Adjustments and Whale

It’s been a hot minute in our part of the world. At the end of August, we got news that we needed to move, and while we’re ultimately content with this turn of events, it’s turned our world upside down. We owe you an apology - we just sort of feel off the face of the planet for a little while as we’ve been insulating ourselves a bit in an effort to wrap our brains around what we need to do as we’re moving. Hopefully, things are back on schedule moving forward, but we thank you in advance for bearing with us as we’re working up to and through this transition.

I process my scraps as they happen, so while I have a bag of larger scraps, I also have several bags of scraps that are too small to do any else with.

Moving is a daunting task. We’ve lived in this house for a long time, which means accumulating things. We have taken the time to move room to room and build a plan to assess our belongings and lighten our load. We will be selling and donating things as well as cleaning and clearing things out. While our house isn’t currently a massive disarray of packed boxes and permanent markers, mentally, everything has felt chaotic. While trying to wrap my brain around what needs to happen, I made a little stuffed whale! Having something to keep my hands busy is a life saver during stressful times. I also have a background quilting project happening, so my scrap pile feels like it’s getting out of control. There are a ton of free plush patterns on the internet, and I found one here. The post is in Russian, but the OP documented their construction process in pictures; it’s a pretty straightforward pattern. I wanted a small project I could completely hand sew because it helps my brain clear out and then process. This project turned out to be perfect for my needs. The OP used a machine I think, but that wasn’t what I needed.

I printed the pattern image at the largest scale I could without having to print the image on multiple sheets of paper and cut it out. After that, I traced around the pattern pieces on some scrap fabric I have in my scrap fabric bag. I didn’t worry about grain or anything like that since the project is so small. You could really use the outline as either the stitch line or the actual cut line, but I used it as my stitch line and progressed accordingly.

The fins and tail are stitched right-sides together, turned right-sides out, and pressed before final construction. Honestly, the worst part, in my opinion, is always clipping curves. It’s always a bit more tedious than I prefer, and I always have little, tiny fabric scraps flying all around.

The body is seamed together leaving a gap for the fins, and while little curves can be a bit fiddly, having a stitch line is really helpful, at least for me. The whole point of slow stitching is to give myself a mental break. I did take some time to do some decorative top stitching around the fins, tail, and body before stitching the body together.

And here it is! All stuffed and put together. I am pleased with the overall result, and I got some mental breathing room.

We’re going through our house and making decisions about what we need to do and how we want to handle our move. I think the most daunting part of this is actually finding a location to live. This isn’t a great time to move, and moving isn’t something we’ve had to contemplate in a long time. We have been able to source a LOT of moving boxes and packing materials, so that’s really exciting. We’re also starting to sell some of the things we’re not going to be taking with us. In some ways it’s a really nice thing to contemplate. In other ways, it’s daunting and entirely overwhelming. I’m hoping to get to document some of our process, but we are trying to strike a balance between purging and packing and still having a calming place to live. I think we’ve struck a decent balance and that we have a decent plan. I feel like we have been able to come to an agreement about what we want and what we can live with. I’m hoping that this move will be relatively painless, and hopefully we can find some decent movers. Wish us luck!