Abandoned!

At A Loose End*!  Definitely, I don't know why this town was abandoned some years ago!

I recently looked for the box that contained the patterns and instructions, only because, 

Pat Sloan was reviving the sew along--Will You Be My Neighbor?"

When I saw that notice--I said to myself--"self, you have this somewhere in your studio"

Look for it--and there it was--all neatly bundled up in a box with fabric I decided to use--plaids.

I had made four of the blocks and then--bam!  I abandoned the whole neighborhood!

It's big blocks--18" so it's doable and I have all the fabric selected--now is the time

to pick it up again and make another street or two or just finish the town!

Only three more streets to do--it can be finished if I put my mind to it!

So why 'be at a loose end"?

*"if you see children mooching about, apparently doing nothing recognizably useful, you are likely to say--they are at a loose end.  Why not send the little dears off to sea on an old sailing ship.

That is where the phrase was coined!

As with spinning a yarn, on quiet days at sea when the weather was good, sailors would have to perform ordinary tasks.  All the thousands of ropes of sheets making up the rigging needed to have their ends bound with twine to prevent them fraying.  Anyone with no other duties would be sent to

"tie up the loose end"

*Rigmaroles & Ragamuffins, Elinor Kapp author!