Next time...

...he's coming into the bathroom with me.

Why put off today what you can put off until tomorrow?

I'm totally, utterly incapable of working on one project at a time.

I have all my strip sets sewn for the homespun quilt (hooray!) and have started slicing them up and...hey, wouldn't that wonky pink and yellow quilt look kind of cool if it were hand quilted????

I get distracted so easily I amuse myself.

My kitchen/sewing table is covered with little piles of 2" plaid and muslin pieces, but no worries! You can do hand quilting anywhere!

Which means I can leave all that mess and come back to it later, when I'm partway done with this new endeavor and have begun to feel the pressure to get three quilts finished before the holidays. Or found some other new thing to try -- hand dyeing, perhaps.

No matter that I've never hand quilted before. And that the wonky pink and yellow quilt top was in itself a whim, not intended for anyone and therefore not a priority project this close to Christmas. It's another in a long line of experiments, both successful and failed, intended to put something off that's more important. I'm aware that's what I'm doing, and understand the potential frenzy that may ensue in December as a result, and yet...

This whole hand quilting thing has been in the back of my mind for a long time, and has chosen now, of all the inconvenient times, to cut to the front of the line. And it's not like I can stuff it back there with the belated birthday cards, dry cleaning, guitar lessons and other things I've been meaning to get to -- it was persistent enough to shove its way through the crowd, and it ain't goin' nowhere until I grant it an audition. So...

I spent my pre-work hours today pin-basting the top and putting my newly-purchased PVC lap frame together.

Wish me luck.

Ack! Unwanted setback!

I have put off getting my Bernina serviced for a few months now because I always seem to be in the middle of a deadline. The only dealer at the time I bought it was 35 miles southwest of the city, which doesn't sound bad but in Chicago traffic can take over an hour to get to, so the inconvenience factor is extremely high.

I called the dealer when my oil warning went on in the spring, and she told me how to turn it off, but warned that the machine would do it three times...and the third time it wouldn't go away. And this morning when I fired the machine up, that damn oil can was there, blinking ominously for the THIRD TIME.

Yes, I understand the need to keep my tools in working order. I oil frequently and clean the fuzz out regularly. I realize that not having my machine for a minimum of ten days of service is a small tradeoff for a very expensive but inoperable machine. And I fully intended to get it there as close to my year anniversary as possible, honest. But why now?

I have at least three quilts I need to finish for Christmas, and was on a roll with this latest project. My hope is that I can get all the homespun strip sets done tonight and haul the dang machine out to the 'burbs tomorrow on the sort-of-way to Michigan for the weekend.

Enough whining, Kate. Suck it up and take care of it, already!

I hate triangles!

Two easy-to-take-along Christmas gift WIPs got resurrected to go on vacation with me last week. Yes, I took my machine along, the bathroom up at the house needed new curtains. What better excuse did I need?

I'd started the flannel Flying Geese blocks last winter and got distracted (who, me?) by many other projects, and the Zig Zag blocks have been begging for attention ever since being abandoned in favor of that sparkly new jelly roll. Time to get back to them so I don't create my typical week-before-Christmas-sewing-marathon panic!

With six days in the crisp north woods ahead of me, I thought I could just crank these things out in no time and be on to my next project (purchased, of course, at my favorite Ice House Quilt Shop just down the road), but I got mired in Triangle Hell. The individual units went together beautifully (or so I thought...), but when it came time to put the four pieces together -- ugh! The points are all over the place! Despite all my efforts to sew a perfect quarter-inch seam and stitch very carefully through the seam intersection at the top, I came up with a new rule: if I can't get it right after ripping it out twice, well then, it just has to be GOOD ENOUGH.

The best of my so-so blocks is only so-so

I'm sure there are many perfectionists out there grasping for their seam rippers and gasping at the horror of a leaving a blunted end unresolved, and up until last Wednesday night I might have been one of them...but here's the reality of it all: I know for a fact that the recipient of this quilt will not give a rat's you-know-what about whether the pinwheel points are blunt or floating, and will just be happy to have a warm and cuddly handmade gift under the tree (or in the mail -- not giving any clues away here, friends) to use throughout many winters ahead.

It's not being entered in any competition, and nobody will be judging my handiwork. And if they do, so be it...I can take it. That is not to say that I don't take pride in my work (I'm half German, half Austrian, so anal-compulsiveness is woven tightly into every strand of my DNA, been battling against it for decades now) -- it's just that in order to maximize my time, save thread, and preserve my sanity, in this particular case, I am learning to Just. Let. Go.

The Zig Zag presents its own little problems, mainly bulky seams. I expect that with the flannel, but didn't think it would be as much of an issue with these. Again, points mismatched to the point of shame, but here's the start:

Sorry, no iron on vacation!

Any tips? Suggestions? The flannel blocks are done and I have made my peace (or piece!) with them, but I have about 745 more of these little babies to go. OK, 245...it just seems like a lot more.

Time for a design wall...

I am getting so little done this week.

Life with the new, energetic kitten/cat has been a challenge for many reasons, including this:

Somewhere under there is a very wacky cat.

Finally piecing (or trying to piece) the backing for my mom and dad's anniversary quilt (yes, it's still here, dropping it off this weekend instead), with limited success. He's been banished to the bedroom just so I can lay the top flat to measure.

I use my kitchen floor as my design wall, but I think that's going to have to change.

Only a so-so expedition...

The Safari top is done...more or less. I was so off with this one, and the pinning-it-to-the-ironing-board technique I used to take the picture makes it look even more crooked. It's square, honest!

I couldn't figure out why none of the blocks was turning out the same size, or why the sashing strips didn't want to fit. I haven't been that far off since I started quilting! I attributed it to me being too distracted by the Olympics, or just wanting to get something done quickly...and then I realized my mistake. I'm kicking myself for not looking more closely when I started, but I just wanted to get the pedal to the floor and start sewing, dammit!

The jelly roll was pinked...and from tip to tip, all of the strips are the tiniest bit wider than two and a half inches -- enough to make a difference when lining them up for a seam allowance. I would have thought that something would have been the correct measurement, but valley-to-valley was less than 2.5", and peak-to-peak was more. Valley-to-peak didn't even measure correctly. My bad, I should have double-checked, and definitely would have made some adjustments before it was too late.

It's going to be a charity quilt...or at best given to someone who knows nothing about sewing.

Cat update: No distinguishable damage to computer connections or other furniture after Night #1 in his new home, which is good (though I did end up wrapping the legs of the antique wicker chair in packing tape, sticky side out, as a precaution), he's not distructive. I let him out of the spare bedroom the morning, and he's spent the past half hour running laps around my apartment. It must feel so good after being cooped up for so long! He also plays fetch with the catnip mouse. And farts. His diet is getting changed today.

Encountering a UFO...

In an effort to diminish my pile of Ziploc bags filled with unfinished thoughts, I pulled these out this morning before work, and darned if I can get back into it. I have a pattern, and a theme (they're all underwater-related batiks), lots of remaining fabric from the fat quarters, and a recipient in mind (me), but it's been so long since I started these that I've changed the color scheme of my living room...so I'm not really that enthused about diving back in.

The question, then, is this: is it better to try to force yourself to finish something, or just pack everything back up and return to it when you feel a stronger connection to the project (realizing, of course, that could mean never)?

I feel guilty, and a little sad, because at some point, before some newer, brighter fabric came along to catch my eye, I had great hopes for these blocks, and invested some quality time in producing them. It might have been a long holiday weekend, or a vacation day in the middle of the week where the creative juices were flowing and I was thrilled to finally be making something out of these fat quarters I'd been collecting for over two years, I really don't remember. But no doubt, the radio was on and I was enrapt and the next thing I knew it was 4pm and I hadn't even eaten breakfast yet. Time hadn't mattered at all -- it was all about creating in the moment. And now? I still find them attractive, but they just don't do anything for me any more.

It's kind of like running into an old boyfriend, really.