a Completely Honest Sewing Room post

So, this last weekend I was all excited about the fabric I had received from Connecting Threads that I just had to sit down and make some Disappearing Hourglass blocks.  About one and a half blocks into it, John walks in the room and says, "What are you doing?"  Uhhhhhhhh.... (goes my brain) "Sewing?"  I answer, wondering where this is going.  He looks around my sewing space (about 10' x 8' room that is PACKED with stuff, mostly in piles) and says to me, "When was the last time you sat down and made a list of what you haven't finished?  If you want to feel better about your organization and time spent quilting, you may want to look into it" and then turns and walks out.  Subtle, but effective that man is.  You may be picking up that we had been having conversations about never feeling like things get finished.  But look at all the things I've done in the last couple weeks!

 

Aurifil BOM-click on photo to visit the website

I laid out a Valentine's herringbone table runner, which is now wrapped up in that towel and under my cutting table

Two more Snapshots QAL blocks done, only 4 to go!

The National Rifle Association is hosting a banquet with a theme of Guns and Roses and I plan to donate this to their auction.  The banquet is on the 13th of February, 11 days away.

My tumbler-leader/ender project is making great strides!  I even added more pieces to my darks and lights.  This will eventually be a REALLY busy and fun quilt.  My tumblers are 2.5"...

 

So here's the skinny:

 

I made a list of how many projects I have tops of, or piles of fabric for, or that are even partly quilted and just need to be finished, and I have filled the 20 lines on my sheet!  That's just the ones I can remember!!!  Holy Cow!  I truly thought I was doing better than that, I thought I was closer to 10.  You know what though?  This is a good thing, as I obviously have enough projects to keep me busy for a couple months then I can set up achievable milestones for myself.  I am going through my sheet and prioritizing the projects (such as Susie's birthday present which I had wanted done at least in her birthday month, urg, too late now) and am writing down target dates to finish them by in a little calendar my grandma gave me for Christmas.  My plan is to whittle my list down to 10 before starting a new project.  I believe it to be achievable because all my projects are at different stages in the quilting process and so if I get tired of one stage, I can switch to another WIP but still be working on this list.

 

Here's the rest of my open honesty today, behold my stuffed sewing space!

 

View from the seat at the sewing machine.

This is what is directly behind me, the Macy's bag is where I put my cut-offs of fabric.  This is my cutting table... it's hard to be efficient in this mess.

The hardest thing is that my little haven is so overwhelming when you walk in, that John doesn't often venture in to visit. I adore my husband, and want to be around him as much as possible, but he won't stick around when I'm sewing.  The cat's barely come in here too, how bad is that?  I think they are afraid of being buried.

 

I have come to the conclusion that John is very much in the right, and I need to restructure myself, and my room (obviously...) so that I can feel GREAT about sewing for others, and for myself.  I love this hobby, and am limited on space, so some things will need to change if I want to keep this up.  Thank you for letting me share these thoughts with you today, do you have any ideas that might help me along?  Or do I just need to buckle down and make things happen?  I appreciate any assistance I can get :)

 

~Brandy

 

By the way, here's what started all this in motion:

 

 

 

Linking up to Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts

Mid-January update

Ah-choo!  Okay, right now, be thankful you're on that side of the screen my friends, because whatever ails me does NOT need to be in your house.  Poor John, he's getting as much sleep as I am with these sneezy-coughing fits.  I thought this stuff was supposed to leave after about a week?  But really, 3 weeks is pushing it...  Well, I hope you are all healthy and making progress on your quilting projects.  I am having a case of Oh look a butterfly!

 

No forward progress happening on my table runner, I ended up starting on the birthday quilt for my niece Susie who turned 5 yesterday.  I have the top finished and am working on the jeans for the backing.  I believe I have deconstructed 8 pairs of jeans, and I probably only needed 4 or so, but why not get ahead a little, right?

Some of the "parts" of the quilt

 

Thomas playing with the little strings, I had a rough time getting him out from under the top.

 


The block is Burgoyne Surrounded, I didn't follow any directions just drew it out and figured the measurements on my graph paper.

The multicolored fabric is from the Christmas exchange we had at our guild last month, where I received that fabric, a notepad that says "Brilliant Ideas", plus a really neat cross-stitch that someone made in 2015 but they didn't sign it.  It's a picture of a lady hand-quilting in a rocking chair and will grace my sewing area, as soon as I clean up.

 

I finished my block lotto block the day after guild.  That is the fastest I have ever made a block, and I'm excited for the new way we are doing the lotto.  Mary changed it up so instead of one person winning all the blocks brought in, if we bring a block we can bring a fat quarter and then the winner gets a pile of fat quarters and the blocks will go to our children's charity group.  You can see the full design of the quilt Mary came up with on her blog post.  I think the idea is that people are more likely to make the blocks in the hopes of winning fabric, and bonus, we will have blocks to work with at our Sew-Ins!

 

 

I also made the Aurifil block for this month, which can be found here.  I did not follow Heather's directions... I have issues with fabric prints not matching up so I figured out how to make it work so I didn't have to worry about it.  Next time I'll even pay attention to how I'm sewing the blocks together!  I still really enjoy how it turned out though.  And I'm very excited that the color-way they are encouraging this year is blue and white, my favorite!

 

 

My kitty share this post is not the happiest, the week after Christmas they got to visit the doctor for their annual check up.  Our biggest learning experience is that we need to take those two for car rides more often, so I don't get this look again:

Belle has the most pitiful "mew" when she is sad, and the 10 minute drive was HORRID for John and I.  However, they are both perfectly healthy and that is what counts in the end!  Belle has gained a pound, is up to 7.5, and Thomas has gained 4 pounds, up to 14.  Dr. Fazzari says if he keeps gaining like that we'll have to figure out a different eating arrangement for them, but that since he has such a big frame his weight is healthy.  Same with Belle's little frame.  So, besides the emotional strain on their owners the vet visit went well.

 

Oh, and since I've been so into changing other people's quilt patterns to suit my own needs I thought following this pattern writing series will be right up my alley.  Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs is good at explaining steps clearly, and I've seen a number of the ladies who will be pitching in ideas along the way, and they are also great.  I am very much looking forward to what I will learn from them.

 

 

 

Now, it's time for us to take a nap, even if it is 4:30pm...

~Brandy

Two UFOs down!

Woo!  Let me tell you, it's not easy for me to not start new projects.  But I've been trying really hard to focus on these UFOs, and so far I'm doing pretty good!  I got the Attack Cat and the bright star baby blanket finished, and will be passing it on this evening to Cathy.

 

I made the above nice and big so you can see how my quilting made some great snuggly crinkles :)  I am so please with how comfortable this quilt turned out after I washed it.  I will definitely use more flannel in the future!

Neat label I made, it's a hexagon while the quilt is an octagon, let's see how long it takes baby's family to realize it!

 

Finished at 36"x40" with the 2" green border added to it.

This is pretty much the first time I've worked with a panel, as far as I know, and I decided to do basic outlining.  Not as easy or quick as one might think!

 So, I get the Attack Cat finished in ~5 hours right, and take it to guild Tuesday night to turn in.  Remember, it was a challenge put out to the members to take the panel and practice our quilting/piecing for borders/whatever then bring it back this month and we'd vote on who's was best liked.  Well, I was the only one who grabbed one, and since I actually finished it they gave me all the rest as well as the original prize of the 3 fat quarters!  I'm excited because they said I can keep one of the panels for myself, which I plan to do and create a larger lap quilt with it.  And my favorite color is blue, so it was a perfect prize for me, plus now I get to create 3 more donation quilts to practice FMQ on again.

 

I did deviate a little in starting a new project, HOWEVER, it was because John and I travelled a total of 16 hours this last weekend for a vendor event for his job, and then we were sitting at said event for 12 hours.  So I made a soccer ball:

 

And here is an idea of the Diesel Dyno Days at Adrenaline Performance this last weekend:

Our booth, my husband designs diesel exhaust systems for Diamond Eye Performance and they allow him out for a couple shows a year, our other show was at BD Diesel in Abbotsford, BC (Canada) about 3 weeks ago.

 

Cam and Terra are the owners of Adrenaline, and they are the most wonderful people.  This was our third year of attending, and I have decided they deserve a quilt.  Turns out their colors are red, black, and grey, how awesome is that!  I've seen some amazing quilts with that color scheme.  Pretty excited.

 

We stopped ~20 minutes outside of Baker City, OR at this abandoned factory to take photos of the show truck, just for the heck of it.  It was amazing, but also 95 degrees so we look forward to returning at a later date for more exploration.

 

 

UFO Challenge List:

1. Bright start baby quilt FINISHED 6-5-15

2. Ashley's quilt

3. Attack Cat FINISHED 6-9-15

4. Football Pillow

5. Fabric Basket

6. Big Fish Little Fish

 

Loving the progress, yay me!  I hope some of you are also encouraging yourselves to have that sense of completion.  I am definitely struggling with not starting something new, but find if I jump a little from one UFO to another (as long as it's on my list) I get enough variation in routine to satisfy most of the cravings.  Now if I could just stay away from cookie dough I'd be great!

 

Oh!  And I completed my Snapshots apron quilt block two days after they released the pattern, I just spaced putting it up a couple posts ago:

I have more to say on the theme of aprons, but really need to get to eating some lunch now, so I'll tell you about it later.  I'll tease you with a number though: 8. 

 

Have a wonderful day!

~Brandy

Belle says it's too hot, I'm going to take your sewing chair, hope you don't mind...



Fat Quarter Shop-2015 Snapshots Quilt-Along/Fundraiser

Meet our 2015 Quilt-Along! - Fat Quarter Shop's Jolly Jabber

I'm super excited about next year's sew along Fat Quarter Shop is doing, not only does it support one of my favorite fundraising endeavors (St. Jude's Hospital for Children) but this quilt totally speaks to me!  I can hardly wait to get this started, and it will be the first Block of the Month I'll have participated in.  Yay!

 

 

Isn't this wonderful?!  Click on the link at the top to get more information.

 

If your looking for my Black Cat Crossing post, keep scrolling down, it's just below :)

 

~Brandy