Three down...

...and three to go. Fortunately, the tops are done -- it's just going to take a few marathon days to finish the quilting and binding. With a little luck (and self-discipline), I'll be back on schedule next week.

I had to shut the cat in the bathroom to get a decent picture of "Penguins Afloat." For just starting to cut strips and sew with very little planning, I really like how this turned out.

I made more blocks than I needed (which, go figure, seems to go hand-in-hand with not planning), so there may be another version of this in the works very soon. The big question that remains, though is How will it look once it's washed? The penguin and yellow fabrics are flannel, but the stripe isn't -- so I'm expecting some shrinkage difference. Hopefully not too much.

Happy Friday, all, and Happy Spring!

One more on the way...

Man, this effort is asking for so much more self-discipline than I was prepared to bring!

I'm used to a much more leisurely pace -- playing with the fabric, rearranging, altering my original design, and enjoying the journey that brings me to a final quilt. This is basically pick-a-simple-design-and-let's-get-it-done quilting, which makes it feel a lot like work.

Not that I mind -- Lent is about sacrifice and self-discovery, and this whole project, while it started out to be just about giving back, is kind of morphing into lessons in restraint and commitment and (sigh) staying on course.

The third top is ready for quilting. This flannel is one of the few truly kid prints I own; I bought a whole bunch of it years ago to make a quilt for my godson and then never got around to it. He just turned 14 last Saturday (HBTY, Theo!) and is a little too cool for penguins now. I have a strong suspicion he's going to be an activist and advocate for those less fortunate someday, so he'd probably like the idea of this getting recycled, so to speak, into a charity project.

And yes, Archie's been helping. Wouldn't be right if he didn't.

Two down...almost

My second Quilts for Kids quilt is awaiting binding.

Because it was such a simple top, I wanted to jazz it up a little with the quilting -- but may have missed the mark. I used a combination of straight and wavy diagonal lines, and it's funky enough that I'm afraid one day it may prompt some little girl to ask, "Mommy, was the lady who made this quilt for me on drugs?"

Maybe I should put a disclaimer on the label?

Biting off more than I can chew...

OK, maybe wanting to make six kid quilts in six weeks was a little ambitious. I'm a little overwhelmed, given I had a couple other projects going on and now have homework (hah!) to do for my digital design class.

Two weeks in, I only have strip sets sewn and partially cut for two tops...

Archie is, of course, a big help.

...two tops are complete...

...and one quilt is totally finished. I tried to get a good shot of this one, but this kept happening:

You'd think I sewed catnip into the batting.

No toys are involved here -- he's just a wacky, wacky cat.

I think this one will have to do.

It's photographing very pink, but the "Emu Tracks" swirly fabric really has a red base. I used red thread for the quilting throughout -- outlining the zipper teeth, then straight lines in the green and wavy in the print. This was on craft size batting, so it's a good little kid size (about 34" x 45"). I'll probably make a couple of the others this same size, but the two completed tops are bigger. There's a lot of quilting to be done!

Sorry for all the gratuitous Archie pix. I couldn't resist.

Happy weekend, all!

Lessons from the past week...

I always say, you learn something every day, no matter how small -- and last week was no exception. In the past seven days I have learned that:

• Little kids in the hospital probably won't care if the pattern in the green fabric doesn't run in the same direction throughout the quilt. This bugged me for about a day, then I accepted it. I just won't use directional prints next time.

• Archie likes waffles.

• I need to clean out my cupboards more often, as illustrated by this container of frosting found in the way-up-and-way-back. Note that the announcement on the label doesn't mention anything about that newfangled technology, the DVD. Extra points for you if you can name that year!

• And as long as I'm finding old food in the cupboard, let's note that dried beans do, indeed, go bad. If you don't like your black beans a little crunchy (despite soaking for 48 hours and cooking for 6), I'd suggest not letting the bag reside in-house for longer than a couple years. If the notion of chewing your soup appeals to you, then come on over to my house, I've got a whole pot of it!

• Always remember to remove the bay leaf BEFORE using the immersion blender! Talk about adding insult to injury...

• No matter how weird the texture of the soup is, sometimes you just have to buck up and eat it. And hope you don't cut your tongue on the bay leaf shards.

• I lose my momentum at the pinning stage of quilt making, which explains all those tops in the duffle bag in the closet. Too tedious, and too much crawling around on the floor. It does make for a nice picture, though...

And that's about it. What did you learn last week?

Wouldn'tcha know...

Just when I have some momentum going toward actually finishing a project, this shows up on my doorstep:

It's my Quilts for Kids kit. I'd volunteered early last week, and they're mighty fast at sending their stuff out. Similar to Project Linus, Quilts for Kids distributes quilts to kids in need -- whether they be in hospitals or shelters -- around the country. They supply the fabric and suggested pattern for a small-ish quilt (36-40" x 45-46"), you supply the batting. They also encourage volunteers to contribute an additional quilt of their own  to "double the number of children we are able to wrap quilts around."

Not that I mind this distraction:  as part of Lent, I like to give back instead of give up -- giving up chocolate or wine or whatever always seemed too conveniently diet-driven instead of self-sacrificing -- and my goal is to make one charity quilt for each week of the season, for a total of six.

Technically it should be 6.5, but I didn't want to set myself up for another unfinished project so I'm rounding down.

I'll be posting my progress. Feel free to ride me if I look like I'm slipping. Really.

Meet my new peeps!

Anyone else see the irony in my saying I was addicted to blogging and then didn't post for a week?

I had actual work last week, and my Digital Design class at the School of the Art Institute also started (I'm learning InDesign and Illustrator to keep those synapses firing and expand my skill set). It leaves less time for sewing, but I guess I shouldn't get all upset that my quilting mojo was disrupted if I'm paying my mortgage, right?

But back to the blogging addiction thing: I guess that's not what I meant after all.

To clarify, I think I'm becoming dependent on (to call it an addiction is a little overkill) making things and then telling you about it -- and it's not necessarily a bad thing. I have a habit of starting projects, losing interest, starting something else, needing to address something more immediate, finishing that and finding some shiny new fabrics that would be perfect for this pattern...and not ever returning to that initial project. It's what A.D.D. crafting is all about!

Over the past eight years it has resulted in a massive amount of UFO's and WIP's so overwhelming that they got shoved into Ziploc bags and stowed (hidden, actually) in places where they wouldn't taunt me with their unfinished-ness. But my condo isn't that big, and I'm running out of places to hide stuff.

Believe it or not, I'm trying to reform, and blogging has helped. Because before blogging, I didn't have anyone to answer to. Now I have you.

When I start a project now, there's added pressure (real or imagined, I'm going with it) to actually FINISH it. I'll get e-mails from people asking how that top from my post last month ago is going -- and it's embarrassing and slightly pathetic (for me, anyway) to admit that my project is now encased in plastic in a box in the spare bedroom and I'm working on something completely different this week. I'm not six (though wouldn't that be fun for a few days? I loved being six), I'm a big girl who is, on occasion, fully capable of completing things when she puts her mind to it.

And if blog pressure weren't enough, I found more incentive yesterday in the first meeting of the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild. I've never been involved with a guild before, and I'm looking forward to sharing ideas with a group of women who don't think that having a kitchen full of fabric is all that strange!

We're off and running! And I have to find a project to finish!