Saturday, July 06, 2013

A Month?!?!? Really?!?!?

Yep, it's been like a month since I've posted.  Sorry about that.  June was supposed to be calmer, but it was not in any way.  July definitely promises to be quieter and so will the first part of August.  However, I just need to acknowledge that this is the way of life!  It's a good problem, really it is.

As I have written before, I am trying to do some deep cleaning and organizing.  So I decided that I needed to finish a chunk before I could sew.  So of course, since I didn't clean, I didn't sew and that was a bad downward spiral.  What I learned from this is sewing must always happen.

And so I took off this past week and enjoyed a staycation.  A lot of sleeping, a lot of resting, a lot of sewing.  Some gardening, some camp pickup, etc.  It was good for me to be home and good for all of us to be home for the back half of the week.

So what have I been doing?  I have been making those super-stars.  I am making 32 blocks.  Since the block construction makes two quadrants at a time, I made two sets.  One set I am sewing into stars as I go and the other set will be played with to make more stars.  Each quilt will have 16 stars and be about 64 inches square.  I don't have backs or bindings.  The background is unbleached muslin and the stars themselves are 3 different 10 inch block sets that came from Keepsake Quilting.  I subscribe to their Bits 'n Pieces club, which means once a month or so, I get a pack of something!  I love this.  Neither of these quilts have backs or bindings.

In June, I picked up the last of the current round of the Thangles buck a block.  I got 2 sets this time and made 3 blocks.  I had 15 pink blocks, so I made one more using scraps and got that top all done.  I have a back and a binding made for this one.  Then I had 21 blue/green ones left and so I made a larger top with 20 blocks and got that all done.  I do not have a back nor a binding for that, so I hope to get that next.

I am also working on a Blue Ridge Beauty for a friend who has had too many people in her life die so far this year.  Too many.  I have over half the blocks done.  Man, that is a tedious quilt to piece.

(I've also started sorting my scraps into color, which works for me.  I started this while watching that cinematic masterpiece Magic Mike.  Don't ask - an old employer was mentioned in it and so all of us are watching it for that one line.)

I also want to fix one boo-boo on the front of my Orca Bay and make sense of a log cabin round robin top.  I have backs and bindings for these.

I had my machine serviced and bought spray baste.

And so where does all of this go?  I realized that I seem to work best when I get 4-6 projects to the point of quilting and then I take the time to quilt them up by taking over my kitchen table.  As long as some of those projects are new, I do well.  UFO's are by far the largest part of my storage problem and this lets me chip away at them.

In May I completed a lot of UFOs.  I hope that here in July I can continue to get projects bundled (to the quilting stage).  I will start quilting if I make it in the top 25 of the UFO list but as long as I am not there, I will keep working towards bundling.  I also need to space out purchases; it would be wise to do.  We need to buy a car in the next few months.

And as for today?  The new Bits 'n Pieces pack arrived!  Red, white and blue triangles!  Off I go!