Show and Tell

I set those embroidered cat blocks into a top! Yipee! Here is how it looks. It went together really fast, but that is judging time caught between quilting that baby quilt.

The baby quilt went into the wash today, to wash away all the sticky basting spray that was making it feel so stiff. I'm not impressed with the stitch in the ditch part of that quilt, but used the disappearing ink marker for the first time to mark and follow some curved quilting elements.

So productive 10 days or so. Because somewhere in there I also got through 3 big Harry Potter books. I won't get numbers 6 and 7 done before the big Potter finale this weekend. If it was just me, I'd wait till next week to go to it in the theaters so I could read them again. But alas, I have DDs that want to get to it Friday afternoon.  We'll see.

Less means more

It has felt so good getting overdue projects done at work and in the sewing space. I used to think the more projects I juggled, the more productive I was being, but now I'm seeing that it's just the opposite. I'm slowly working to clean out my bin of quilt tops, and I have fewer UFO bins stashed all over the place. Not that I haven't added to my plate of projects this past year. There are the ICS quilt show ribbons in progress, and the occasional top and wall hanging that just had to be done. I think I got better though and the projects I added in I made a point of finishing in a reasonable time.

So I'm hoping the guild will again do a UFO project starting in September, but if we don't do it formally, I'll do it informally. My long term goal is to start 2014 (yep, 2 1/2 years from now) with a relatively clean slate of quilt projects. My 2013 goal is to be working on a quilt with an eye for juried quilt shows. For the rest of this year, keep plugging away at quilting the tops and setting UFO blocks.

Then even shorter goals are to quilt Brady's quilt (done in the next 2 weeks), layer and quilt the guild round robbin quilt (done by end of July), and get my entries ready for the guild's October show (done by mid-August).

Another UFO off the list

I got some sewing time in this long weekend and spent it completing a summer purse using some great fat quarters I received from Becky Goldsmith last summer from one of their Piece O' Cake fabric lines. All I added was some extra yellow for the handles and a pocket that isn't visible. I've done the pattern before, and this photo doesn't show the side with the outside pocket. The pattern is from Pink Sand Beach Designs and is the Brentwood Bag. I like it because of the roomy outside pockets, it is lightweight but durable, and a good size to hold my stuff.

So thanks a bunch Becky.

July already!

I feel like my summer has just begun, but June is now behind me. No photos today, but just a quick update. My DD turns 18 tomorrow. Those years have just flown by. I'm so proud of my youngest. I have been home from the Sulky experience just one week. In that time I made a nice tote bag as a gift for a coworker using a purchased canvas bag and covering it with batiks from my stash. Good experience. I'm tempted to do another just to fine tune the technique. I then spent an evening cleaning up my sewing area, again. I'm feeling so closed in in my workspace, but it isn't for lack of square footage. I think it's time I addressed the rest of the basement getting the charity items out of there, and doing the filing.

This long holiday weekend I'll get some sewing time. DD wants to start the sewing/quilting of her horse picture we got from Big Fork Bay Cotton Shop. I meet with two quilting buddies to do fabric cutting as the next step in ribbon making for the guild quilt show. I really want to get the summer purse done. I think I need to come up with piecework to serve as handle covers. I also must get Brady's quilt layered.

I find myself not going home to St. Louis to see family just because I don't have that baby quilt done. I need to get cracking.