little, a 1/4 inch seams worth. I suppose I should probably figure out exactly how much and measure and mark my bits, but I think I did alright just eying it off, and with a little unpicking when necessary.

I did start two other blocks but once I got started I realised I was missing a few pieces. Obviously I got a little distracted while cutting out.

147 Bow

30 January 2011

Sartre is still on the subject of possibilities. Apparently we make them. Which kind of makes sense.

I am feeling kind of tired and nurturing a kind of funk because I feel like I am becoming an object of curiosity to people at work, and it is the end of the weekend and I am going to have to go back and deal with it again tomorrow. Mostly I think it is about the fact that really I am just too polite and I always feel like I have to answer people’s questions when they ask them, when what I really want to do is tell them to mind their own business.

I did get three blocks done today. I am feeling kind of proud of myself for that, especially since mostly the seams all match. They are all 16 inch blocks too, I figure if I make a couple more of these I will have enough for a bed size quilt soon.

158 Square Deal

155 Our village Green

153 Primrose Path

29 January 2010

I did get in two pages of Sartre this morning before I set off to go look at some houses, he was going on about possibilities again. Not a lot of sewing though. Got started on some blocks. For some reason I couldn’t bring myself to do any pressing today, so I just did the first round of sewing on a couple of blocks. Hopefully I will finish them tomorrow.

I do have one finished block to show off. I made it up on Wednesday and only got round to appliqueing the 4 prongs last night when I was watching some tv.

137 I Do

28 January 2011

I can’t believe another month is almost over. 

I have to confess that I didn’t read any Sartre today. I didn’t even take it with me on the train. I took my e-reader with me instead because I have been reading a delightfully fluffy quilting mystery novel. The only question which that raises, other than who did the murder, is why are vets in novels always ruggedly handsome? Are they like that in real life. I don’t know. I’ve never actually met a vet. 

I did get two blocks done when I got home. See below.

167 Crosses and Losses

166 Flying Dutchman

Suffering

I got a good chunk of reading done this morning on the train. According to Sartre, we as humans must be perpetually suffering because we are for itself (consciousness), but we have access to the in-itself but we can’t ever be in- itself. I am not sure I really understand that but it did make me think about meditation. Meditation is basically an attempt to empty your mind (something I have never been very successful at), but there are some people who are very good at it. I was thinking it might be possible to voluntarily surrender ones consciousness. Something to think about I guess.

I didn’t get any sewing done on the train because we were all crammed in like sardines and I didn’t want to be nudging people with my elbows. I did get two blocks done when I got home today though. They were quite simple ones, but still quite pretty.

169 Southern Belle

168 Fox and Geese

26 January 2011

Its been a kind of tiring day. I spent most of the morning cutting out new blocks. It went quite well because I did buy a new 45mm rotary cutter yesterday so I got through a good many blocks with a lot of pieces. I was thinking though as I did it; imagine how much time it would have taken to cut out the bits for a decent sized bed quilt before rotary cutters were invented. When you had to make the template, draw around it and cut out every single piece, one at a time with scissors. It made me wonder whether people value time differently now than they did in the past. I don’t think people were any less busy then than they are now, in fact they may have even had more to do. Perhaps the difference is in the cost of labour versus the cost of goods which means reasonably cheap quilts can be bought in a shop. Say it takes me 80 hours to make a quilt, even at a reasonably cheap $15 an hour, any quilt that sells for less than $1200 is going to be a bargain. Especially since I haven’t factored in the cost of materials. However 100 years ago I may have only been paid $2 a week, by that scheme of things a quilt would have to cost less than $4 to be a similar time bargain. I don’t know the actual cost of quilts 100 years ago, but I’m going to guess and say it was probably more that $4. Maybe I should google it. 

In between all this pondering I did actually manage to get some sewing done. I finished three blocks, and partially finished a 3rd. It took about 4 hours, they were pretty fiddly blocks though. I am coming to the conclusion that I am not a fiddly person.

No Sartre was read.

148 Church Steps

118 Beacon Lights

104 Stepping Stones

24 January 2011

Sorry no quilt blocks today. I got home too late after going to the pub with some work people after we finished today.

I did read some Sartre, but barely got through two pages before my brain started to fog. I woke up this morning about 4.30 am and I felt fine then, but by 7.30 am I had run out of steam. It took copious amounts of caffeine and sugar to get through the rest of the day.

I promise to do an extra load of blocks tomorrow. I should have plenty of time because it’s a public holiday.

24 January 2011

I’ll start off with some Sartre, because its been bugging me since I read it on the train this morning. Sartre says that desire in humans shows evidence of a lack, of nothingness. He concludes that desire can’t be a psychic state because a psychic state is only what it is, and if a thing is what it is then it needs nothing extra to complete it, hence no desire. Perhaps I am interpreting his use of the term psychic state wrong but I am imagining it to be something like a mental state, and if that is the case then I have to say his whole argument seems flawed. My mental state includes all my thoughts, feelings and any awareness I have of the outside world at this particular moment. It seems quite plausible to say that my mental state is what it is, it needs nothing extra and that it includes desire.   

I am also quite fascinated by the idea he raises that Descartes’ cogito (the statement I think therefore I am) is limited to each individual moment. If all you can know is I think, therefore I exist, then you can only know that for each particular moment in time, you have no future or past knowledge, only a present.

I did manage to do one block tonight when I got home from work. It almost didn’t happen because the e-reader I ordered arrived today and I had to make the difficult decision to drag my self away from it and do my sewing. 

I am finding that it is much easier to get accurate matched seams when I am dealing with larger pieces, and when I am not getting distracted by my almost one year old nephew singing to himself as he plays with his toys. He doesn’t talk yet but he makes a range of sounds of various pitch which he seems to repeat in patterns.

151 Jagged Edge

Cutting out

I did a load of cutting out today. I remembered fairly quickly the reason that I replaced the small rotary cutter with a larger one. It only really cuts through two layers of fabric at a time, and sometimes struggles with that. I was trying to do the blocks in the order they are in the book, but I was up to a section with a really complicated bunch of blocks. I have to say I piked and skipped to some less complicated ones. I figure the ones with 200 half square triangles can wait till I get a rotary cutter that will let me do 20 at a time rather than just 2. 

Sartre is still going on about consciousness.

942 A Upper Case

22 January 2010

Am starting to feel like I am getting back into the swing of things. I managed to read two pages, make three blocks and make an offer on a unit. Well a kind of offer, the real estate agent just sent me through a ream of paperwork that I have to go through and sign before the offer is taken to the owner.

Am feeling a little despondent though because I have to honestly say that my piecing is not getting anymore accurate as I go along. I am either going to have to make the decision to slow down and take more care or just accept the fact that I am not really a detail person.

101 Sunny Lanes

96 Devils Claws

100 Odds and Ends