Saturday, March 29, 2014

Yesterday in the quilt cave...

I thought I'd do a little update on the progress I made during my quilt cave day. My husband stayed home so I was able to spend most of the day in my cave (other than quick stops to get lunch, make dinner, and go an emergency thread run... nothing worse than running out of thread in the midst of quilting, which I nearly did!). It was like my own mini quilt retreat! I was able to check a few things off my list:

checking items off the to-do list

I even got some binding strips cut. Woo!!!

Lists can be powerful tools for me. I love seeing those x's as items are completed. It truly gives me a sense of accomplishment. Blogging does that too oftentimes. But putting it out there in the world makes it "real," you know? Sometimes, I'm wanting to go with the flow and see where it takes me without the pressure I put on myself to keep up with the blog. Thus, lack of blogging. I want to make it a priority because I know it keeps me focused. At the same time, I have so much routine and focus in every other aspect of my life that I am finding I don't really want focus-- I want freedom. And I'm lazy. Blogging (writing!) takes so much effort for me. And it is not quick. Clearly, what I really need is to change up my blogging perspective. I'll add that to the list.

Look at that! I did some crafty musing there for a bit. :)

Moving on...

Here are all five of my recent roll o' fabric tops are quilted and ready for binding:

five pretty quilts, all in a row... but they still need binding

Now I'm about ready to start a new project:

and a little something new-- fabrics a quilt for Little Bear!

It's time to make a quilt for my Little Bear.

He turns 4 next month.

Mind.
Blown.



Friday, March 28, 2014

Catching up

This weekend is the annual Tri County Quilt Tour. I've participated every year and my husband even took today off so I could go. But I find myself feeling like my time is better spent at home, working on what I have. I think I have reached a total saturation point with fabric and projects right now. Heaven knows, there is no shortage of projects here!

I haven't blogged in a bit, but I have been doing stuff...

Last weekend I made another name pillow (from the "Personalized Name Pillow" pattern by Kimberbell Designs):

another name pillow!

They are such a good gift-- fun to make and always so well received.

And the dreaded roll o' fabric? It's gone!!!!

the dreaded roll' of fabric is NO MORE!!!!

Look at that empty roll! It took eight quilts (and 6 years!), but I finally used it all. Huzzah! Just that little strip of fabric remaining now-- I figure I'll use that in the binding of one or two of them.

I realize now that I haven't shared a pic of the final top I made from the roll. All I have is a kind of bad instagram pic:



But you get the idea? This is another design from the book, Simple Quilts from Me and My Sister Designs: Easy as 1, 2, 3. This is "Easy as 11." I had to change it up a bit as I ran out of fabric-- so I dropped a couple of rows and mine ended up at 48" square. It may not be the most aesthetically pleasing size for this design (it really does look better as a rectangle), but it works.

I've managed to quilt up four of my five recent roll o' fabric quilts. Today I basted the remaining one:

my Boxed-In quilt all basted up and ready to quilt

Since I am hoping to spend some quality time in the quilt cave today, I went ahead and wrote up a to-do list to help keep me focused.

the to-do list

And look at that-- one thing checked off the list already. Woo!

Next up: quilting!