The way it was

Five years ago someone asked to see my sewing space. I took photos and posted them on my community webshots page. How neat and organized I was. Fast forward five years, three additional people living in our home, and you get the picture. Well, actually you won't. I am in the midst of setting up my new quilting frame. Once that has been accomplished, I will post new photos. In the meantime, you can see the way it was.

Progress

At the request of quilting friends, here is how the first blocks are turning out for my DD Celestial Puzzle quilt. Eventually I will have 64 of these puppies sewn. It takes about an hour to do the four pictured. But that time is usually not spent on sewing alone.

I watched a few moments of a show this weekend about procrastination. One woman that was interviewed sounded like me. Trying to fill every moment of the day with chores, errands, work, kids, you name it, she was doing it. To me, this lady was not procrastinating. She wasn't allowing any personal moments to herself. Trying to do too much.

My few moments are spent working on something I love to do. Quilt. Enjoy!

Organized Random?

Quilters have heard this term. We want our quilts that have multiple fabrics to look like they were pieced with a variety of fabrics. Random placement of many wonderful fabrics. BUT can we just pull strips out of a bag and let them be where they end up being? No. Or at least I can't.

Organized random. That's a very technical quilting term. For this quilt I have over 20 dark batiks and 10 light batiks. I want them to "play nicely" with each other. Don't want to end up with two of the same fabric or color sewn right next to each other. It will catch the viewers eye and then who knows?

As you can see by my little piles, I have sorted my 20+ fabrics so that when they are sewn into blocks, I won't end up with all green or burgandy dot batik in the last few blocks. Random yes. Organized, definitely yes!

Celestial Puzzle

Next project started several years ago. An idea? Stars. Fabrics? Batiks. A pile of fabric sat on my ironing board for over a year. This quilt would be for one of my daughters, and her husband. Needed to be the right pattern. Not interested in a Double Wedding Ring quilt. Something similar, but what? Several patterns came and went. I was never really happy with any of them. Headed over to one of my favorite Minnesota quilt shops, Glad Creations in Minneapolis. Their patterns are wonderful. Looked again through their line of patterns, and Celestial Puzzle caught my eye. Perfect for my fabrics, again from my stash. Some day I may use up that stash. We will see.

Cuts, cuts, and more cuts. I am still cutting. Focus and cut. Recalculate amount to cut. Did I add it up right? Increased the quilt from queen size to king size. If I messed up, there is still more fabric that can be used. No worries. Just keep on cutting. Is the end in sight? Not today.