Quilt Envy

Quilts, crafts, quilts.

Sigh.

I wish I had more free time.

My desire is there. Big time.

My free time - not so much. Especially since I am about 4 or 5 blocks behind on my quilting bee. I hope to start catching up on those one night this week, and one or two nights next week.

Free time with work, daughter who just started school, 2 year old boy, spending my time being a GOOD mom = little to no crafting time.

The desire was not there during the summer. But, the crisp air, the shorter daylight times, the thought that Christmas is only a few short months away all bring back my desire.

Remember that list at the beginning of the year? My goals. I have NOT COMPLETED ONE ITEM. I have patterns, I have fabric, I have desire. Time, maybe if I had not just wasted so much time on the internet figuring out how to support my daughter in learning sight words while she rests in her bed...again...too busy trying to be a good mom here.

Sewing machine? What's that?

I am feeling the urge to sew. I sewed last night. I hemmed pants. Boring, but functional and needed. I did the blind hem on two pants – by the time I got to the 4^th leg I was confident. I stitched it up, and the stitches were perfect! They were small, barely noticeable, etc. Then, I put on the pants. Oops, that last leg, the one I was SO CONFIDENT about…I sewed the hem backwards. Sigh. I put them aside and told myself I’ll come back to them later. It only took me 6 months to get to them in the first place!

Items I am making (or still want to)

I was finally able to start on Nathan’s curtains, and that feels good.  I am halfway through one roman shade.  I got to the point that I was comfortable getting to – cutting and sewing together the lining and the outside fabric.  Now, I really need to focus on adding the roman shade tape for the towels.  I am using some sort of tubing in a kit I got from Jo-Ann.  I have to make two since he has two windows, so I figured I make one from scratch, learn my mistakes, and make another from scratch all over again.  I am hoping that doing it that way, rather than assembly line style, will prevent mistakes. 

I’ve also got a birthday gift in the wraps for Corinne.  I have GOT to get started on that!  The party is in a few weeks, and it will be here before I know it.  I want to make her a mat cover to nap on at school.  I think I can get it done before the party, but at the expense of the Roman Shades, which is OK.  He still doesn’t mind the ladybugs that are there currently.

Summer Bounty From My Garden

Why can’t I get color like this every month of the year?

Thanks to my little helpers, who helped “cut” to flowers.

Catch up on Blocks

I got behind on my blocks.  I spent two weeks catching up in my limited free time.  I am so thankful I got caught up since I’ve got vacation, birthdays, weddings, first days of school, etc., coming up at the end of summer and fall.

A spider block.  I did one in the spring for the bee, and once I did one, this one was easy.

The Easy Virginia Star.  She wanted it to look nostalgic.  I did paper piecing for this thinking it would be easy.  I have paper pieced before and found it very quick.  However, this pattern I found challenging and time consuming, and I had to modify it when I made a mistake.  Can you tell?  

And, something to represent a circle for Stephanie.  I appliquéd it on.   I am still not very confident or patient with curved seams.   I love her fabric choices.

Good news is it’s my turn for PTQB!  I am so excited to see what sort of blocks come back.   It was a lot of work getting all the 19 fabric envelopes ready to go out, but it will be fun to see the returns.   I am thankful to all those other ladies out there who will be making blocks for me.

Summer

Dear Blog,

Summer is here. Can you tell? I've been quiet here. Too busy playing outside with the kids to do any crafting on my own. My list still exists. I still want to sew a dress for Corinne, curtains for Nathan, finish making his room a boy room, curtains for my dining room, finish painting that bench and that rocking chair. Pretty much everything I had on my new year's resolution. Ha! The fun days of summer have gotten in my way.

I am only able to keep up with my quilting blocks for the quilting bee. Two of 3 that are on my to do list are done. The last should be finished this weekend and all 3 in the mail next week. Hopefully I remember to take a picture to post here and on flickr.

Colleen’s block

I finished Colleen’s block over the weekend.  I really love the way it turned out.

She gave us a lot of discretion on how to put it together.  I had a creative block for a few days, but then remembered this quilt from Ashley, at Film in the Fridge.  When I remembered that, I thought it would go well with all the very cool colors and shapes in the fabrics Colleen chose.

The square was slightly short of the requested 12.5”, so I hope that Colleen has some solid to wrap around the edge.  I think wrapping it in the dark blue of the center will really make it stand out.

I’d like to try this method again, in a small quilt.

On to other things…remember my list of things to do?  Well, I finished both the blocks (One really turned out horrible…so bad that I will not post about it), and the dress to be done by 6/15…not even started!  I went to my local library on Friday, picked up some books with the kids, and one for myself. 

Talk about a phenomenal book.  I have not been able to put this down.  If it wasn’t for taking care of the kids/house/laundry/work, I would have completed this book in 2 days. 

I have not really sat and read a book for quite a while.  I kept trying, but could not seem to get into the books I picked up.  It’s so nice to curl up and enjoy a good book again. 

Back to my page…