Sunday, September 11, 2016

A Productive Day

Since I own a retail business, Sunday is the first day of my weekend.  Most Sundays, I lay around, reading and napping in between snacking and bits of housework.  This morning, I did my housework early because I had a friend coming over for brunch.  Since it was the first time she'd been to my house (even though we've known each other about a decade!  Why did it take me so long to get her over here?), I gave her the two-cent tour, including a peek in my sewing room.  How embarrassing!  My sewing room is a PIGSTY!!  She's too kind to say anything, but I was motivated to do some cleaning and organizing down there today.

After pulling aside some fabric that she mentioned liking to gift to her, I listed some in my ETSY shop.  After all, de-stashing some fabric was one of my goals this year, and so far, it has gone quite well, with anywhere from 2-5 fabrics finding new homes each month.  Whatever did we do before the Internet??
Brazen Blue Birds by Patrick Lose for Timeless Treasures - I bought this fabric because it was so stinking cute, but I can't for the life of me figure out what to do with it, so into the ETSY shop it goes (after lopping off a couple yards for my friend)
I also pulled out, photographed and prepped a blog post for 5 projects that I'll be listing in Cynthia's Quilty Orphan Adoption Event this coming weekend.  Last March I was able to send out 5 other projects to new homes, and while this doesn't clear a ton of space in my sewing room, it does make me feel better about that ridiculously long list of UFOs I catalogued in January.
One of the "orphans" I'm putting in the Quilty Orphan Adoption Event.  I learned after starting this that I don't much enjoy paper piecing.  I'm listing 2 paper piecing minis and one foundation pieced project.

I selected, cut and washed the backing for the quilt I pieced last weekend.  The plan is to pin baste it tomorrow and attempt to machine quilt it this week.  Those of you who know me know that I am a hand quilter, but I don't want this quilt to be added to my To Be Quilted pile.  Besides, I need to learn how to machine quilt, and the only way to learn is to do it, right?

I cut into a small mountain of scraps, clearing my cutting mat of the clutter that had been encroaching upon it from all sides, yielding 61 precut scraps for the scrap bins.
Doesn't look like much, but there are 61 squares in those piles, everything from 1.5" to 5"
And I even managed a little bit of sewing!  I'm up to 7 blocks for the Quilts of Valor Block Drive.


Add to that the floors I swept and mopped, the loads of laundry I did, the dishes I washed, the meals I prepared, and I'm surprised I'm still standing.  Time to go finish my book and drift off to sleep.