catching up ~ five

I am finally posting a picture of the quilt I started back in the spring and finished in August.

catching up ~ one

I finished my autumn table runner. 



starting something...

...new for autumn

228 down

3378 to go.

This quilt has sat on my sewing table for over a month without any progress. I could feel it there, haunting me, needing to be done before new projects are started. Does anyone else feel haunted by unfinished projects?

My excuse this time? (avoidance) The perfect binding fabric never showed itself. (avoidance) I could probably wait and look for a year and the perfect binding fabric wouldn’t show up. (avoidance) What was I avoiding? Making a decision? Perhaps the hand sewing?...the decision.

Something had to be done. No more avoidance! Taking a bit of “the dog that bit it" cut into smaller squares and sewn together I made the binding... finally.

I see several long familiar movies in my week: Pride and Prejudice, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Cranford, North & South.  And an estimated 3600 hand sewn stitches to finish off this quilt.

moving forward

I decided to not put a border on the quilt because there wasn't a fabric that I wanted to use for a border.  If I wait to find one it will never get done so moving forward there was a little progress made yesterday. 

progress

I did get to work on my quilt Thursday and more than just shifting things around.  I also got to work on it Saturday, YAY!  Now do I want to put an orange border around the whole quilt?  I promise myself I won't think too long about it and allow it to keep me from having to finish it lol.

old school or grade school?

I had an exciting Friday night trying to figure out a layout for the quilt. I started to lay out the charms on the floor in patterns but between the dog and the littles it was not working out. If it was the dog alone it wouldn’t be a problem. I could tell him to lay down somewhere he will and if I tell him to stay he will . Now add in the littles calling him and running around all crazy like; laying the charms out on the floor is a bad idea. No worries though; I came up with a plan B.

Plan B involved graph paper, colored pencils, scissors and glue sticks. To be technical add in some markers, card stock, and an eraser. You know the phrase a picture is worth 1000 words? Well I won’t bore you with the details.

This felt like a grade school project: uneven cutting, half colored blocks, sticky fingers and all. Strangely it was fun. But not in a this is how I want to spend every Friday night way. It was fun in a onetime only kinda way.

Does anyone know of a better way to try out quilt patterns?  Perhaps a good computer program that is VERY user friendly?  Anything?  Because if I have to do it like this more than a couple times I might have to revert to fleece baby blankets.

In life ones path...

...starts off in one direction and outside elements come along and change things sending one in a completely different direction.  Leaving one wondering how did this happen?  Because I let it of course.

I started a new sewing project last weekend. This is one of those use up some scraps and maybe a little of the stash kinda projects.  First was to cut up scraps and sew them into “charms.” To make some tote bags for groceries, books, and toys, whatever. Another bag is always need and grabbing a plastic shopping bag to carry my books back to the library is so tacky not to mention it makes me look environmentally unfriendly. I want something cute not tacky.

I cut and sewed and had about 150 scrap “charms” sitting on my table for totes. Then started to lay them out in patterns and to add sashing, seeing how they would look.

Enters change in the form of my oldest son.....

Son: “That looks cool.”(really excitedly)

Me: “thanks”

Son: “ Is that the picnic quilt you are going to make us?”

**rewind a couple months ago when I asked my littles if they wanted a picnic quilt and they were not interested.

Me: “No, I am making tote bags with these.”

Son: “Oh, ok. But that would make a really cool picnic quilt.” (sounding disappointed)

Me: “I guess it could be a picnic quilt.”

Son: “COOL! Because those are really awesome colors.”

Me: “ Alright, it will be a picnic quilt.”

Son: “Awesome, but could you make another one for a picnic quilt? I don’t want that quilt to get all muddy, it’s too cool.”

Me: “Sure.” (Stunned by my 13 year old son’s enthusiasm about a project I am working on.)

Now a couple of days later and all of it sinking in realizing I just committed to 2 quilts and still need to make some tote bags. And to let you all know, the last time I made a quilt that was not made of fleece or flannel (and for a baby) was 15 years ago.