Has anyone seen my motivation?

It's one of those days - I'm up, I'm at work, but I fear I am pretty useless right now.  I have no energy, no motivation, no enthusiasm.  Perhaps I'm overtired?  Or overwhelmed, thinking of the upcoming two weekends that I have to work?  Or maybe I'm just in partial hibernation mode, waiting out my least favorite season?

Whatever the problem, I thought maybe a blog post would help me focus and get me moving in a positive direction.

It's been an exhilarating week for me.  People have called and emailed and stopped me in public places - "Hey, didn't I just see you on the front of the newspaper?"  I never imagined that happening to me!

And the sweet things people have since done!  One woman brought me a dozen eggs fresh from her farm - wanted to do something for me since I was doing so much for others.  Another man called me at work and told me he had a bunch of fabric he's collected from auctions over the years, and wanted to donate it to the cause.  He made his first delivery last Friday:

The Star Quilters Guild in Roanoke asked to help - I sent them 3 sets of blocks to assemble and quilt.

I've gotten two inquiries about commission quilts - one that I'll definitely do, the other, I'm not so sure.

Above all, it's been a feel-good week.

I haven't had a ton of time to sew, though.  I've gotten most of another Sandy quilt top assembled while making a quick little hand project to take to basketball games.  I made this color wheel Dresden thinking I'd make it into a clock, but I accidentally broke the clock trying to take it apart - oops!

This was a hard exercise for me.  I used just scraps, and had a hard time deciding which fabrics worked and went where. I finally just sewed together what I had, but it still doesn't quite match the color wheel I looked up online.

Maybe I'll get another clock, but maybe it will end up being a pillow or a wall hanging.  Who knows?  I just know that January means sitting on the bleachers through 3 basketball games every Saturday, so I need something small and portable to keep my hands busy.

Mostly, I've been doing prep work:

Prepping for an up-cycling workshop I'm going to do with my guild in February - we are going to make "green" shopping bags from pillowcases and drawstring backpacks from t-shirts -

I love using these bags - they are fully lined, super sturdy and machine washable. 

I can't go shopping with these without someone asking where I got my bags. 

The cashiers are always so amazed at how much these can carry! 

This is my absolute favorite - that yellow check is so cheery it almost makes me want to go shopping! 

Very lightweight, and the perfect size for a day hike 

Again, fully lined for durability - although both Jason and I have used ours so much over the last two years that they are starting to come undone! 

Prepping for our last week of the Ready to Quilt program - the kids are mostly finished with their composition book covers now, and are ragging the edges of the denim quilt.

And prepping for our next Cub Scout meeting this weekend - we'll be doing a woodworking project, but I am doing all of the cutting and drilling in advance.

I'll leave you with images from fun times with my friend, Michelle, on New Year's Day.  We went over for lunch, and ended up having a bit of a jam session.  One of these days, I might actually even learn how to play a song on one of the FOUR guitars we have at our house!

For some reason, Donald hates having his photo taken these days, but he was on keyboard. 

Jason is in the background getting some guitar instruction, while Michelle's little cutie was rocking out on his new 4-year-old sized guitar.

And Michelle and I fumbled our way through some John Denver (strum strum - wait while I reposition my fingers! - strum strum - giggle!)

Oh, and how funny, but someone who found my blog through the newspaper article, Lisa U, won my giveaway.  She chose the yellow paisley flowers and the bird print, and should have already received her winnings by now.  Hmmm, what can I give away next?  Stay tuned!

Firsts - french seam and Dresden Plate

Yesterday, the kids and I took a road trip to Patchwork Plus, a quilt shop outside Harrisonburg, VA.  My friend, Nancy, gave me her punchcards for the place when she moved to GA, so I had a $20 credit to use.  Now, we all know I spent WAAAAYYY more than $20, right?  First, my boys were with me, so they both got to pick out a yard of fabric for themselves.  They both picked novelty flannel - Jason got the soccer balls and Donald got the robots.

And while I was supposedly there to get batting, I was drawn to the sale fabrics.  I found these adorable piggy banks in orange and green and yellow that reminded me of growing up in the 70s, for some reason, and I had to get them.  I picked up the geometric in similar colors to go along with the piggies.

I also picked up these black and cream dragonflies, and as is my rule when I buy new fabric, a couple yards of a neutral - this time a cream on cream that works well with the dragonflies.

And finally, I picked up another black and white print because I don't think you can ever have too many of those.  Add another thimble and some sewing machine needles, and I called it good.

On the way home, the boys and I stopped at the skatepark and I sat in the car quilting while they did their thing for nearly 2 hours.

Today, the appliance repairman came to check out all my broken down stuff.  The bad news is that I need a new oven - the part that I need to make my oven work again isn't manufactured anymore.  How old does that make my oven???

The good news is that my washing machine WAS fixable, so I'm back in business there!  Going to the laundromat these last few weeks darned near bankrupted me!  And lucky me, it was a clothesline perfect day, so I put a couple loads out there (including my new fabric!) before the sun went down.

Speaking of that new fabric, you know I had to cut into it right away, right?  And although I don't need more "green" shopping bags, I made another one anyway.  For this one, I used a plastic Walmart shopping bag as a template, so it is the same size and shape, just MUCH stronger and prettier, fully lined and machine washable. 

Plus, it has a pocket on the front into which you can fold the bag, nice and neat, for when you aren't using it.  Kinda like a quillow, right?

I used a tutorial that I found online, and I love how "finished" the bag is.  I made my first french seam, something I've never done before.  I will definitely be using that technique again.

Saturday is quilt guild meeting day before I board an airplane for ATL for work.  Gotta get to quilting - I want to finish quilting the Charm quilt and get the binding sewn onto the back so I can not only have something to work on during the meeting, but also something for show and tell.

Oh, and last thing - this weekend's quilt show at the Quilting Gallery is Delightful Dresdens.  How ironic since that is the next quilt I will  be working on!  But those of you who have been with me a while remember my first Dresden Plate, the stack and whack style that I made for my younger sister's college graduation - I think I called it "My Sister, My Friend" because that is what I quilted around the center dresden plate, although I may have called it Hello Yellow! (Unfortunately, I had all this catalogued on my old blog site which crashed, and my memory is crap! Also, I don't seem to have a photo of it with the binding on.)

I entered it in the Delightful Dresdens Quilt Show at the Quilting Gallery this weekend, which goes up Friday morning.  I encourage you to check out all the Dresden Plates that are entered - you are sure to find inspiration there!