Arizona & Arkansas

I finished these two blocks tonight. They need to have the paper removed (saving this for TV night) and be trimmed down to size.

Arizona

Arkansas

Of all the blocks, I think I'm least happy with Arkansas. Somehow the pink blender just doesn't seem to go very well.

I'm really dying to try these with different fabric designs, introducing as much negative space  as possible. I'm going to need to pick up a few yards of background fabric before I can get started on that. I think I will do them on black for that particular project. The Ohio design is a good example of the look I'm going for, similar to the block I put together for my block swap.

Ohio Block for block swap

Updates coming soon on my Project 144 and Nana's Quilt.

Oh, and I almost forgot. Please meet Persephone, another one of the kittens that we pulled out of the pallet stacks at work. Two down, two to go. This one was adopted by another coworker, who hasn't named her yet, but I like to call her Persephone after the Queen of the Underworld from Greek mythology. It seemed to fit. She is solid black and malnourished, but I think she'll be ok now!

Arkansas and Twisters

Sneak preview of the Arkansas star...

And I finished all the hand-stitching & eyelets on my purple surcoat, so I can cross that off my list.

Last but not least, I was bit by the twister bug and whipped out these scraps to make a small quilt. All my 5 inch square are cut, I just have to decide on a layout. I have a box of misc 10x10 squares that I'm using for this project.

I wish I had a little bit more of either the red or the jungle print, but I'm working with what I have. I was inspired by the layout of this quilt, by Connie @ Freemotion by the River. According to her, I will lose about 1/3 of my surface area by the time this quilt is all put together, so I will plan on adding at least a couple borders.

The Problem with Being a Creative Minded Person

What? Problem you say? Pshaw, there is no problem.

I love being creative. And crafty, in both the construction of beautiful objects AND the devious sense of the word.

So what is the problem?

Let me just first say that, I am NEVER bored. (This is not the problem). Instead, my unproductive hours are spent drooling over new projects I want to start and being wishy-washy about the projects I have because I can't decide which ones to spend my precious time on! Oh so many ideas... So many things to do! So many things to make!

This, ladies and gentlemen, is my problem.

But it does get a bit worse than that, because my "problems" are not limited to those in the quilting world. I also make garb.

And cross-stitch. Lets not forget those needlepoint projects I started ages ago. Oh, and there are the two (count them, TWO) novels I started writing in the last two years. Yes, one for each NaNoWriMo in which I have participated.

And those crochet edged fleece blankets I bought all kinds of fleece for, to donate to Project Linus.

I may do something else with the fleece, I've discovered that I don't really like crochet all that much. But there are at least one I've started, oh and the three I was going to make for the munchkins that are cut out.

We won't even get into the list of books I want to read. I will say that I discovered a source for free  Kindle books, so the list is getting longer. Yay for Bookbub!

I'm a little scared to start new projects, because I don't want them to end up unfinished. I'm also scared to make a complete WIP list, because I don't want to know how deep the rabbit hole goes.

I'm sure all you like-minded folk can empathize.

Whew, that's better. Got the whining out of my system and now I'm good to go.

Since this blog post would be incomplete without something crafty, here is my latest brain storm.

I want to make a couple dozen "Vertigo" blocks like the one pictured below and use them for a border on my OBW quilt. I'm sure that will take no time at all! :)

WIP Update

Well it was of course a busy weekend. I got out of going to work on Saturday (yay!) but unfortunately karate class was cancelled due to a power outage. I spent an hour at the park with the munchkins and came back home to do... this!

My first Project144 completion. I have two more of these to do this month, one in black and one in brown, and some hand-stitching to finish to meet my goal. This shirt actually didn't take very long to throw together but I was dragging my feet because it is not as interesting as my stars quilt. Which I also worked on this weekend!

Alabama & Alaska on my design wall

Arizona, waiting to be put together

Somethings I learned this weekend in piecing these stars: (1) don't trim the outer edge until it is all put together. That will give you a little wiggle room. My first star is a 1/4" small on one side. My second star came out about perfect. (2) even if you don't add the fabric pieces in the order listed be consistent about whatever order you choose.

Linking up to Sew Cute Tuesday and Building Blocks Tuesday.

Of Kittens and Crumbs

Check out this little guy... isn't he cute? A little camera shy though. I couldn't catch a picture of him actually looking at the camera.

We found him and his brothers and sisters out behind the pallet stacks at work. His name is Loki and he's been adopted by one of my coworkers. He has at least three other siblings that we are attempting to catch. Living in the brush behind a chemical plant is not a healthy place for kittens to grow up. We have no idea where Mommy Cat is, no one has seen her.

I've been chugging away at quilting Nana's Quilt. Its a little rough because I want to turn corners and that is a bit unwieldy with a walking foot. It is about half done now and I may switch to the FMQ foot to see if I have an easier time with that.

Last night I couldn't sleep until about 2:30 in the morning, so at around 1 am I gave up and wandered into my sewing room for a little sewing therapy. What is easy to not mess up at 1 am when you are tired but can't sleep? Crumb blocks! A seven inch square crumb block can be safely cut into a 6.5 inch hexagon.

The crumb blocks are coming along nicely. I have 3 hexagons (one not pictured) and 5 triangles so far. I'm playing with the idea of making a small quilt that has a row of each in it and a row of crumb squares on a white background.

Last but not least, I hit a wall with my paper pieced stars. I'm not sure I like how the block is turning out, so I may change it up. This is the original color scheme:

And these are the other fabrics I auditioned.

Or I suppose I could make every segment different! But part of the appeal of these stars in the kaleidoscope effect. Oh, decisions, decisions.