BIT BY BIT...

My sewing room/office is a MESS!  This is not the "Therapy Room" I had set up back in January 2016!  Life has gotten nuts and there are additions to my ToDo list flying at me from every direction!  This weekend I decided that I HAD to start chipping away at all of these items at once...or I would go out of my mind before I ever reached the end!

So...

Yesterday I spent the day in here catching up on some mending.  J and G both needed clothing mended, and I was able to finish all of the items they gave me this weekend in a relatively short period of time.  But see the giant pile of mending still to be done?  Eventually...

Then I finished up making hourglasses with all of the colored background charms in the Garden Girls line.  These will be combined with solid white squares to make a baby quilt for my neighbor and her husband...something they can keep in the house for when their first little grandchild comes to visit.

I began sewing the hourglasses into "four-patch" blocks.  These blocks are not in any particular order.  I am simply sewing one four-patch block with the hourglasses vertical and one block with the hourglasses horizontal for each fabric design.  I will keep all of them on the left side of my design board as I design the quilt on the right.  I like being able to see my remaining options as I build the quilt.  Unfortunately, I ran out of the Kona Snow white charm squares.  I have placed an order online and should have my package by February 4th.  I also bought a few yards for the first border.

While chain piecing the blocks, I have been using "leaders" and "enders" a-la Bonnie Hunter.  I love that my good fabric isn't being "buggered up" (as Dad would say) when I first begin stitching and I also love the fact that these scraps will be turning into something usable while I stitch.   I placed all of my sets of 2.5" fabric, shingled for ease of grabbing, into a small tin pail next to my machine.  It should keep them from falling all over my sewing table.  I just hope I can remember that the matching tin closer to my iron is my thread catcher.  I can see my nice neat little pile of squares all covered in threads, LOL.

I have been doing tons and tons of paperwork for my folks over the past couple of weeks.  As a result, I haven't gotten anywhere near my own end of year piles!  My "Need to Keep" container is rising above its capacity and the pile of coupons I need to sort through and medical papers I need to file away until next year are falling all over the floor!

I still haven't finished my charity quilt and I need to do a bit of sewing for my mom.  I also need to print out a photo for her.

This extra large hockey goalie bag is filled with yarn and my "in progress" afghan.  I need to finish that some day, too...

See that large cardboard box?  Dear Hubby has asked me to cover it with contact paper so that he can keep the "stuff" in the trunk of his car all corralled in one spot.

The items in the bankers box need to be listed on eBay, and I promised J I would help him sell his two guitars and two amplifiers.  Oh, and I also told him I would help him log all of his Magic The Gathering cards onto a website where he would get an idea of their worth and sale-ability.  That tower of boxes behind his guitars is FILLED with cards.  I think he has WELL over 1000 cards.

Do we think I bit off more than I can chew?!?!?  I REALLY need to stop volunteering myself to do things for my loved ones when my ToDo list is already longer than my arm, LOL!!!!!  I forget that I am no longer the woman of my past who could multi-task and accomplish anything at any time.  Hard lesson.

SO.....I am going to work on taking tiny bites and bit by bit this mountain of stuff will be handled and moved out of my sewing room.  I can't wait to get my calm, serene, sewing therapy room back in order.  Is there anyone else out there who finds it hard to work in chaos???

Toodles...

MY 2017 GOALS AND A BABY QUILT...

Happy New Year dear friends!!  This is what my cutting table looks like at the moment.  I am in the middle of designing/constructing a precious little baby quilt.  Last month good friends of ours became grandparents for the very first time.  They are thrilled, and we are thrilled for them!  So, how does a quilter express such feelings?  She makes a quilt!

I had hoped to start this quilt over the holiday break but, as usual, life got in the way.  That's okay, though, because this quilt isn't for the little princess (I'm quite sure she and her parents have received more than enough gifts to cover her), but a gift for her grandparents.  I hope that they will use it whenever she visits.

In making this quilt I am trying to become more comfortable with several quilting techniques, including the formation of quarter triangles from two 5" charms sewn with right sides together.  I know.  I know.  It is a very basic technique, but something I had never attempted in the past.  I am also trying to use leaders and enders to improve my stitching, primarily, and wrangle in my scraps, secondarily.  

In the next month I hope to finish the fall mini quilt that I started months ago, as well as starting AND FINISHING a small matching fall table topper for the table in my foyer.  Then, if life goes as planned, I hope to make a table topper to match the Valentine's mini quilt that I made several years back.  While accomplishing all of that I hope to finish my charity quilt and make a HUGE dent in my grandson's quilt.  Oh, and then there is the issue of my HUGE pile of mending.  When I was first introduced to quilting I often wondered how quilters managed to accumulate UFOs.  If you didn't start a second quilt until the first was finished...how could you fall behind?  Haha...the quilting gods have decided to teach me an important lesson, LOL.

While setting and hopefully reaching goals in my sewing room, I have a mountain of goals to be reached throughout the rest of my home.  It is going to be a BUSY 2017, but hopefully I'm up to the challenge.  

Wishing you a year filled with love, laughter and quilts!

Toodles...