Starting Over --- Again!

Here we go yet again. I love reading, I love writing, I love making quilts and I love writing about all of them. So why the heck don't I do more of each? Not going to take the time to have a whine fest over that one. I'll just start over yet again.

I found a link to a wonderful quilting site, Stash Manicure, which has such wonderful ideas for scrap quilts. My daughter and I looked over some of the quilts and have both decided it's way past time to get sewing. The hardest part will be deciding what to do first. Well, first right after we get the sewing room in some kind of order so we can actually sew! I actually have hope that a little later today after I've had 40 winks or so, we can get moving and not get too discouraged. Things are pretty bad in this little computer/sewing/reading/library room!

Starting Over

What's that date on my last entry? Nearly a YEAR!?!?! And you know what? I still haven't quilted Janice's quilt. I am so ashamed. Really. And depressed as all get-out.

The only thing to do, after I get over my crying spell, is to get with the program -- again. Beck and I have nearly cleaned off the cutting table. We moved the keyboard into the kitchen and now just have to find homes for the books and other things still on the table. We've decided to use that table primarily for cutting fabric. Beck can put her sewing machine up on that table once we finish cutting all the fabric for our current projects.

I need to start small since I tend to get carried away with all my Grand and Glorious Ideas. I have so many UFOs to choose from. Here are a few I can think of just off the top of my head (which is throbbing from a stress headache right now):

• Charity Quilts: I have enough Happy Blocks already sewn to make 2 or 3 charity quilts. All I have to do is select the ones I want to use, sew them together for the basic quilt, then choose some fabric for borders & binding. I may even have already cut some border fabric for at least one if I remember correctly. Plus I have plenty of fleece to use for backings, so that's not a problem.
• Janice's quilt - just needs to be quilted! I have the backing and batting - just need to lay it out, pin baste itm quilt it and put on the binding.
• Quilts for Tina, Tracie & Berry. I need to cut more strips of Jim's shirts and be sure I have enough muslin for foundation square. Then just take the time to sew the strips onto the muslin. Not that hard. What's wrong with me? Never mind; don't answer that. I'm damned near suicidal as it is.
• Sylvia's quilt in memory of Michael. I'm pretty sure I have all the fabric cut. I think I've sewn most of the star blocks. I just need to pull it all out and see where it stands. Mike died in July. I want Sylvia to have this before then!
• Baby quilt for David's newest - now that he's almost a year old! I have the fabric and the pattern - just got to cut and sew. He'll need a crib quilt now that he's grown some.
• My Spring bed quilt - the top is sewn - just need to quilt it, bind it and put it on mybed already!
• Rebecca's bed quilt -- ditto!
• Karen's bed quilt -- ditto!!
• Blocks from my BFA buddies - They just need to be put together. I'll need to cutting sashing & cornerstones for them, but that wouldn't take long if I'd just get off my ample derriere!
• Linda's blue and white quilt. I bought enough BOM fabric from a local quilt shop to make 2 quilts by the pattern they had chosen. Turns out I HATE that pattern. So I'm adjusting it and now have enough fabric to make 2 king size quilts and at least one charity baby quilt. I made a good start on putting the blocks together and may already have almost enough blocks to make the quilt top for Glenn's sister Linda. She's retiring soon, so now would be a good time to finished the darned quilt! Not to mention I wouldn't mind having one of my own.
• My kitty quilt. That one's more involved than these others, but I really want to do it.

How to prioritize? My blood pressure is climbing higher and higher just thinking about all my failures. So I just gotta grab a project and get with it. Any project will do - just DO SOMETHING!

Okay, here's the NEW GRAND & GLORIOUS PLAN!

1. Finish clearing off cutting table.
2. Cut strips from Jim's shirts
3. Choose patterns for Tina's & Berry's quilts.
4. Pick fabric and cut strips or squares depending on the pattern
5. Sew the tops for those quilts.
6. Sort Happy Blocks and decide how many quilts they will make. Start sewing them together using them as starter and ender strips while working on quilts for Jim's kids.
7. Pull out fabric for Michael's memory quilt - see what I've done and decide how to proceed.

That sounds do-able. Now if I can just make myself DO it!

Hoping against all odds

Tomorrow I'm hoping I'll FINALLY get Janice's heart quilt laid out, sprayed and pinned so I can start quilting it. I'm doing really simple quilting, a gently curvy line on either side of the hearts. I found a nice maroonish red that will look good against the creamy background and goes well with the red I used for sashing and borders. I'm hoping and praying I don't do my usual depression avoidance schtick so I can get this quilt done and on its way to Janice.

I'm also planning on setting aside two days this week to work on the other string quilt for Tracie and maybe start one for either Tina or Berry. I'm close to finishing Tracie's, if I recall correctly. I'm not just real happy with the blocks, but I've got more than half enough for a nice sized lap quilt, so I'm just going to continue with that plan. THe picture to the left shows the pattern I'm using. The background fabric is a nice medium forest green. I'm not going to do the border as they show here because I'm just too lazy to sew all those scraps together. At least that's not the plan at the moment. We'll see once I get done with the basic quilt. I might get inspired. You never know.


Then for Tina's or Berry's quilt I'm planning on using the String-X pattern from the Quiltville site. Instructions are on the page. I like the use of the two blues in this picture, so I might do the same with greens. I really like this pattern a lot. I think it will be easier to deal with since it uses rectangles for the string portion. I won't have to worry so much about the varying lengths I sometimes get from The Heartstrings site has some good ones.

If anybody's reading this, please pray for me. I'm serious! I need all the help I can get.

New Blog for Books

I've started a new blog, 'Betty's Book Nook', that I intend to devote to books I've read, want to read, am currently reading or plan to put in my TBR pile at some point, elists dealing with books, author's blogs and web sites, NaNo, Script Frenzy, writing classes online .... whatever. I've been posting more about books lately anyway on this site and feeling guilty about using what I consider my quilting blog to talk more about books than quilting. Not sure what I'm gonna be doing with this blog other than posting pictures of my current projects - should I ever get off my derriere and actually work on some. I'd like to talk about other quilting blogs, quilting elists, EQ projects and dreams, and so on. We'll see how it works out. I like writing about just about anything. Writing helps me think, and sometimes it even actually it helps me get out of that emotional abyss I fall into so often. Sometimes I can actually manage to get a tad more accomplished. Not a lot, mind you, but anything is an improvement on those downer days.

I made some Happy Blocks for the Heartstrings online group. They feature novelty fabric squares surrounded by colorful sashing. I'm hoping to finally take pictures of the ones I made for Heartstrings and get them in the mail tomorrow if at all possible. I think my final count was 45 blocks for Heartstrings.

While I was cutting novelty fabric for the Heartstrings Happy Blocks, I found I had enough of two different fabrics to make two complete Happy Block quilts I can make and donate locally. One uses a fabric with brightly colored doggies and kitties and the other uses two complementary Mary Engelbreit fabrics. They are both going to be so cute and colorful. I'm using three solid fabrics to frame the doggie/kitty squares and two colors for the Mary Engelbreit fabric. I used EQ6 to create layouts so my brain doesn't get too befuddled trying to remember how to sew the rows together without putting all the oranges together! I'll use one of the solids for a border and another solid for the binding on each quilt. I'm probably going to use fleece for the backings since that is easier for me.

LearningFA - Photos lesson

This is the Goldilocks and the Three Bears quilt I made for my newest great nephew. It turned out really cute, if I do say so myself! I got the pattern from a book I bought on closeout at Hobby Lobby several years ago. There are so many cute baby quilts in that book and each of them can be very, very scrappy, which pleases me no end. If I do another one, I will adjust the size of the blocks because this one turned out a little smaller than I usually like for a crib quilt. All the quilts are based on nine-patch designs, so changing the dimensions should be easy enough. And I'll add bigger borders next time, too.

LearningFA lesson 3 - Links

I'm learning about creating blogs through an online quilting community. The first lesson is about creating links in the blog text. I found out I've been doing it all wrong. Now there's a news flash, eh? How nice to have someone who knows what they're doing help out.

Here are a couple of great quilting blogs I'd like to share:

• Blog 1: Quilting Lessons Online
• Blog 2: Online Quilting

Now I'm off to Hobby Lobby to use my 40% coupon to buy some muslin to use in the three memory quilts I have left to do. I've decided to make string quilts because I think they'll go together faster. I got some neat patterns from the Heartstrings group so each of the three can be a little different.

Ups 'n Downs 'n Happy Blocks

A lot of time has passed since the last entry. I've done some reading and even a little sewing since then, but not enough of either, sorry to say.

I've made several baby quilts for Sovereign Grace church since I last wrote. Some were quilts I had made over a year ago, but had never donated anywhere. A few were quilted, but needed binding. Others needed fleece backing and one or two were complete and just waiting on me to overcome my posterior transmission problem (otherwise known as getting my fanny in gear). So I finished the bindings on those that needed it and bought fleece and backed and bound the others.

Then I decided since it was autumn I'd use up some of my novelty fabric, so I made a few Halloween quits. They turned out really cute, so I decided I needed to use up some of my Christmas fabric next. I only got four of the Christmas ones made, but they turned out really cute, too! I used very simple four-patch and nine-patch based blocks in order to get them done as quickly as possible. Hancock's Fabrics had their fleece on sale at half price, so I took advantage of that for the backings instead of actually using batting and fabric backing.

I managed to remember to take pictures of the Halloween and Christmas quilts and a couple of the other autumn quilts, but didn't take pictures of all the ones I donated, sad to say.

After Christmas and New Year's there was a bit of a let-down. My daughter from California came for a visit and I enjoyed having her and her fiance here so much. It was a little sad to see her go, of course, so I fell into a bit of a funk and just vegged for a while. But not nearly so long as I have before. Heartstrings quilters saved me and got me going with their call for Happy Blocks. I started with a couple of scraps of novelty fabric and strips of brights, but soon got addicted. As of this afternoon, I have 45 Happy Blocks ready to send off to Sue. I'll take some pictures before they get mailed so I can post them. They are so cute and so much fun to make. I've decided to keep a stack of novelty fabric squares and some brightly colored strips close at hand to make a few more here and there in between the other projects I really have to get cracking on.

My next goal is to FINALLY finish Janice's memory quilt. All I have to do is lay out the quilt sandwich, spray, pin and quilt, then bind it and it's ready to go. Hope to have most of it done by the weekend. Pray for me!