Searching....

The guys are watching some competition in Rio, and I have done a bit of mindless sewing to recuperate. Mindless sewing as in  Nine-patching the two differently sized 'collateral damages' that arose from the "Dear Jane"-project of the German Patchwork Guild which I foolishly committed myself to at the beginning of the year. And which has by now turned into a topic of a column I write for the Guild's magazine, reporting on my progress (or lack thereof) and emotional tangles that occur with this momentous undertaking. So there is no way I can drop out and let it be. Right now I am not quite so far behind on it as I already have been, but there is still a bit of catching up to do. The collateral damages are two who-knows-when-they-will-be-finished Double Nine Patches which I started when I had managed to forget seam allowances for one of the Dear-Jane-Blocks (not thinking far enough ahead that that size might just pop up as needed later, perhaps), and when I was unguarded enough to 'like' the size that appeared in another block and thought that might make a nice one just as well. Un-like on facebook, 'liking' something like that quickly turns into a committment, but, also, a welcome occasion for mindless sewing when recuperating.

My slowly growing stack of Dear-Jane-blocks (with liberties
taken, and a few extra-curricular items I am not allowed to write
about on the internet before publication dates of the magazine)

The growing stack of Double-Nine-Patches made from 1 1/2 inch strips...

... and the stack of Nine-Patches made from 1 1/4 inch strips,
which will eventually be turned into Nine-Patches, too.

These projects are also welcome for using up scraps from cutting yardage at the stand.
So what was I recuperating from? I spent most of the morning searching for two items. I am not a tidy person, I readily admit that, but of these two items I really knew that I could not have lost them: my passport, and an envelope with over 400 Australian Dollars. The former I had come home with from Israel only four weeks ago, but it wasn't where I usually put my passport to avoid having to search for it high and low, nor in any of the bags I had taken, not in my backpack, the fleece-jacket which I had worn only in German parts of that journey. But I wanted to use it on Wednesday, when I am going to Festival of Quilts in Birmingham. True, Brexit hasn't really happened yet, so I should still be able to travel with only my national ID, but I do prefer to know where my passport is. And the Dollars I also wanted to take to Birmingham with me because instead of trying to get them back into my banking account in New Zealand where they originated from in November - which I have tried, but is too long a story to tell - I will just use those as my travel funds and exchange them into British pounds. Should give me a good amount of spending money, I would think.
Anyway - the dollars appeared first, the envelope turned up in one of my un-filed stacks which need being taken care of, and then my mind was settled enough to forgo searching for the passport, do the last bit of ironing for the July fabric-club selection which is due to be shipped. Then I picked up my son from basketball camp (the house is indeed awfully quiet when he is not around!), and after that my passport jumped at me in the kitchen where I must have accidentally left it after returning from Israel. So everything is alright now, but I just needed to cool down a bit, because I hate searching for things. Every time it happens, I tell myself I will be better organized from now on, I will file away all slips that relate to taxes, I will not let things accumulate in growing unordered stacks... all in vain. At least I know where I can find my airplane ticket - I can always print it out again from the computer! But good intentions remain.