Hitting the reset button

This winter, life has been crazy hectic!  I've been squeezing some sewing time in while running full speed at work and parenting my teenage boys (who are relentlessly creative about finding ways to get into trouble). But then, a week ago, it all came grinding to a halt.  My heart goes out to all whose health and/or livelihood is affected by this current crisis.  Luckily (knock on wood), my family is healthy and we are on vacation from school anyway, so our lives haven't been that disrupted.  My kids may be bored, but honestly, apart from this being a scary pandemic, this time at home has been a dream come true for me!

I read the entire book club book BEFORE the book club meeting for next month!  That right there is a sign that these are crazy times!  While I read A LOT (I've read or listened to 17 books since January 1), I somehow never seem to find time to read the book club selection!

I've also been sewing up a storm while listening to audiobook after audiobook.

I've pulled out my Grandmother's Flower Garden UFO and have done some hand sewing.

I've pulled out my Carpenter's Wheel UFO and made two more blocks.

Can you see that a couple of my muslin pieces are a different, lighter muslin?  Oh well!

I finished my 2018 Temperature Quilt and now just need to figure out borders.

A pretty mild year!  I have LOTS of blue left over (blue was for cold!)

I made a couple more blocks for my String Shadows UFO.

I sewed a baby quilt top, and am currently contemplating...is it done?  Does it need borders?

I pulled out my leftover border blocks from my Sew Many Strips quilt and made two of the corner blocks so I can use this border treatment for another quilt - who knows what I'll put inside?

I've made a total of 11 Jewel Box Stars blocks so far as Leaders & Enders.

There is so much scrappy goodness that I can hardly choose what to work on at any given time.

In the meantime, I'm keeping calm, sleeping in, talking long, slow walks with the dog, and appreciating this time to hit the reset button.

Pursuing my Good Fortune

Now that my last quilt is in its new home and in use

The recipient posted this photo of the quilt (I cropped it) on her Instagram

I've turned my focus back to finishing my Good Fortune quilt.  All of these blocks are done, time to finish the alternate blocks. 

I accidentally made too many blocks...

Of course, I should also finish LAST YEAR's On Ringo Lake mystery quilt,

I have made no progress since getting to this point.  C'mon, Erin, you're so close!

but the colors in this year's quilt just make me happier, so they seem to always get top billing.  And I'd love to finish my 2018 Temperature Quilt, but I seem to have lost my paperwork/chart, so that project is stalled out until I find my worksheets or redo them (I still have December and part of November to complete).

This is everything through September assembled.

And then there is this quilt that I need to finish hand quilting before my niece's first birthday in April. 

I've finished quilting all the white spaces - now to the colored stars

With all these things to finish, I sure hope I can be disciplined about not starting anything NEW!

I'm linking up with Oh Scrap and Monday Making.

UFOs: FREE to a good home!!

Edited 9/18: Drawing is now closed - winners listed below and contacted via email.  Winners chosen with Random Number Generator.  Thanks for playing along!

I've participated in Cynthia's Quilty Adoption Event twice a year for a couple years now, so you'd think I'd have cleared out all of my UFOs.  WRONG!  Even though I moved this summer AND last summer, I STILL came across UFOs that I didn't even remember having!

The following 7 (seven!!) UFOs are up for grabs.  Let me know in a comment any and all projects that you'd be interested in winning, and if there is more than one taker out there by Tuesday evening (9/18), and I will randomly choose recipients.  My goal is to get these all out of the sewing room by the end of next week.  There are no restrictions on how you use the blocks - make something for yourself, for a family member, for a charity, to sell - it doesn't matter to me.  I will ship at my expense anywhere in the US and CANADA.

Ready?

A.  WESTERING WOMEN Congratulations, Rebecca! Please send me your address so I can mail your package.  There is no email address attached to your profile.  If I don't hear from you by Saturday, I will draw a new winner.

In 2016, I participated in Barbara Brackman's Westering Women BOM.  I loved making the blocks and reading her posts, but I'm not really a fan of sampler quilts, so I doubt I'll ever make the last three blocks and put it together.  Will you?  I tried to use repro fabrics, and in addition to the nine 12.5" (unfinished size) blocks I made, I will send what I have left of the fabrics I used in the blocks, in case you want to go ahead and make the last three blocks.  Some are just scraps, others are as big as a quarter yard or more.

B. DOTTY Congratulations, Patricia!  Package mailed!

I love polka dots, and I love black as a contrast color.  But I can't for the life of me figure out where I was going with this project.  Half the 9" (unfinished size) blocks are a square in a square, while the other half are a type of sunburst.  The polka dot fabric is all Love by Amy Butler.  The black is likely a Kona solid, but I can't guarantee that.  There are still three uncut fat quarters of polka dot and two 10"xWOF pieces of black along with the leftover bits of the fabrics I already cut (basically 7.5"x21" each).

C.  JASON Congratulations, Louise! Package mailed!

Do you know a Jason?  I began a quilt for my son, Jason, back when we were taking karate.  The quilt was going to feature the colors of the belt up to black belt.  However, after receiving our black belts, we stopped taking karate, so this project screeched to a halt.  There is a 56"xWOF piece of the black solid, nine 8" (unfinished size) wonky stars in a rainbow of colors, and some various sized scraps of the rainbow solids (but no white or blue).  There are two pieced border strips and a free-pieced wonky JASON.  I can't even remember what this quilt was supposed to look like.

D. I SPY Congratulations, Crystal! Package mailed!

This was one of my first UFOs from before my second son (who is now 13) was even born, I think.  Which means my piecing is probably of questionable quality.  There are twenty-eight 6" (unfinished size) snowball blocks, twenty-two additional 6" squares of novelty fabric, and an 8"x72" piece of WOW background fabric.  The novelty fabric is everything from vehicles to frogs to aliens to ice cream, etc.

E.  STARS Congratulations, Linda! Package mailed!

I taught a class on these star blocks, but I doubt I'm going to make more.  They are 12.5" (unfinished size), and there are just 4 of them.

F. QUILT SAYINGS Congratulations, Cheryl! Package mailed!

I had completely forgotten about the block lotto in my guild over a decade ago when I won these blocks.  I don't even know which block I made!!  (although I think I made the wonky star - very much my style)  Each block is 12.5" (unfinished size) and includes a quilty saying.  I've included a couple close ups of the sayings for you.

G.  MEDALLION Congratulations, Sharon!  Please send me your address so I can mail your package.  There is no email address attached to your profile.  If I don't hear from you by Saturday, I will draw a new winner.

This was the beginnings of my first attempt to make a quilt for my mom, well over a decade ago.  I liked the idea of a medallion, but I just couldn't pull it together.  The center piece is about 42" square, and there is an extra 4.5" (unfinished size) flower block and an aborted pieced corner piece.  There are two 25"xWOF pieces of the background fabric.

Thanks for helping me out.  I've been on a major de-stash kick lately, and this, along with the fabric and yarn I've been steadily adding to my ETSY shop, is helping me to stay organized, focus and FINISH!

I'm linking up with Cynthia's Quilty Adoption Event.  Check it out to see if there are other items out there that you'd like.

Thankful for time to sew!

Working at a boarding school is SO DIFFERENT than running a yarn shop!  For the past four years, I closed the shop early on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, enjoyed a day of food and family, and then started the holiday retail season bright and early on Friday morning.  There never seemed to be enough time to enjoy the holiday.

Not so this year!  The students left for home yesterday, and I have an entire week off!  Woo hoo!  I spent quite a bit of time doing housework yesterday, but I also found time to sew!  I've been itching to start new quilts (a desk job means more time on the computer which means more time for me to be inspired by what everyone else in the quilting blogosphere is doing), but I've been pretty strict with myself about not cutting into any new fabric, just tackling the UFOs and orphan blocks that I already have overwhelming my sewing room.

Perhaps it is a function of being back in New England, but I really want to dive headfirst into the holiday spirit this year.  I want to decorate.  I want to bake.  I want to watch holiday movies while cuddled up under a holiday quilt.  Except I don't have a holiday quilt...

And then I remembered the Twelve Days of Christmas Quilt Along I joined back in July 2016, the one where I only made it through Day 3 before getting distracted by finishing off my county fair quilt show entry.  

By Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, tutorial found here

I hauled it out and got to work!  I already had most of the fabric cut, and the centers of the four big blocks pieced.

I made these on July 15, 2016

Non-pattern follower that I am, I set to work constructing a block from the inside out.

CUTE!  But I'm doing it wrong...

When I actually looked at the pattern, though, I realized that the block is built as a nine-patch, not from the inside out.  Oops!  I can make that block work.  But I'm making the other three blocks the correct way.

Not sewn together yet, obviously, since I need to buy more Kona Natural to finish the block

Except I never cut the 4" strips or the sashing and borders, and since I sold my shop, I no longer have a bolt of Kona naturals to cut from.  Luckily, the Textile Company is less than 3 miles from here, and I'm pretty sure they have a full selection of Kona solids.  Unfortunately, they are closed today, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to complete any one block, but I am determined to do all the other piecing that I can do today.

As I said when I first started this quilt in the summer of 2016, working with just three fabrics is hard for me - my scrappy nature wants more variety.  The fact that there are only four blocks using big (4.5" squares, big for me, anyway) squares of fabric is the only reason I think I can stay on track with this quilt.  Maybe I can go scrappy for the back, piecing a bunch of large chunks of Christmas fabrics together...

And I'm SERIOUSLY considering tackling Bonnie Hunter's Mystery, On Ringo Lake, this season.  It's not a UFO, but having already completed one UFO top in the past two weeks and well on my way to completing another, I think I'm going to treat myself!

Lest you think I've skipped over Thanksgiving to get to Christmas, I used my turkey potholder this morning when I pulled the morning's muffins out of the oven.  Fun, fun, fun!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

First time sewing since my move

SO MUCH has changed since the last time I posted!  I sold my business, moved to Massachusetts, and started a new job.  Whew!  It has been exhausting, but fun and so worthwhile:

• My kids are happy, getting better grades than they have in years, and are more involved in school than ever before.
• My husband is super happy with his new job.
• My dog, Biscuit, is getting around better ever since I started adding organic turmeric to his food and started taking him for long walks (can't just let him out anymore)
• My job is challenging and exhausting, but rewarding.
• My job includes 3 meals a day for my entire family, so I haven't cooked in months (best perk EVER!!)
• I have seen my mom and sisters more in the last three months than I have in the last 3 years combined.
• I've been able to get a bit of knitting done - currently working on mittens for myself since winter is coming.

And today, I sewed!!!

Not everything is perfect.  Our employer-supplied housing is nice, but MUCH smaller than I am used to.  I haven't even been able to bring all of my fabric and yarn into the apartment, let alone unpack it.  My home office is serving triple duty as a guest room and a sewing room, which means it is cramped and untidy and not all that conducive to doing anything.  HOWEVER, today I started reading one of my new Amish Quilt Shop mysteries, and that made me want to quilt, so I hauled the ironing board and iron down from the laundry room and reached into a drawer to pull out a UFO (heaven knows I have plenty to choose from!). 

I pulled out a project for which I had already assembled most of the blocks and had done all of the cutting and just needed assembly.  I got it to the place where it is all in rows now, and I'll sew on the setting triangles and sew the rows together tomorrow.  I don't have a purpose for this, but I guess it would make a nice, low volume baby quilt.  I used a charm pack that someone had given me along with some Kona Snow.  The pattern is Breezy Buntings from Moda Bake Shop, although I modified the pattern to make mine smaller because the charm pack didn't have enough fabric to make the quilt as designed.

It felt SO GOOD to hear the hum of the sewing machine and smell the warm fabric as I pressed it.  Why have I let so much time pass since the last time I sewed??

Can you tell I love COLOR??

I'm attempting Aunt Marti's 2016 UFO Challenge, finishing one UFO per month.  For me, finishing is getting it to the "flimsy/ready to be quilted" stage.  I managed a finish in January, but I'm really sweating about February.  She picked #9 as the one we finish, and for me, that is my color quilt that I started (and then stalled out on) back in 2010.

I figure I have at least 4 more colors to add - orange, purple, black and brown (and possibly gray) - and then all the setting and whatnot.  This quilt started because my 1.5" precut bin was overflowing.  I have since moved to a larger bin and it is, yet again, overflowing.  Might as well chip away at it.

Yesterday, I added ORANGE to the pile of completed colors.  Wish me luck getting these other colors done in time.  You may notice that I already did the short colors (red, blue, pink).  Sigh.

I will admit to being a tad bit distracted from sewing by my latest knitting project, a simple project called the Lollipop Shawl by Frankie Brown.  I got a new sport weight sock yarn in the shop whose color way reminded me of the sample in the pattern, and I couldn't wait to cast on and give it a try.  It is simple, garter stitch with a stockinette ruffle at the bottom edge.

I'm linking up with Beth's Monday Making at Love, Laugh, Quilt and Cynthia's Oh Scrap!

Happy Monday!

Erin

The Skeletons in My Closet

My husband and I are switching rooms again, his office and my sewing room.  I'm not-so-secretly THRILLED because that means I'm moving back into the room we originally planned to be my sewing room when we finished our basement: it is bigger, has much better natural light, has a closet and has walk-out doors to the yard.  Happy me!  Except moving all my sewing supplies is a lot of work, taking time away from actual sewing.

However, the beginning of the year is the time to re-assess and re-group and clean anyway, right?  I've been feeling a little overwhelmed in my sewing space, so time to get my act together down there. As I moved things over to the new room, I took time to organize them and make lists.

Oh, boy.  Making lists illuminates so much, sometimes things that you'd prefer to remain obscure.
Like how many UFOs I have: 28
Like how many completed tops I have that need quilting: 25
Like how many quilts I am currently quilting (I'm a hand quilter): 7

Top shelf = UFOs, middle shelf = flimsies, bottom shelf = being quilted
(ignore the defunct water softener in the yard outside the window - it is headed to the dump)

I know that I am a process person, not a finisher - that's no secret.  But this is a bit out of control, don't you think?

On to the fabric stash.  Much of it is contained in these drawers, neatly enough for me.  Then there's another HUGE drawer of a dresser that is also full of assorted yardage that doesn't fit in these drawers.

The smaller drawers are sorted by color - the larger drawers are for novelty (2 drawers) and multicolor florals (1 drawer)

But any of you who know me knows that I work primarily with scraps.  They make my heart SO HAPPY!  They are the first place I go when I start a block.  I pre-cut scraps into various squares from 1.5" to 5".  They are relatively neatly organized.

No worries - I won't be leaving these in the window for long; they are just here while I rearrange and figure out where to put things.  There is also a big drawer full of 5" squares and a baggie full of 3.5" squares.  I have the same system at work, with about as many pre-cut squares, but that's at work so it doesn't count, right?

BUT (and this is a huge but), I am a bit behind on my scrap cutting.  These 3 tubs, box and plastic bag are scraps (hangs head in shame).

Ignore the mess ON the futon - that's just stuff I haven't put away yet.

And then, there's one more skeleton in the closet that needs exposing.  Remember how I'm a process person?  Sometimes I make just one block.  For the process, not to make a quilt.  Or I abandon a quilt idea altogether after making some blocks.  So I have some orphans.  Or more accurately, HUNDREDS of orphans.

To be fair to myself, I did INHERIT some of these orphans, and I also dumped all of the bonus triangles I have sewn into this drawer, too.

But no worries, I have a plan!

1. I will dedicate a minimum of 15 minutes a day cutting scraps.  I recognize that there will be days when I don't get to cut scraps, and that is OK, but it means I'll need to make up for it on other days.  I have already printed out a calendar to mark on for this, and have been keeping track since January 1.  I am giving myself the winter to get my scraps under control.  When spring arrives on March 20, any untamed scraps must leave my house!
2. I have joined Aunt Marti's UFO Challenge (the challenge is at the bottom of the post).  Hopefully this will help me get 12 UFOs to the flimsy stage. 
3. I will participate in Block Lotto again.  I've enjoyed this in the past, and it gets me using my scraps.  Plus, all the blocks I make LEAVE THE HOUSE instead of staying here and adding to the lists.  (of course, one time I won Block Lotto - those blocks are all together now on the UFO shelf)
4. I will post at least 2 pieces of yardage for sale in my ETSY shop each week to help me de-stash.  Honestly, there's no reason to keep holding onto fabric without ever using it.  I actually started this a month or two ago, and have been headed to the post office at least once a week shipping off fabric.
5. I will finish an orphan quilt by the time the Drive-In opens this season (end of March).  I made an orphan quilt years ago, and loved taking it to the Drive-In movies and on road trips.  In fact, it never left the car until it went missing.  I have plenty of orphans to make another.  I will tie it like I did the last one, not quilt it.  I can do this!
6. I will finish quilting at least 4 quilts by July.  I owe quilts to two babies.  I'm working on one for my mother (shhhh...don't tell!).  And I'll need an entry for the local quilt show like I do every year.  That's a month and a half for each quilt.  The baby quilts and the one for my mother are small-ish.  Not sure yet which I'll choose for the quilt show.

I can DO this.  Just putting my hands on everything as I've moved has been inspiring to me.  I'm itching to get down there and sew, now that it is more organized and I'm in a bigger space.  GO ME!!

A Finish!!!

Two episodes of Monarch of the Glen, and the binding for my Bright Future quilt is all sewn on! All that remains is to wash the quilt and find a new baby to bestow it upon.

This is a quilt that just kinda happened. My precut squares were overflowing their tin, so I stitched some together. I'd been wanting to try my hand at Freehand Baptist Fans, so I gave it a try.

You know, a quilt that wasn't planned, but just evolved on its own. I have come to love it, despite my initial misgivings.


Now it is time to move on to something new. Remember this tablerunner? It is sandwiched and ready to hand quilt.

But there's Jason's karate quilt that needs making.

And my Great-Grandmother's quilt that I started resurrecting and then got derailed.

And despite all the great ideas I've gotten from Bonnie Hunter's latest book, I still haven't finished my version of Virginia Bound from her first book.

Or the mini that I started this weekend - borders are on except for the mitering, which I will admit, scares me just a bit. But that's why I chose to miter the borders, right? Learn how to do something new, conquer my fears, etc.?

Just a few more rows to sew together of the Ribbon Quilt, and then it can come down off my design wall, making room for something else.

There are easily 10 quilt tops in my armoire awaiting either my tiny needle or the longarm quilters.

And then, of course, there are all the other ideas floating around in my head. How to ever find the time to do all the quilting that I want?

I've accepted the New Year's Eve UFO Challenge

This week away from home and away from quilting is killing me! Thank God for the internet - at least I am caught up on blogs and am finding more wonderful blogs to follow. (just what I need, right?) Anyway, I'm at least thinking about quilting, if not actually doing it, so Finn's UFO Challenge appealed to me - I work better with deadlines, and I have so many UFOs floating around out there.


I decided that it is reasonable to expect to finish 3 UFOs by New Year's Eve, and I'm going to focus on my flannel tops.


This one should be easy - I am already halfway done quilting it. However, since I am using a super high loft batt (the only thing I had available when I was ready to start) and am a hand quilter, it is slow going. I just need to jump back in the saddle and complete it. It would help if there were something I wanted to watch on TV while doing it - that usually keeps me sitting still long enough to make some progress.






Then there is this top that is already quilted and just needs to be bound (not in the picture, but in reality, it is). Should be easy, right? In fact, the binding is already sewn on in the front. However, I sewed it on wonky, and need to take it back off and put it on again. I hate un-sewing, so that stopped me in my tracks. Get over it, Erin!




And finally, there's this flannel buzzsaw quilt that is still in the piecing stage. I was hoping to receive some more flannel scraps because my motto is "the scrappier, the better" and I am on a self-imposed "no-buy" since all of my money these days is going into finishing our basement (there will be a sewing studio in there for me when done, so the least I can do is not buy fabric!). However, I am thinking I should just make do with what I have.



You know what? While going through my photos, I came across this flannel Strawberry Shortcake top, too. I should finish it up. Maybe I'll keep my total goal at 3, but this gives me options, I can just finish any 3 of this 4 that strikes my fancy. I love having options. Of course, that is probably why I rarely FINISH things.

OK guys. I'd love some cheerleaders to help me finish these, help me stay on task. Of course, I will still be working on my GGG quilt and my scrappy star quilt, but I want these to get done. Wish me luck!