Addiction: Quilt Planning

Some of the symptoms common to addictions are:

·         Tolerance - the need to engage in the addictive behavior more and more to get the desired effect

·         Withdrawal happens when the person does not take the substance or engage in the activity, and they experience unpleasant symptoms, which are often the opposite of the effects of the addictive behavior

·         Difficulty cutting down or controlling the addictive behavior

·         Social, occupational or recreational activities becoming more focused around the addiction, and important social and occupational roles being jeopardized 

·         The person becoming preoccupied with the addiction, spending a lot of time on planning, engaging in, and recovering from the addictive behavior                                Source:  addictions.about.com

So...now that I've diagnosed my problem, let me use symptom 4 (social activities) to tell you all about symptom 5 (spending a lot of time on planning...)

     I spent a great deal of time pondering how I was going to transfer these 8.5"x11" printouts into a pattern. After a couple false starts, I came up with the perfect solution (which frankly, solves the problem of an Aspen Tree quilt that I haven't been able to move from design to quilt successfully for 3 years and 4 attempts).  I printed the photo on "draft" "black & white" with the photo size at 7.5" on one side.  That is 1/8 scale for a 60" final quilt which was my goal.  Then with a fine point marker, I outlined all the design elements that would eventually become individual pieces.  I used dotted lines on the sections that are the drip-marks from the popsicles, to keep them straight from things that need crisp edges.

     Next Stop:  Kinko's.  I recently discovered that they have an enlarger machine that will print on 36" wide paper.  It took us a while to figure out how to do it, but the first enlargement was at 400% and produced a version that I trimmed to 36x32.  That was cut EXACTLY in half.  (Kimberley at Kinkos explains that the scale will be off if there is any difference b/w the 2 pieces)  The 2 halves were send through the enlarger at 200% and TA DA!  The brown thing in the photo is a yard stick to give you a sense of scale.  I got all that done before work.  Yet another day with a silly smile on my face.

   And once at work, I had a last minute cancellation of a client, which usually bums me out (no client = no pay) but not this time.     You see...there's a Craft Warehouse across the street from my Thursday job.  These tie-dye fabrics will be perfect for the red popsicle drips onto the cartoon.

And, of course, I added to the batik pallet.  Fantastic raspberries and a bunch of pastels...something that is completely missing from my stash.
   Hmmm...I think that today's off-site team building workshop is only a couple miles from the quilt shop in Kuna....