What if...

... you really don't love a project?

So a project rears it's (ugly) head.

My dear, dear Aunty Anne and Uncle Batch ("AA&UB") live REALLY close to Keepsake Quilting store in NH.  You know, it is only Mecca to us quilters. 

AA&UB are two of my few living relatives closest to my heart. They moved to NH from NYC where they were working deep in the theater and theatre-making community. UB: co-pres of Staging Techniques of NYC, lighting Pink Floyd's "The Wall", and the unveiling of the Boeing 747 and among many, Many others; AA: head of Casting at Young and Rubicam/NYC, y'know, one of the leading casting agencies on the east coast.  She (AA) is my dad's younger sister, he (UB) and his kids (my cousins) spent every xmas with us since 1970. We. Are. Close. I LOVED visiting them in their Awesome NYC apt on Riverside drive which they bought for peanuts in the 70's and sold for millions in the 90's. As I was getting immersed into the theater world, I used to live with them for a few days twice a year for the Equity LORT auditions that People's Light used to have to go to.  Hey, living in NYC ain't so bad if you can live like that...

But then they got older, and wanted to leave the Big Apple.  She grew up in the White Mountains of NH, with my dad. *Pow* right when she gets her first AARP letter, she (can you tell who wears the pants in this relationship) says, We are buying a House in Wonalancet, NH.  (It's not on the map. don't bother looking.) They'd both gone from innovators to retirees.

This is a long way of saying that they love my quilting, but they don't really get it.  And it is hard for me, that these people, who were the epitome of modern thinking in my life, are only interested in very, very, traditional crafting.  They've stuck themselves in 1975.   That was Modern! Crazy! to me . . . at the time.  Now... not so much.

So, each birthday and xmas, they send me a fat quarter packet of fabrics from Keepsake Quilting. It is a Very Fine Gift.  But I've been gathering 10 years of  FQ packs that haven't really interested me AT ALL, but, as said, are Very Fine.

I must do something with these fabrics, I said to myself, every year I got a new one.

Now, it is happening.  But it is such a chore.

I'm not crazy about the fabrics (never have been, clearly AA loves them), and they've been gathering dust in my stash for, oh, years.

Ashley made a string quilt look like so satisfying, I thought it would be a perfect project to use up this fabric for a quilt for AA&UB.

all good, but not "moving" me.

it takes a long time.  every piece needs to be chosen, sewn, and ironed.

I started working on this in March, during down time in LEAR, pasting white center strings to foundations (recycled REAL SIMPLE mag pages).

I sew the strips to the foundations. One. At. A. Time. and iron them One. At. A Time.
and even though my blocks are large-ish (8"x8"), it takes For. Ev. Ver. to get enough of them done to feel like you have a shape for a quilt.

Maybe I'm just impatient.

It just takes so long to get here.

Or here.
My plan calls for 48 of these blocks.  I have 18. And I've been working since March. Oy.
Sometimes love for family is hard work.  And I Do Love You, AA & UB.