Much Ado & a Hoochy-coup

Okay, the last part of that title didn't make much sense. I just wanted to be sure "hoochy" was in the mix cuz I have progress to report: I finished the Mill Rose appliqué blocks this week, and they are now on the design wall with the pieced blocks which I have set on-point. Although it's more work to sew together, the blocks up-ended like that are more interesting.

There will be sashing involved at a later phase of construction. I still haven't pulled out the half-hoochied geese to finish; I think they'll be flying in various directions in a border.

Now for the much ado [about nothing] part of this entry...

I really like those percent bars I've seen on a handful of blogs that visually measure progress on crafting projects. I'm a visual/graphic processor of info.--even though my B.A. is in English and READING should be my forte--so those little bars can tell me a lot at a glance.

Well, they could tell me a lot if I knew what the percentage points meant to the blogger in question. The measurements could be arbitrary: "I feel like I've hauled a boulder up the mountain by now, so it's all downhill from here. That deserves an 86.3% done." Or maybe the crafter knows exactly what 25% of a completed sweater looks like. Alas, I do not.

Which sounds like a criticism, now that I've re-read the above paragraph. But it's not; it's an admission of ignorance on my persnickety part.

So, in my attempt to employ a trendy, techno-gadget blog thingy, the following list is my explanation to you, dear reader, for how I measure my progress in quiltmaking. (I haven't gotten around to listing knitting milestones yet because I just haven't been using needles or looms long enough to recognize them.)

10% Pattern picked out or drafted
20% Fabric picked out
30% Blocks completed
40% Blocks sewn to each other
50% Borders sewn on/quilt top completed
60% Quilting design traced onto the top
70% Quilt sandwiched & basted (my absolute least favorite part)
80% Blocks quilted
90% Borders quilted
100% Binding attached and quilt labelled

Having listed all that, I can report that I'm a little over 20% done with my Hoochy Mama quilt. I'm kind of winging it with this project...don't know how it will end up or what its final dimension will be.

Thus endeth the "get a life" part of our program. Now back to our regularly-scheduled important stuff.