As a parent, I know I will occasionally need to bribe my kids (on occasion) in order to get them to do something.  It is a trick I try not to overuse, because I know it will backfire on me.  But sometimes, “eat your supper or you won’t get dessert” is the way to go.

Lately, I’ve resorted to bribing myself to get some work done on the computer.

Admittedly, it’s an odd sort of bribery, as my reward is actually “work” — just of a different sort:

It all started a couple of days ago when I saw an antique Scrappy Double Irish Chain on one of the blogs I read.  I can’t remember which one right now, or I’d link.

I thought “Ooooo…pretty….”

And then I wandered into my sewing room and discovered that I had a big hunk of a white background fabric I could use.

And then pulled out the bin of 1.5 inch scrap strips and started digging.  I was going to go completely scrappy, but then I thought it would be fun to go with scrappy BLUES.  Well, I didn’t have enough precut strips, so I had to dig through my (neatly) folded stash to find more blues.

And then I started cutting.  Ironically, I managed to miscut the white fabric, cutting a bazillion more 3.5 inch strips than I needed, but I didn’t figure this out until after I had pulled out some other white fabric with which to make up what I needed in the 1.5 inch strips.

And then I’ve been sewing.  And sewing.  And sewing.  It’s my reward, see, for getting stuff done on the computer.

Here are the blocks I have finished.  It’s a terrible picture, but the lighting in there is not conducive to good picture-taking.

Did I mention the strips are 1.5 inch cut?  Which means the blocks finish at 5 inches.  Am I weird, or what?

I have enough cut to make 169 blocks, which will only wind up being 65 inches square.    I’m having delusions about this possibly ending up as the background for applique.  Or not.  We’ll see.

It’s nice mindless sewing, which is what this quilter needs.

Just don’t tell my kids that I probably spend more time on my “reward” than I’m supposed to.  “Just one more strip set….and then I’ll go back to work…”

Suzanne