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No big house projects today, just normal stuff like wash and baking and some cooking and a little puttering.

Tonight though I’ve been working on my new quilt. Actually I started just before dinner but not with sewing. With a project like this, I need to stop once in awhile and straighten things up a bit, figure out if I need more strips of silk cut, what’s going on with the squares? And of course that burning question: how many finished squares are there and how many more are needed?

I cut more strips and organized (again) them. They are a wayward lot. Very messy.

Then I organized the squares to see what was what. And then I sat down and sorted out the finished squares, lights from darks and counted them. All good.

Sometimes I think you just have to be in touch with what’s going on, and that explains all the touching people do when they’re creating something. Don’t you just want to run your hands over things you’re making? I love that part. Fondling the fabric before hand, moving the squares around, holding up thread, feeding the bits through the sewing machine.

It’s part of the appeal of bread making to me too,. I enjoy knowing how the dough is changing under my hands – how the yeasties grow, how the gluten changes, how the dough relaxes or becomes elastic. I made two batches of ciabatta today, one from a much older poolish. There was quite a difference in the doughs and how they handled but they both seem to have come out great.

The end is in sight for the fabric squares, after this current batch. Then the fun part begins — laying them out and sewing them together.