Progress for May

Wonky Star Compilation Quilt -- CQG

Recent Progress: quilting is in progress
Yet to do: finish quilting, bind

Our Bedroom Quilts (take 2)

Recent Progress: Top 1 is finished, Top 2 is in progress
Yet to do: Make backs, baste, quilt, bind,

Scrappy X Plus Blocks / Quilt

Recent Progress: top finished
Yet to Do: iron, baste, quilt, bind, wash

Half-Square Triangle Quilts (Saturated/Black and Muted/Brown)

Recent Progress:
Yet to do: Cut solids (half done), piece tops, make backs, baste, quilt, bind, wash

Autumn Woods Patchwork Quilt -- FINISHED 

Recent Progress: bound 
Yet to Do: wash

Embraceable Quilt

Recent Progress: quilted
Yet to Do: bind, wash, give away

Flannel/Minky Quilt (for Baby) -- FINISHED

Recent Progress: quilt and wash

Black and White and Panda All Over Quilt (for Baby)

Recent Progress:
Yet to Do: everything

Hazel Hedgehog Mini Quilt 

Recent Progress: Chose fabrics, began piecing top.
Yet to Do: everything else.

Waiting to Start:

• Hooded towels x 3
• Bibs x 10

Somehow, I feel like I have more on my plate than this shows... Huh. I wonder what I'm forgetting to add... 

Trying to Organize

We've been rearranging the house again. It's not a process I enjoy, although usually the outcome is worth the effort. This time, I'm less certain -- I'm losing my sewing room and moving into a bit of the living room -- but I suppose it'll be worth it in the end to have an actual space for the baby instead of just a bit of floor space in our room... I just need a few days to adjust, and mourn the loss of my own personal space. I love my husband very much, but we have some very different interests and being within three feet of his 'Walking Dead' marathon is pushing my patience -- even with his headphones on. I'm going to try though.

Rearranging the house usually calls for some reorganizing. I've refolded my stash of fabrics and changed things up a little -- though they are nowhere near as neat as the perfectly organized shelves I drool over on pinterest! It's not much of a change, but I think it looks slightly better, and hopefully it's a little easier to access.

The real change has been in my scrap storage areas. Yes plural. Because I am a scrap-a-holic and I keep every tiny little piece I can possibly imagine using. It's a problem, but one I'm not really taking an issue with yet.

I picked up some photo keeper cases from Target, a larger plastic bin with six photo sized plastic bins inside. Yes, I know, real quilters avoid plastic, but in this house I've got to do what I can to combat the dust and cat hair, so plastic it is. Three of the little bins have tint to them (blue, green, and orange) while three are perfectly clear. This seemed as good a sign as any on how to organize my scraps by color instead of size like I have been doing.

The little clasps on the small bins aren't perfect -- one out of the 12 is a little faulty -- but otherwise this seems like a perfect way to keep them sorted.

I wound up with two bins each for blues and greens, one very full of brown, one that is split between red/pink/purple, then one each for orange, yellow, white, black, grey, and anything so colorful it didn't fit anywhere else. This cleared up my previous storage system to become a home for orphaned blocks, flannel scraps, and itty bitty pieces that should probably be chucked (smaller than 1 inch in all directions). One large bin for big scraps, fat quarters, and leftover bits of binding, with a second large bin for abandoned projects I haven't figured out what to do with. Then one basket for selvages and a plastic-ware bin with a lid (liberated from the kitchen) for traveling -- bringing scraps to or from quilt group. It seems like a lot, but I could use one more of the large bins for scraps of minky/cuddle fabric. Either that or I need a bit of an intervention!

It's still a long ways from perfectly organized, but it is a step in the right direction. Organizing by color was inspiring and has my fingers itching for a new project -- even though I know I have things to do instead -- but most importantly, going through all but the littlest of my scraps forced me to think about whether something was likely to get used, a weird fabric, ugly, or any of a number of other flaws. I was surprised at how much fabric I parted with, but I am feeling the pressure to start using some of them -- especially blues, greens, and browns.

One of my initial quilting goals was to make a ticker tape quilt from my scraps -- probably in the raw edge quilt-as-you-go style -- and it seems like I may be approaching a time to start getting more serious about that. I'm both excited and nervous about the prospect.

But other projects first. Other projects first.

Probably.

Ranting, Fabric, and More To Do

The rain might be turning everything else into lakes and mud, but there are still a few bright spots popping up this spring.

I am supposed to be interviewing pediatricians this month, so we can choose one we like. Except my insurance won't let me make an appointment with one until I have a child on the insurance plan, which can't happen until after said child is born. I've been told most pediatricians want to see the kid within a week of birth -- and sometimes even before they leave the hospital -- so it seems like being on the doctor's radar before birth is complete might be important. I don't understand why this is so complicated, and I can't find anyone else complaining about it so I feel like I must be missing some important step that makes this all work.

My energy level is way up compared to earlier in the pregnancy -- I've hit 15,000 steps in a day more than once this week! -- but I am actually accomplishing less. I'm struggling to make myself buckle down and accomplish what I can do, and having no trouble at all walking around the house stressing over all the things that I can't -- or that I know won't get done in time anyway. 

I know I have a million projects I need to finish -- some of them in the next week -- but I really want to start something that's absolutely selfish sewing. I have the project picked out, and the fabric picked out, but I don't feel like I can give myself permission to start on it when I have so much other needing done. I also wonder if letting myself do a block or two of utterly selfish sewing would cheer me up a little and give me a boost of energy to get back to what I need to be doing. 

But ooh, look at the pretties!

Could it please stop raining? I don't know that there's ever been a time my area needed the rain less and the sun more! Also, I'm supposed to have a baby shower in the yard next weekend. At this point, the grass is so over saturated that even the lightest of guests would sink in if they sat on a lawn chair. We're going to need at least 3 days of sun before we risk it, and I don't think we're going to get that. I've got to hunt for a back-up venue this weekend on Saturday, thank-you-work.

That said, I am still glad to be working (even if I could in theory use the time at home to finish up some projects). I had thought next week would bring my first day off, but I learned today that there's enough in the project that I can do that I can go ahead for at least a partial day. I don't know how much longer I'll be able to keep it up, but I'm hopeful for 3-4 more weeks before I'm no longer useful enough to justify turning up on a daily basis.

And, on the very exciting side, massive progress has been made this week on the house and things are beginning to seem as if we might manage most of the important tasks in the remaining 2-ish months we have left before life gets a little too hectic for much else!

• Living room: 
• Now: 1 small bookcase to find a home for
• Long Term: new window treatments 
• Kitchen: 
• Now: 1 old cat ladder/condo/tree to remove 
• Long Term: new window treatments, 2-4 chairs needed
• Our Bedroom: 
• Now: 2 laundry hampers + additional items to take out for donation; soap the changing table drawers
• Soon: Swap out my nightstand for the co-sleeper; change art over changing table
• Long Term: Finish our quilts; new mattress; new pillows
• Our Bathroom: 
• Now: clean counter top; old nightstand needs put our for donate
• Guest Bathroom: 
• Now: how to get rid of broken printer? (yes, it is living in the shower, along with a few more things I'm not sure what else to do with)
• Soon: Replace broken towel bar with something safer
• Sewing Room Nursery/Playroom: 
• Now: Find homes for the remaining 'stuff' in the room; serious sweep and mop; 
• Soon: Bring in mattress; begin updating art/wall hangings; rug and other final decor items
• Long Term: do something about the door not staying open when desired

I know that still looks like a lot written out like that, but if you'd seen the list I had on Wednesday night you might be as excited as I am at the progress. The entire sewing room is now located in the living room, and it's not quite as cramped as I'd feared. The new cat condo/tree/whatever is in and he's already begun using it. And honestly, walking into the future nursery and seeing mostly space instead of homeless furniture I couldn't make work in there is the most amazing feeling I've got access to right now! 

Quilt #28: Flannel + Minky Quick Quilt

I haven't got a cute name for this quilt, or a story to go with it, but this is one of the little quilts I whipped up for future nursery needs.

The flannel print is interrupted by some patchwork-ish blocks -- all the scraps from my failed initial attempt at this quilt. See -- saving all those scraps can be a good thing!

Although it is backed in minky fabrics, I did use batting to make it extra thick. This makes it a little harder to snuggle with, but it should work better for a floor mat or play space -- which is one of my worries right now.

This is my first time really quilting on a minky back;  in the past most of my minky backed projects have been finished around the edges or given very minimal quilting. I had worked it up in my head that quilting against a minky background would be a real challenge, but this project wasn't bad at all. The relatively small size might have been a factor in that. This was also my first time putting binding on a minky backed quilt, which also turned out not to be as challenging as I thought. Whew!

So in the end, for way less stress than I thought I was taking on, I wound up with a thick and semi-snuggly blanket that I think will work well for a play mat area and eventually as a blanket / napping option.

From the Long in Progress Stack

My scrappy, wonky X+ blocks have taken a bit of a back seat since I last trimmed them in March. I knew I had to trim them again -- having one block that was slightly too small and wonky to match my initial sizing. Even thought we had company last night, with my sewing room in the living room, I felt free to work anyway -- and trimming blocks seemed innocent enough to start with.

Except that trimming led to layout decisions, which led to sewing, and before I knew it, I had a completed top!

It still needs a good going over with an iron again to help smooth out the final seams and square it up a bit, but a top is completed at last!

I'm sure I could have spent a little more time agonizing over the layout and trying to ensure the colors were more perfectly distributed. But, sometimes you just have to piece while the flesh and spirit are both willing, so I'm not going to sit here and nit pick over the few things I could have done differently.

The better news, for my life, is that I'm coming around to this one being gender neutral. Yes, it does have a lot of pinks and purples, but no more of either than it does browns or blues or greens. With a little more time to think since my last time looking at the blocks, I think it's more colorful than anything else, regardless of the specific colors or patterns.

I guess the truth is that I really like it, and I want to keep it... so I think I will add it to the stack. Let's face it, at the rate I'm sewing, this baby is going to have more quilts than anyone could possibly use -- and not much else!

What next? I'm toying with adding a border, but I think I'll probably go straight for basting, quilting, and finishing it up. I'm thinking maybe stripes for the binding... though that will mean a visit to the store... Decisions, decisions!

Embraceable Persimmons -- Quilted??

I've been pushing myself to get this one out of the 'to quilt' pile -- since I only have enough basting pins for one project at a time and I really need to get working on other things asap. So, I'll be the first to say that I'm not quite certain the quilting on this one is officially done. It's certainly at that point -- that happens with nearly all of my projects -- where I debate whether things are good enough, or in need of one more thing.

Fortunately, it's quilted enough that I can move on to other projects while I ponder the done or not quality of the quilting.

The winter white thread vanishes into the fabric, and even in a close-up picture it's really challenging to see what I have done so far. Each of the three sections are quilted differently, but on the largest portion I used straight stitching, zig zag stitching, and my favorite hill/wave (automatic stitch on my machine) stitching along every seam. I thought it would be a little wild, but it disappears so easily I doubt most people will notice at all.

It's slightly easier to see the textures of the stitching from the back -- and this is another shot that lets me show off the top vs the back. I'm just thrilled at how that came together completely by accident.

So, I'm debating adding more vertical lines in the larger space of the quilt. The two smaller areas have vertical lines, or vertical and horizontal, but the largest part of the quilt is only horizontal. And yet, if I add anything vertical, it'll be completely free hand, risk detracting from what I've already done, and doesn't that approach some kind of plaid pattern? Not quite the look I'm going for here...

Obviously I've got a lot more thinking to do here, but I'm leaning towards calling this one good.

Quilt #27: Autumn Woods Patchwork + Panel Quilt

I realized last week that I put this quilt away without taking post-wash photos or noting that I'd actually finished it. So, I pulled it out of storage and ran outside the next day for a quick, somewhat wrinkled, photo shoot! 

I have bought and used two different patterns of Kate and Birdie Paper Co fabrics -- one for the Christmas Star Quilt and one for this Autumn Woods quilt. I complained about the fabric a little bit while working on the star quilt, as it seemed to ravel a bit more than the other fabrics I was mixing it with. This time around I had no such troubles, but I did work faster and I only used same-brand fabric on the top. Whether the issues were mine for being too slow to work or due to some less than ideal quality fabric that first time, I still adore the prints and patterns used in these lines, and I suspect there will be more Kate and Birdie Paper Co fabrics in my future.

This quilt really came to be thanks to a sale at Southern Fabric -- one of the daily deals if I remember correctly. I knew I liked the fabric, and it was such a great deal I couldn't resist. I was restricted to only one charm pack, so when I saw there were coordinating panels, I jumped at the chance to add one to the order. The whole stack sat in my 'waiting for inspiration' pile until I came up with the perfect reason to start on it -- knowing I was pregnant but not yet knowing the gender. Everything about this looked like a baby-quilt-to-be to me, without being tied in to any specific colors that might say something about anticipated gender. It was perfect, and gave me something to do instead of pacing the floor with nerves.

It came together incredibly quickly, and I managed to have binding fabric in stash -- so all in all, the project really flew together. Although it isn't as colorful as the rest of the things I'm working on for the nursery, it is one of my favorite things in the room so far.

It quilted and washed like a dream -- no issues at all. As far as I can tell, it seems well constructed and should be able to hold up to lots of trips through the wash, though I am looking forward to learning if I'm right on that! I've given away so many quilts, I hope I'm not about to learn I ought to be double stitching the binding on or something else equally embarrassing to learn this late in the process!

May Goals

May Goals

Read 5+ Books
Average 13000+ steps per day
Order 2 family photo books
May family trip

New Projects / Pinterest Challenge: 

Anything new I start this month will be focused on baby stuff, either for myself or the various Welcome Baby gifts I need to be finishing up -- thankfully I'm somewhat ahead from my extra work last year! I wont' say 'no' to new recipes or anything, and I'm sure lots of my ideas will come from Pinterest, but for now, it's time to focus on other things.

My Projects:

Finish 1 quilt top: Random Reflections 2 of 2
Welcome Baby Projects (for mine and others):

• Complete bibs -- figure out what is wrong with snap installer 
• Make 2 hooded towels
• Continue picking away on the 'sewing for baby' list

Finish up several quilts in progress (if possible)

Grown Up Junk:

Schedule next cat/vet appointment
Buy car seat
Look into new phones
Pack hospital bag?
Pediatrician meeting/s
Hospital tour?
Finish online birthing class

House Stuff: 

Continue sweeping every other day, cleaning bathrooms once a week
House prep for baby:

• Find/Build/Purchase storage for laundry room
• Purchase second deck box? 
• Put holiday stuff in there / empty guest room shower
• move household chemicals into one cabinet -- put a lock/latch on it
• Rearrange baby room / get toddler mattress

April Wrap Up

April Goals

Read 5+ Books

• "Dreamer's Pool" Juliet Marillier
• "The Secrets of Sir Richard Kenworthy" Julia Quinn
• "Changeless" Gail Carriger
• "Blameless" Gail Carriger
• "Of Metal and Wishes" Sarah Fine

Average 13000+ steps per day -- Little lower than that, but I have been managing to creep my daily total up from 10000 most days. I suspect hitting 13000 daily is probably not realistic right now, but I'm trying not to be satisfied with 10000 while balancing the other needs of my body. 
April family event
Order 2 family photo books
Prep for May family trip

New Projects / Pinterest Challenge: 

Anything new I start this month will be focused on baby stuff, either for myself or the various Welcome Baby gifts I need to be finishing up -- thankfully I'm somewhat ahead from my extra work last year! I wont' say 'no' to new recipes or anything, and I'm sure lots of my ideas will come from Pinterest, but for now, it's time to focus on other things.

My Projects:

Finish 1 quilt top: Random Reflections 2 of 2
Baste quilt group wonky star top
Wash my wonky star quilt
Welcome Baby Projects (for mine and others):

• Complete bibs -- figure out what is wrong with snap installer 
• Make 2-4 hooded towels
• There's a whole list of this going on elsewhere, more on this later

Finish up several quilts in progress (if possible)

Grown Up Junk:

Schedule next cat/vet appointment

House Stuff: 

Continue sweeping every other day, cleaning bathrooms once a week
House prep for baby:

• remove broken orange chairs (1 or 2)
• Find/purchase dresser for changing area and baby clothes storage
• Find/Build/Purchase storage for laundry room
• Empty deck box if possible
• Put holiday stuff in there / empty guest room shower
• move household chemicals into one cabinet -- put a lock/latch on it

I both feel like I accomplished a great deal this month, and didn't accomplish nearly enough. The house is a lot more baby ready -- though an outsider would probably still see all the hazards and dangers we haven't yet dealt with and we have yet to make any progress on the baby's room other than getting some of the sewing room cleared out of there. That's one of the May goals, since the grandparents-to-be will all be here at the end of May and it would be nice if they could see something other than stacks of quilts and books. Honestly, the end of the month absolutely surprised me -- I could have sworn we had another week to go. But no, it's over and time to move on to the next month. I'm not sure where the time went, but I'm determined to make better use of May than I did April -- as long as my energy levels stay this much higher than they were at the beginning of April!