Lessons from the past week...

I always say, you learn something every day, no matter how small -- and last week was no exception. In the past seven days I have learned that:

• Little kids in the hospital probably won't care if the pattern in the green fabric doesn't run in the same direction throughout the quilt. This bugged me for about a day, then I accepted it. I just won't use directional prints next time.

• Archie likes waffles.

• I need to clean out my cupboards more often, as illustrated by this container of frosting found in the way-up-and-way-back. Note that the announcement on the label doesn't mention anything about that newfangled technology, the DVD. Extra points for you if you can name that year!

• And as long as I'm finding old food in the cupboard, let's note that dried beans do, indeed, go bad. If you don't like your black beans a little crunchy (despite soaking for 48 hours and cooking for 6), I'd suggest not letting the bag reside in-house for longer than a couple years. If the notion of chewing your soup appeals to you, then come on over to my house, I've got a whole pot of it!

• Always remember to remove the bay leaf BEFORE using the immersion blender! Talk about adding insult to injury...

• No matter how weird the texture of the soup is, sometimes you just have to buck up and eat it. And hope you don't cut your tongue on the bay leaf shards.

• I lose my momentum at the pinning stage of quilt making, which explains all those tops in the duffle bag in the closet. Too tedious, and too much crawling around on the floor. It does make for a nice picture, though...

And that's about it. What did you learn last week?

Wouldn'tcha know...

Just when I have some momentum going toward actually finishing a project, this shows up on my doorstep:

It's my Quilts for Kids kit. I'd volunteered early last week, and they're mighty fast at sending their stuff out. Similar to Project Linus, Quilts for Kids distributes quilts to kids in need -- whether they be in hospitals or shelters -- around the country. They supply the fabric and suggested pattern for a small-ish quilt (36-40" x 45-46"), you supply the batting. They also encourage volunteers to contribute an additional quilt of their own  to "double the number of children we are able to wrap quilts around."

Not that I mind this distraction:  as part of Lent, I like to give back instead of give up -- giving up chocolate or wine or whatever always seemed too conveniently diet-driven instead of self-sacrificing -- and my goal is to make one charity quilt for each week of the season, for a total of six.

Technically it should be 6.5, but I didn't want to set myself up for another unfinished project so I'm rounding down.

I'll be posting my progress. Feel free to ride me if I look like I'm slipping. Really.

Meet my new peeps!

Anyone else see the irony in my saying I was addicted to blogging and then didn't post for a week?

I had actual work last week, and my Digital Design class at the School of the Art Institute also started (I'm learning InDesign and Illustrator to keep those synapses firing and expand my skill set). It leaves less time for sewing, but I guess I shouldn't get all upset that my quilting mojo was disrupted if I'm paying my mortgage, right?

But back to the blogging addiction thing: I guess that's not what I meant after all.

To clarify, I think I'm becoming dependent on (to call it an addiction is a little overkill) making things and then telling you about it -- and it's not necessarily a bad thing. I have a habit of starting projects, losing interest, starting something else, needing to address something more immediate, finishing that and finding some shiny new fabrics that would be perfect for this pattern...and not ever returning to that initial project. It's what A.D.D. crafting is all about!

Over the past eight years it has resulted in a massive amount of UFO's and WIP's so overwhelming that they got shoved into Ziploc bags and stowed (hidden, actually) in places where they wouldn't taunt me with their unfinished-ness. But my condo isn't that big, and I'm running out of places to hide stuff.

Believe it or not, I'm trying to reform, and blogging has helped. Because before blogging, I didn't have anyone to answer to. Now I have you.

When I start a project now, there's added pressure (real or imagined, I'm going with it) to actually FINISH it. I'll get e-mails from people asking how that top from my post last month ago is going -- and it's embarrassing and slightly pathetic (for me, anyway) to admit that my project is now encased in plastic in a box in the spare bedroom and I'm working on something completely different this week. I'm not six (though wouldn't that be fun for a few days? I loved being six), I'm a big girl who is, on occasion, fully capable of completing things when she puts her mind to it.

And if blog pressure weren't enough, I found more incentive yesterday in the first meeting of the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild. I've never been involved with a guild before, and I'm looking forward to sharing ideas with a group of women who don't think that having a kitchen full of fabric is all that strange!

We're off and running! And I have to find a project to finish!

Happy V-Day!

Apologies in advance for being vague...

This stack of  fat eighths called out to me last spring, putting an end to my "No New Fabric" campaign a week earlier than expected. I succumbed to its extreme cuteness with no real purpose in mind -- consequently the little bundle kicked around my workspace for the past ten months, waiting patiently for the right moment to speak up and tell me what to do with it.

It revealed its destiny early this week, but I can't tell you about that just yet.

I know I have just effectively ruined any semblance of surprise, but I can't help it. It's killing me not to be able to write about it!

Hello, my name is Kate. I'm lousy at keeping secrets, and I think I might be addicted to blogging.

Serendipity...

In the quest to find my flannels last week I just happened to throw my bag of green scraps on top of the bag of turquoise scraps...and boy, did the wheels start spinning! I had wanted to try one of these quilts ever since I saw it on Amanda Jean's blog months ago, and well, the color combination was just too enticing to resist. 

Fortunately, my lack of impulse control is limited primarily to creative projects and not potentially detrimental things like, say, shopping or alcohol consumption.

Anyway, I followed her link to Lady Harvatine's tutorial and in an afternoon, this was born:

Making the individual units is very fun; forming them into the individual blocks is challenging. Putting it all together wasn't very pretty. Amanda warned that it was a hard one to piece, and she wasn't lyin'!

As a result, it finished a funny size (27" x 18"), which relegates it to wall hanging/table topper/doll quilt status, but I'm very glad I tried it. Most of my projects lately have been fairly traditional, and it feels good to bust out and do something freeform every once in a while!    

After the intensity of my last project, I was most definitely not up to spending a lot of time quilting. I used Jacquie's straight line method, which was both fun and infinitely easier than what I'd just spent the week doing.

So two finishes, albeit smaller ones, that were technically both completed in January. The year started out unproductively but I think I'm back on track. And it feels good!

A new love...

Well, the good news is I found the right flannels in my stash to finish the top from my last post. The bad news? There really isn't any, though it continues to confound me and I'm stuck in the arranging stage. It's hanging on my mock design wall, and every time I walk by I move a couple blocks...then put them back thirty minutes later. It's "in process."

But all productivity is not lost:  in a rare fit of self-discipline, I decided to finish a WIP before flinging myself into a new(ish) project. And I'm totally in love with "Bricks"!

So in love, I can't stop taking pictures of it.

These started as jelly roll strips that finished two inches wide. Most of the rows have eleven rows of quilting. A few have ten; the rest have twelve -- much more dense than my last attempt at this, the lines ended up being between about 1/8" and 1/16" apart.  It's half the size of  "Currents" (just 32" x 27"), but took almost as long to quilt.

Rather than being bumpy, the texture is actually very slippery.

It was also an experiment of sorts -- I designed it so there weren't any matching seams from row to row, minimizing the bumps that result from four seams coming together. The photo below makes it look like it washes out from top to bottom, but that's just too much lighting from above and too little Photoshop retouching competence on my part. If the sun ever comes out again I'll try to get a better shot, but here it is in its entirety:

I used a strong black and purple non-batik pebble print for the binding, which frames it really well. Needless to say, I'm very happy with the results.

This is not easy quilting. It takes a lot of time, and a ton of thread (i.e., buy twice as much as you think you'll need or you'll end up at Joann's halfway through). And as random and freeform as it looks, you really have to be conscious throughout to keep the lines straight as well as wavy (I know, that doesn't make any sense, it's hard to explain) so they don't "lean" across the quilt. Letting that latent OCD surface helps as well.

And I'm happy to say that my OCD kicked my ADD's butt. Big time.