Am I Bananas Yet?

Remember how I said June was going to be about finishing projects ‘due’ in July?

I haven't made any progress on those projects. 

But I have started another quilt top. 

I know - I always start a new project instead of finishing an older one. But this time it isn't entirely my fault. Okay, okay, it is. But I feel like I'm doing it for the right reasons instead of just to avoid doing what I ought to be doing. 

I had debated about making a quilt for this particular baby for weeks before deciding that the parents-to-be and I were no longer close enough for a quilt appearing in their mailbox to be quite right.* So, I turned that energy to other projects. But yesterday I received an invitation to a baby shower... and... well... 

I don't know if I should say I got excited or if I should say I got a little ambitious. But, thanks to Momo spending most of the hours between 3 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. standing between my shoulder blades and meowing at the back of my head, I'd spent most of the hours between 10:30 and 4:00 napping I had even more night time energy than usual. 

By 1:30 a.m., I had this:

I thought I'd wait til morning to take photos of it, but by 9 a.m. the sun was already intense - so you're stuck with mostly splotchy, under-tree photos. I should have taken the photos before I went to bed at 4, I think the lighting would have been kinder then!

It's a little wonky, that was the plan. In fact, I wish I'd gone even more intentionally wonky and made the colorful borders more wonky instead of concentrating most of the wonk factor on the banana fabric and the larger monkey squares. 

Maybe it was sleep deprivation, or the results of the caffeine I had at 4 to beat down the remains of my headache, or maybe it was rebellion against the unintentional wonks in my Procrastination Quilt, but I didn't iron. I didn't pin either. 

Is it perfect? Ha - do you even need to ask!? 

But for only a few hours and way less frustration, I'm pretty happy with it. 

* I worry with every hand made gift that this thing I enjoyed working on will be viewed as an imposition. Part of that worry come from knowing some people would rather have the opportunity to return gifts that don't suit them - something that isn't an option with a home made gift. Part of it comes from being insecure in my skills and the quality of the item I'm about to give. Giving hand made items to close friends and my siblings and in-laws is nerve wracking enough. The idea of sending a surprise hand made gift to someone who isn't quite so close is practically a recipe for a nervous breakdown. 

Basically, I'm incredibly sensitive and shy, and giving away something I've made - especially to people who have no idea it might be coming - is more difficult than stepping on stage to preform. 

But it'll get easier with practice. 

Right? 

Procrastination Quilt

In an attempt to avoid doing anything productive, I started another quilt a few weeks ago.

I wound up with an odd number of squares. After playing with some fabric scraps and various layouts, I decided the best solution to completing my top as I envisioned it was to add two additional squares of fabric in more or less the same color story.

Unfortunately, the time between picking my layout and finishing my top proved I could use a great deal more practice. I should have been a bit more particular about the placement of the yellow blocks - which seem to stand out more than any of the others from a distance. I did manage to keep each block in order, and each row in order, but some of the rows were attached upside-down. I didn't notice until I was taking these photos - which both proves I need more experience and that probably no one else will notice either. I'd planned for the two additional blocks to be as diagonal across the top from each other. Disappointingly, they wound up in the same column (row as the quilt top is held in these pictures).

As annoying as that is, it wasn't my biggest issue.

I ironed and re-squared each block as I worked. I locked my seam allowance. I pinned each piece until it couldn't possibly travel. All that work - and it still wound up a little wonky. Again, it's possible no one else will notice - or at least not from these sunset pictures - but it was incredibly frustrating to spend so much additional time aiming for square and missing in the end.

As I'm looking at these photos, I have to add that should have used cream instead of white - or dyed the white down since I was trying to use fabric from my stash. I don't think I'll be picking it all apart to fix any of these issues, even if I really ought to. Well, there's still time to play with it, washing, gentle dyes, or maybe quilting with colored thread.

All that said, I still like it.

June Goals

I can't believe it's June already! 

·         Read 5+ books    

·         Pinterest Challenge

·         Anniversary Date

·         List White car for sale

·         Shelf over loveseat

·         Cut Pansy Patch pieces

·         Take donations to Goodwill

·         Finish April Showers/May Flowers II

·         Back and baste Procrastinate Quilt

·         Birthday Package

·         Welcome Baby C Package

o   Snaps for bibs

o   Wash quilt, blanket, hooded towels, bibs, etc.

o   Add something else for the parents

o   Finishing touches/wrapping

Most of this is spill over from last month (or the month before), but this month is all about the birthday package and finishing the Welcome Baby C Package. If all goes as planned - which would be unusual - those will be delivered sometime in early July. It looks like I'll be spending most of my evenings working on fiddly little pieces and listening to some audio books. Which isn't a bad way to spend the evenings, but doesn't make for very interesting blogging!  

May Wrap Up

• Read 5+ books
• The Kingdom of Childhood - Rebecca Coleman
• The More I See You - Lynn Kurland

I can't believe I only finished two books this month! I started more, but never finished any of them. (Yes, I read more than one book at a time.)

• Pinterest Challenge Chicken Caesar Sandwiches, PotPie Cupcakes 
• Anniversary Card (3)
• Sympathy Card (1)
• Graduation Cards (2)
• Put in 3+ hours on our 2006-2010 photo book
• Clutter Control: office - Partial credit? I reorganized my sewing stuff, and put away the laundry that's been taking over the reading nook - but it's certainly not what I'd call finished! 
• Fix white car and list it for sale - It's been de-wasped. Again. But it's still awaiting work. 
• Costume delivery - Looks like the costumes are going to head to Goodwill. My theater connection is moving away, which makes delivering more costumes to her a questionable activity. 
• Progress on Welcome Baby C package 
• snaps for the bibs
• shop for books from list
• Shelf over loveseat 
• Make an item of clothing (probably finish the skirt I started)
• Cut Pansy Patch pieces
• Post-graduation trip? Hospital stays (for others) and work (for me) kept me from getting to one graduate, the other went on two road trips then came to us - so that puts traveling off for a while. 
• Take donations to Goodwill
• Do something social with friends 5/11, 5/16, 5/22, 5/25,  
• Finish April Showers/May Flowers Disappearing 9 Patch Awaiting wash day and photos
• Fix or replace computer mouse I replaced it. And the new mouse had similar problems 48 hours later. But setting it up for a left hand use has fixed the problem (for now?) - so while I'm giving my brain a work out to remember left is right and right is left, at least it's no longer double clicking 75% of the time. 

Project Report:
     Wonky Stacked Coin - still awaiting a wash/dry
     Pansy Patch - no progress
     Welcome Baby C - progress made, but a lot more to do in order to get it done by July!
     April Showers/May Flowers - quilted, awaiting a wash/dry
     April Shower/May Flowers 2 - ready to quilt (Yes, I have two slightly different versions. One's for me, one's to give away. I just have to decide which is which.)
     Half Square "Procrastination" Quilt - top completed
     Teddy Bear Blanket - finished
     

Pinterest Challenge: Mini Chicken Pot Pies

Since I can't stand most of the foods my husband likes (casserole, anything with gravy, steak and potato kind of dishes) I make an effort to regularly make one of his few favorites that I don't mind: pot pie.

For the last two years, I've been making a large batch pot pie that's a little more like chicken soup and biscuits than a pie.

A 9 x 13 full of it. It doesn't take long to make once the chicken is baked, but it's not something I have the time or energy to make on a normal week night.

So when I spotted a Pin for Mini Chicken Pot Pies, I knew it was something we'd have to test drive.

After a false start or two - involving biscuit dough on the ceiling, and floor, and both of us - and a trip to town to pick up some new biscuit rolls, we finally got down to the serious business of making and eating these.

Much handier size, wouldn't you say? And much faster.

I hadn't thought to use Herbs De Provence in pot pie before - but I will be doing it again no matter which version I'm making. It was a delicious improvement over the garlic/Ranch powder I've been using.

I didn't think I was overfilling my biscuits, but several of them overflowed onto the muffin pan, which eventually led to the smoke detector going off as extra precious filling wound up on the bottom of the oven.

Smoke detector and messiness aside, these were delicious and easy - and something that I could fit into a weekday schedule. It's also straight forward enough to follow that I'll be adding it to the recipe notebook for my husband.*




*He's the better cook, and more interested in cooking most of the time - but cooking for a picky eater (me) is difficult. As a compromise, I write down recipes that are easy and something I'll eat so that if he's the one with energy to cook, he can pick anything from the notebook and make it. And if he cooks from the notebook, I'm not allowed to complain (even if I'd rather have something else).

Bagging

With several birthdays and the end date for adding to Welcome Baby C Package coming up in the next two months, I've spent my nights stitching up bags as quickly as I can. 

This huge, lined elephant print bag is headed to Baby C. I made it intentionally large with the hope that it'll temporarily hold the two hooded towels. After that? Well, it's a little large for carrying around - except as a pool/beach type bag - so I don't know that it will get a lot of use. If I were planning to keep it, I'd probably use it as a laundry bag for socks and such - or cut it down a bit to use as a farmer's market bag.

Most of the small bags started as a reason to use some pre-cut fabrics I had in my stash - remains of fat quarter bundles and some abandoned projects I picked up on craigslist and garage sales. The two larger bags, in animal print and giraffe print, are also headed to Baby C. The exteriors coordinate with the Wonky Stacked Coin quilt (which I'll be revealing in full soon). I'm crossing my fingers the bags and quilt will at least semi-coordinate with Baby C's nursery - green and brown from what I've been told.

A few of the larger pre-cuts from my stash were turned into something a little more than drawstring bags with the addition of some handles.

The blue/brown bag started as a squat drawstring bag, with the addition of a single long handle. It's a little too wide for me to comfortably carry. With no interior pockets, it's more likely to become a library bag, shopping bag, or a snack bag for road trips than a purse. I had intended it to function as a gift bag as well - and it might yet - but first I'm giving it some gentle use to see what it's capable of and if it'll work as I want it to for giving away.

Immediately after finishing my fight with the brown/blue bag, I started on this pink/green. Did I need another bag? No. But I had the precut fabric to use, and I was determined to correct some of the issues I'd had in the blue/brown one. 

With two handles instead of one, and some interior pockets, this one happily functions a great deal more like my favorite purses. Again, this one is receiving some gentle use while I make up my mind if it's worthy of being given to someone or if it's only another draft to be kept while I keep fighting bobbin tension and pattern making to come up with something more worthy.

Weeds and Tension

I think my May Flowers are turning into weeds...

And not just because I've spent more time pulling wobbly stitches out of April Shower/May Flowers than actually quilting it either.

Though that's true.

I'm fighting with the tension on my new sewing machine. I suspect the bobbin isn't winding properly, though it doesn't look off until I look at the back side of my stitches. But I'm growing more and more familiar with my thread picker/cutter tools.

Other Weeds:
I'm tired of the hospital. It's a nice enough place, and the people are nice too, but I'd rather not spend any more time there for a while. Which is a round-about way of saying I'm really wishing someone in my family was not having more health scares.

We had another chance to get together with Baby C's parents last night. We wound up sitting outside a Starbucks until nearly midnight, just chatting away. Among much talk of Avengers and other comic books/movies, we did talk a little bit about things for Baby C. At one point, Mom-to-Be said something about a cute, lime green dress with a ruffle on the front that she picked up at Carter's. Any chance it's this dress?

How many lime green, ruffle front dresses from Carter's can there be? I'll check with her to see how coordinated we were. I'm crossing my fingers it'll at least be a different size so they can still use it. Or maybe crossing my fingers it isn't so I can add it to my (very small) pile of just-in-case things.

At least I can feel a bit more confident about knowing her taste!