The problem with puttering

I putter. I start this, get distracted, start that, take a quick break, see something else that needs doing, and so on and so on. This happens around the house all the time. Yesterday, I got a lot done - weeding, mulching, purging clothes we don't wear/fit anymore, purging kitchen items to get rid of, sweeping - but I didn't FINISH anything.

The same is true in the sewing room, but for the month of June, I am committed to finishing some things. I've joined up with Rubyslipperz (see the button on my sidebar?) to get some things done in June. Each finish gives me another chance to win her giveaway, but even if I don't win, at least I'll have accomplished something. I hope to:

finish the ELLA quilt for my high school friend

get caught up on the Birdie BOM - I still haven't done May or June

put a sleeve on my Great Great Grandmother's quilt - this is my entry for the quilt show at the county fair this July and it needs a sleeve

and make a couple covered dish/casserole carriers for some friends from a pattern I found in a magazine.

Last night, I actually did finish the quilting items on my to-do list for the weekend. The first was to finish the April Birdie BOM - this one is one of my favorite blocks so far, so simple. I left off the Easter eggs that were sprinkled around on the block to simplify things:

The second item on the weekend to-do list was to sandwich the Pick and Choose quilt that I sold at the Old Middlebrook Village Day last month which needs to be hand quilted this summer. I've been looking forward to the quilting, but I can't stand basting! And ironing all of the backing was misery, even with my BIG ironing board. But, it is done and in a hoop and ready for me to put some stitches in every day (that's the plan, anyway):

Of course, first, I need to come up with a plan for my quilting...

I'm going to pay for this...

...but I took ALL DAY on Saturday to do what I wanted to do. I figured I'd be more motivated at work if I took a teensy little break from it. You better believe that a large chunk of Saturday was devoted to sewing. I finished the blocks needed to make that extra row on my scrappy log cabin quilt, and then put the top together. It was technically Sunday when I put the last stitch in...




I also spent some time quilting my little ELLA name quilt. I went with a very Tonya-esque freehand Baptist Fan.


So I'm happy with how my weekend worked out - warm weather and sunshine, some sewing, a trip to visit my mom, yummy winnings at the kids' school fundraiser CakeWalk, karate, sleeping in, air hockey tournaments with the kids, videos with the family, and the list goes on - but I'll be kicking myself tomorrow when I realize how much work I have yet to do.

THX!

Another grueling week! So busy that I barely have time to speak or write complete sentences. I feel like all of my communication with others lately has been curt, hurried, much like a text message. So when I found myself with a few spare moments yesterday, I found myself thinking of how thankful I am for all of you and those emails and comments I get from you all throughout the day - it really lifts me up during this stressful time. When my few spare moments were over yesterday afternoon, before my husband came home and I had to go back to work (until 2 AM! Then back up again at 6 this morning! Ugh!), this is what I had come up with:

It goes out especially to Em, whose silly emailed photos always bring a smile to my face. Thanks for reading, and for hanging in there with me when all I do is whine about how busy/tired/overworked I am.

Oh, and I almost forgot. At some point this week I found the time to put the scrappy border on my first Birdie BOM. I love using up those 2.5" scraps, and I love how bright and cheerful it is going to be. Of course, at 2 months/block, it will take me two years to complete the top...

I challenge you!

This morning, I don't have the time necessary to properly describe my wonderful weekend with Bonnie Hunter, but I do have the time to say this:

I bought Tonya's Word Play Quilts book from Bonnie during the workshop, and had a chance to read it cover to cover yesterday. I challenge ANYONE to read that book and NOT run right to your sewing machine and start sewing! It's so fun and inspiring! So, of course, the first chance I had, I ran right to my sewing machine and started sewing...

I'm working on a Pay It Forward gift for a high school friend a reconnected with on Facebook who is constantly posting about how much she adores her little daughter, Ella. I haven't seen this friend for over 20 years, but I figure I can't go wrong with a gift for/about her daughter. And how exciting to finally cut into my Urban Circus fat quarters!

More about my weekend when I have more than 5 minutes to sit still. Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!!!

Fighting through the inertia

Do you ever WANT to quilt, but you just can't muster up the energy and enthusiasm? That has been me lately. But this weekend, I decided to fight through it and CREATE. It helps that I was home during daylight hours - I feel much more creative when it is light outside.

I started by cleaning up my sewing room a bit. I had two big quilting frames set up, but wasn't using either one except for storage, so I dismantled one, freeing up more space. I rearranged my sewing table and my ironing board so there is more natural light on my workspace. And then I started with something quick and easy - a new pillow for my dog using some super thick batting and some home dec weight fabric that was gifted to me. So far, he hasn't eaten it. Instead, he has parked himself on there, and my husband says he has to physically drag him off the pillow in the morning when he wants him to go outside. I love a gift that is loved, even if it is by a dog!

(that blue and orange thing is another gift that he loved - a duck that has been decapitated and had the stuffing eaten out of him, but the dog absolutely LOVES it!)

Then I finished up the last of the scrappy log cabin blocks. As it now stands, the quilt will be about 64" square, not quite as big as I'd like it, but I don't have enough of the center fabric to make enough blocks to make it larger on all sides. Perhaps a thin-ish border and then a piano key border of scraps? Or, there's enough for one more row of blocks, so perhaps a border and then a "pillow row" of blocks? (I don't know the actual term when you have a row of blocks that is meant to lay over the pillows...is there an actual term for that?) Any other ideas out there for making this big enough to cover a twin bed?


While working on those blocks, I made some more free pieced letters as my leader and ender project. I'm not really loving the S, so we'll see if that stays or goes. I have some ideas about how to pull it all together...


And when it is dark outside, I'd rather be curled up in bed or on the couch than in my sewing room. So on Saturday night, I turned on the TV (gasp! yes, I turned on the TV. I remembered how it worked! It has truly been a while since I've watched the boob tube.) and finished up the last few stitches in my mother's Christmas quilt (yup, gave it to her for Christmas and then took it back because I wasn't done) while watching PRETTY WOMAN.




(Another aside, does anyone else just inexplicably LOVE that movie? I could watch it a hundred times and not tire of it, but I'm not quite sure why. Well, I know Richard Gere is definitely part of the reason. I remember the first two movies I ever saw on VCR back when our family first discovered VCRs in the 80s - The Neverending Story and The Cotton Club. Richard Gere was a horn player in The Cotton Club and my adolescent self fell in love with him. That adolescent self still lives on in me.)

So, anyway, the quilt is done, and I hope to give it back to my mom this weekend when I hope to go visit her. (Are you reading this, Mom? If so, can I come visit on Saturday? I'll call you.)

And then, finally, last night I decided to watch the Netflix movie that has been sitting on my counter since just before Christmas (NOT joking!). DUMMY. Not me, that's the name of the movie. I don't remember picking it out, and when it arrived, I just wasn't moved to watch it. But I popped it in last night and started the Birdie Stitches BOM that I've been wanting to do.

Hmmm...just went looking for that link and found a flicker photo stream and it seems everyone else's snowmen are white. Certainly he didn't HAVE to be white, did he? I'm just gonna say mine was so cold he turned blue. And now looking at the directions, apparently I was supposed to do a back stitch. I don't even know what a back stitch is. I did stem stitch, because that is all I know so far. I hope there aren't embroidery police out there! Anyway, I enjoyed the movie much more since I was stitching. Otherwise, I don't think it is one I would have sat through until the end.

So, I feel like I'm back in the saddle again, which is good because I need to get the Cub Scout quilt's final border on and sandwich it so we can practice our knots on Monday as we tie the quilt. And truly, I'd like to give Donald his Boys Will Be Boys quilt before winter is over - that needs sandwiching and quilting. And in case you were wondering, he's been good at school two days in a row and today at homework time, HE initiated, pulled everything out of his backpack and called me over to get started and did everything with enthusiasm and a good attitude. I'll be putting Donald's photo on a milk carton because OBVIOUSLY this wasn't my kid who came home with me today, but a good-natured, homework-loving look-alike imposter. But seriously, I was so proud of him and told him how I actually enjoyed doing homework with him today. It may not last forever, but I'll bask in it as long as it does!

I made coffee!

It's been cold around here lately, so yesterday, I made coffee!

Hot coffee!

No real plan yet, we'll see where I go from here. I sure am having fun making something with no recipient or end result in mind - how liberating! Although, I'll be honest - I was a bit dismayed at how NOT wonky my letters were. I didn't measure, so they arent' the same size, but they aren't wonky either. I guess I really need Tonya's new Word Play Quilts book.

Speaking of liberating, on Saturday, we had a trunk show by Judy Loope at our guild meeting. The woman used to be an art teacher, and I think it shows in her creative quilts.

Most are wallhangings, and she incorporates lots of techniques into her quilts. Her work was AMAZING! Unfortunately, I don't think photos can do justice to the detail and texture and depth to her work, but in case you want to check it out, her website is http://www.judyloope.com/.

And then we get to this morning. I had a doctor's appointment, and on my way back from the doctor's office, I passed the new location of a quilt shop near me that had re-located. I HAD to stop in, right? It turns out, this was opening day, and I was her first official customer. Well, then, I HAD to buy something, right? I mean, this is a woman in my quilt guild that I just MUST support! In case Mrs. P is laughing so hard that her coffee is going up her nose, please know that I was VERY good. I limited myself to the $20 bill I had in my purse. I bought 1.5 yards of Kona white muslin for a cub scout project, and then 2 spring-y fabrics (2/3 yd and 5/8 yd) to remind me that it won't be cold and gray forever.

The shop is delightful, in a big old house set back from the road, surrounded by a shaded yard, with two porches and a deck. There are plantation shutters on the windows (I love plantation shutters!), a cozy, bright sunroom for her longarm, a little classroom, and lots of wonderful fabrics artfully arranged on neat old pieces of furniture. If you are ever zipping down I-81 in Virginia, I encourage you to stop to stretch your legs (and lighten your purse) at exit 200 at the Quiltery. Tell them Erin sent ya!

It's getting HOT in here!

What wonderful ideas you all had for the chicks! And can we all agree that Cheryl is hilarious? I want to put all those ideas in the quilt, but I don't think I have that many pieced letters in me. If I can figure out how to quilt words, I think all those suggestions may make it into the quilt after all. But the word HOT has only 3 simple letters in it, so that's where I started.

And I LOVE IT!

I felt like I was simultaneously channeling Em and Tonya!

I wish I could go piece some more letters RIGHT NOW, but first I've got 2 basketball games, a quilt guild meeting, and a rollerskating date with my boys. After that, who knows if I'll even have energy left to piece?

Who am I kidding!?!

Reluctant realization

I'm not as liberated a quilter as I'd like to think I am. Sure, my stuff is scrappy; I have no qualms putting a batik next to a repro next to a novelty fabric. Sure, patterns are merely suggestions in my mind, and I rarely do as told. Sure, I think wonky is wonderful, and do not stress over points that don't match or corners that aren't square.


However, I realized today that I am a slave to symmetry. I was playing around, continuing to add to my ERIN quilt, and was careful to make sure that the odd fabric triangles in the 2 rows of green/beige that I added were diagonally opposite each other.

Then, I almost didn't add the bottom row with the 4 Drunkards Path blocks connected by the strips because I didn't have a similar batch of orphans to add to the top of the quilt. Why is symmetry so important to me? Especially in a project like this, which is my version of V's/BumbleBean's "15 Minutes of Play", a vehicle to use up orphans and other scraps of fabric? Here I thought I was so liberated, but as I look back over my creations, I realize I am not. That makes me a little bit sad - it is hard to come to terms with the fact that you are not exactly the way you imagine yourself to be.

So, I'm challenging myself. At some point soon, I'm going to try to make something that is not symmetrical. Please help me hold myself to that challenge.


In the meantime, I was also playing around with all those new scraps of mine, and couldn't resist starting something new, something that could be made with 5" charm squares.

(note that only the right side has been sewn together, which is why the left side looks so wonky)
So far, 50 fabrics have been incorporated into this project, but I think I'm going to have 6 rows of 12 fabrics rather than the 5 rows of 10 fabrics that I have so far. That will leave me with just enough of the white fabric to add a 2" finished border and then that white fabric is all gone - stash busted!

Tomorrow morning, I head off to West Virginia. I wish I could make this weekend last just one day longer. I accomplished all the goals I set out for myself on Friday with the exception of going through the kids' clothes for Goodwill donations. Not bad! Here's hoping that my week on the road is just as productive, if not as creative.

Lesson Learned

Every evening, I try to remember to ask my children what they learned that day. Then, I try to remember to ask MYSELF the same thing. Yesterday, I learned two things:

First, you can't help someone who is not willing to help himself. Long story, but a lesson that I needed to learn.

The second thing I learned is that it is easier to be WONKY when you start WIDE. As I promised myself, I delved into my new scraps yesterday. I wanted to make some free-pieced, wonky letters/words, along the lines of Em and Tonya. I found a thin strip of blue in my scrap bag, and then picked one of my new neutral scraps out of my newly purchased scrap bag, and sat down to sew.

It was fun and liberating to just let the letters come together on their own, but I couldn't go as wonky as I wanted because my blue strip was so thin, only about 1" wide. So this is little, about 6"x12", but I've already located two orphan blocks that I want to add to it, and I have a feeling it is going to grow. The perfect project for an evening when I wanted to clear my mind. The border is made from some of my pre-cut 1.5" squares.

But the lesson learned - next time I make free-pieced words (and there WILL be a next time), I will start WIDE and be WONKY as all get out!

What have you learned lately?