In between long visits at my mom’s to take care of her and my dad, I’ve been spending a lot of time in the sewing room. Not all of it quilting related, but getting some unfinished projects done or just a little bit farther down the road.
Some of this came about because I starred counting up the number of unfinished projects I had going right now. Started but unfinished. Because the sheer number of the ones I’ve bought stuff for or planned or dreamed about, just too depressing to actually count. But I ended up counting something like 26 projects, which I know is just nothing to some people, but just screams, “Susan can’t ship!!!!” to me and I hate that. Inspired by this post over at Unclutterer, I decided to finish everything on the list before starting anything new. (Yes, I’ve already broken that rule. Bad Susan.)
One other note, i’ve discovered just how much of a queen of good intentions I am. It seemed every drawer and shelf and box revealed something else I planned to do for my mom and just hadn’t gotten to. A chirstmas wall hanging. A tote bag to go to conferences. A blouse. A cross-stitch. Just always thought I had time. Some day. Sigh. (This is why I allowed the rule break. Specific project for my sister. No more some day.)
Strip/Scrap cutting
I do a lot of scrap quilting and I have so much fabric that was just bought in a rather random fashion that trying to turn it into a quilt with any kind of cohesiveness, well, it’s a challenge. I love scrap quilts. Which works out well. But I also need scraps turned into something I can use because if it’s just sitting on the shelf, it’s too much work to turn it into a quilt. Seriously. I’m a little warped. But once it’s chopped up and in a bin, it’s easier to just do something with. And to see it as a scrap rather than a big player in a design. You can see my piles of different sized strips growing. (Oh, I follow Bonnie’s system for size cutting.)
Skirt
Got it in my head I wanted one of those gathered, tiered skirts that are really long and keep showing up in tutorials using jelly rolls. Only, I have large pieces of rayon I bought for something apparel-related a billion years ago. Who remembers. So some of it is being turned into a tiered skirt to see if I like the way it looks on me. And, well, all that gathering with rayon. So not fun. Seriously. You can see I just had the first tier done to the top on this one with three more to go. I have just one more now and just the gathering and pinning will take me a week. Might be ready by next summer.
Two Sisters
One scrap quilt I’m madly working toward completion is this one based on the Sisters Choice pattern by Bonnie. I started it ages ago, but now when I work on it, I think about my sister. We’ve been talking way more than ever thanks to the deal with my mom and I’ve really enjoyed getting to know her better. This quilt wasn’t planned for her, didn’t really have any plans for it, but I will probably keep it as “my” quilt now because it has begun to mean something special to me. I’m chain piecing everything and using it as a leader/ender deal when I’m working on other pieces. Have 50+ of the 72 blocks done, finally have all the centers pieced and all the necessarily pieces cut. Just gotta keep chugging on the blocks.
Baby quilts
Last big thing I’ve been working were three baby quilts for Quilt for Kids. Finally wrapped this project up and really enjoyed it. Next one is to find an appropriately sized box to actually get them shipped. (Never ending!)