Sewing But Not Blogging

I just don't know where the time goes lately!  I can't believe it's been so long since I posted on here.  No excuses - just busy.  So much for my resolution to do better at posting this year.  

My sister came to visit a few weeks ago while my DH was off on a business trip.  We had fun, but it was low-key as she was still recovering from a serious infection.  We did get out her project to play with a little.  She got these wonderful appliques and embroideries a few years ago and wants to get them together into a quilt top.  They are so bright and cheerful and just fun!  We were just testing how well they play together.  The bright striped fabric is some woven placemats she found that seems to want to be included.  However, we're not sure those red flowers on black blocks work with the rest.  What she will do with them all remains to be seen someday in the future.  But what a fun shot of color!

I finally got the baby quilt all quilted and it's now on it's way to the local hospital's neonatal unit.  This will probably be gifted to an indigent new mother.  I had it ready to quilt way back here at the end of April and probably had it quilted by the middle of May.  The binding took me more time than I wanted to because I had to finish the corduroy quilt first (see last post), so the whole thing took me much longer than I had originally planned.  But it's done now, and I have another one perking along.  Sorry, no pix of that one yet.

I finally have my Cherrywood earth tones wallhanging (this needs a better name!) to a point that I'm happy with it.  Sorry for the not-so-great photo.  It's not hanging straight, and it's hard to capture the true colors of this in the poor light here.  I never did find any more of the brown fabric (that matched what I had used on the rest of it) after visiting multiple quilt shops, so I had to improvise and I think I like it better because of that!  I had to piece in some bits to make the borders for the sides long enough, and so I also added the striped bits you see.  Now, I like that so much I've decided that I need to unsew a little bit and add some of the striped bits to the top and bottom border also.  So, that will happen soon, I hope!  I want to get this done for the quilt show in October and I know I have to keep up on it for that to happen.

There is no progress to report on my blue Bear's Paw quilt.  I have been thinking and thinking of what I want to do with this, and am not happy with anything I've come up with.  So, I labeled the rows and took it off the design wall so I can let this percolate a little longer.  It may not get done this year after all, but I don't want to rush this just to get it done.  It's waited this long - a little longer won't hurt!

And now for something completely different, a la' Monty Python . . . .

This is what is now on my design wall.  It's all trimmed and ready to assemble.  This is the Modern Disappearing Nine Patch pattern, which I found here.  I found this a while ago on the internets and have been intrigued with this pattern!  Then I found a couple of charm packs of Comma by Zen Chic and fell in love with that too.  I've got some yardage of a couple of the prints too, but wanted something that would be "background" and set off the fun, graphic prints, so I picked this silvery grey solid.  I'm really happy with how this looks and I'm anxious to get it put together.  

But I don't know how soon I can get to it.  *sad face*

I'm on the quilt show committee this year.  Yes, I opened my big mouth volunteered again.  Next week is Shop Hop around these parts, so this week Candy and I are spending 2 days visiting a lot of quilt shops to get our show poster put up.  It's fun, but it's also time consuming and tiring.  Friday is a 4-hour class that our guild is hosting and I'll be taking that.  Also fun and time-consuming.  Today is laundry and grocery store day (time consuming and NO fun), so no sewing.  *sigh*  There is not enough time in my day, nor do I have enough energy, to do everything I want to do.  Does this sound familiar to you?  I'm sure it does.  How do you find time to do the sewing/quilting you want to do? It's not like it's not a priority for me, I just have trouble actually getting into the quilt studio.  I could sure use some tips, if you have any.

I noticed that I've just recently surpassed 100,000 page views!  What a cool milestone to hit!  So, to celebrate that I'll be having a giveaway soon.  Not sure what it will be yet, but you'll have to come back to see.  (isn't that a clever ploy on my part?)  I promise to not keep you in suspense too long!

Here's a thought for the day:

"To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong."

Have a creative week!