Too many choices...

I think for now this top is done. I played with it for a couple weeks, added some blocks, took some out, added them back and then some.

I finally feel like I can't add anything else, so I'm content with leaving it this size (55" x 48" -- a decent lap size). My problem is having too many choices for the backing, which has put me in total indecision mode.

I found a beautiful turquoise/teal/tan leafy batik last week that was perfect...then in doing some digging for something else found another turquoise batik I'd have to piece with leftovers from the front...and also found a piece of Minkee the exact size I needed for this top.

If I use the leafy batik or the pieced back, I can quilt this as densely as I want, which was the original plan -- close, wavy quilting to echo the inset strips. Using the Minkee, I wouldn't be able to do that -- and I've kind of been saving that piece for a winter throw for the sofa, and I'm not sure I am in love with this enough to keep it in my living room.

I have to let it percolate for a while.  But look on the bright side:  it's a finished top, and no longer in pieces in my UFO pile. Which for me, is a big deal. I'll get it quilted...someday.

So much for pressing...

The top was draped over the ironing board next to me while I was sewing, and I watched him pull it down so he could curl up on it.

Apparently there aren't any other fabric-covered surfaces in my condo worth napping on today.

Where the heck did August go?

It's hard to believe that today is the last day of August!

I started the month out on a roll -- I quilted up a table runner and was on schedule to get it done in time to ship it off to my sister for her birthday, had a hand sewing project to work on during the Olympics...and then all hell broke loose.

Couch potato no more! There's always EPP!  Go USA!

Not possessing Wanda's foresight, I didn't heed the message that my workhorse computer was failing. Granted, I only had one day's notice, and the warning itself shouldn't have precipitated such a meltdown, but when it crashed, it crashed completely, and I lost several weeks worth of work. Stupid, I know. I'm usually conscientious about backing up my data, but I'd gotten busy and had put it off, and I'm still kicking myself two weeks later for being such an idiot.  I lost a lot of sleep mentally tallying what I could pull off email and what was irreplaceable, and eventually just accepted the fact that there were some things I would have to recreate. To add to the stress, this happened two days before a major project came my way. Between trips to the computer store to salvage my hard drives (nope) and meeting deadlines using an infinitely slower laptop, I was spending 14+ hours a day doing work and my sewing machine was gathering dust.

Early Saturday morning I delivered the first round of documents to my client, marched into the kitchen while the emails were still sending, opened the WIP bin and pulled out the first thing I laid hands on.  I needed to sew.

Looking back through my blog posts to find out when I started this, I'm ashamed (but not surprised) that these 48 5.5" batik blocks were from the spring of 2011. 2011! In 2011, my nephew was nine and came up to my shoulder. He started high school last week and is over six feet tall.

I was, at the time, trying a new technique, and apparently got tired of it because there were another ~50 blocks in the Ziploc that had been paired with inset strips but not sewn. Because of my impulsive sewing outburst Saturday morning, however, I created an conundrum for myself:  I'm pretty sure I don't want to do more of this wavy inset technique, so this has to be a medallion of sorts among the remaining solid blocks, maybe? I've laid out a couple different options, but nothing is floating my boat as of yet.

I'm afraid to go too long without making a decision with this one or it'll end up in the Duffle Bag of Doom and the leftovers to the WIP bin, so any suggestions are welcome.

And let me serve as a cautionary tale to BACK UP YOUR DATA!!!

Quilt as you go-go is done-done...

Remember this project?  Another one left sitting in a pile in my kitchen/studio, and the next on the list as I work my way down through it. I still have a few to go, some more intimidating than others, so, coward that I am, I'm getting the easy ones out of the way first.

The girls -- and I, for that matter -- ran out of steam, and vacations and school and soccer and sleepovers got in the way of them coming back for more sewing lessons this spring, so I was on my own to finish this quilt up.

I thought the sashing would calm it down, but it really didn't. It's blindingly bright -- pretty sure it will cheer up some small sick child in a hospital somewhere.

The back is much more subdued, and less likely to induce seizures. I actually like this side better than the front.

Now that it's done, I feel a little "meh" about the Quilt As You Go process. It was a great project for the girls, but it seemed less...I don't know -- satisfying? to finish the individual blocks and then sash them together. I'm glad I did it, but not sure I'll do another one.

But then again, never say never...right?

Gettin' stuff done...

I finished the flannel quilt and found yet another half-baked quilt in a pile that just needed additional quilting and a binding. My oh my, it feels good to get some of these things done! I'm on a roll!

This one was an experimental design, not for anybody in particular (started over a year ago??? Doesn't seem like it, but I posted this), so it got tossed aside when other deadlines loomed. I do that a LOT, don't I?

Ten Kona solids + Snow, 43" x 36"

It's a happy quilt, and it's fun to hang out on one side of the color wheel every once in a while. I might have to try it in other colorways at some point -- like when I run out of other projects. Hah!

Archie's quilt...

I started this quilt last Fall with leftover scraps from this quilt. It was one of those things where the pieces were hanging around in a pile and I thought it would be nice to use them up, along with my "up north" flannels.

Archie's Quilt, 60"x52", flannel top and backing, marbled cotton binding

I've made so many quilts with these two flannels I've lost count. But that's what I get for buying by the bolt off eBay about ten years ago -- I'm an impulsive bidder and I couldn't resist. There's a lot still left over, so if you like pine cones and pine trees and really soft, snuggly flannel, let me know and we can work something out.

Anyway, midway through making this, of course something brighter and more fun came along to work on and it got cast aside. Mostly to the corner of the sofa, and at some point during the chilly winter it became my go-to throw for watching TV -- half quilted and unbound didn't really matter, it was just as snuggly if I avoided some of the safety pins along the edges and tucked them in so Archie wouldn't play with them.

Then last Saturday morning dawned, and a strange sense of I-need-to-finish-something came over me. I'd just washed up the rose and green quilt, and the momentum was too powerful to resist. Next thing I knew, the quilting was finished and I was putting the binding on and it was DONE.

This one's for us. Or him, since he seems to have laid claim to it.

I guess I made my cat a quilt.  Is that weird or what?

Rose and pale green, she said...

"My client is having a baby girl and I need a quilt."

Any opportunity to rid my condo of fabric and batting is a welcome one -- even moreso when a friend is willing to pay for it.

"Her color scheme is rose and pale green."

Pale green I can do. But rose? Not a color in my repertoire. Conjures up images of dusty, darkened Victorian rooms with faded wallpaper and lots of lace. Not me. At. All.

I knew before I started combing through my stash that I didn't have anything resembling rose -- I'd have to buy fabric. Fortunately, the International Quilt Show fell about a week after my friend's request. I set off with high hopes, but apparently rose isn't very popular right now. And I'm usually really good with color, but had a difficult time defining exactly what true "rose" was -- some candidates were too pink, others too peachy.

If you were at IQS and a stranger asked you "Would you say this is rose?" well, that would have been me. I asked a lot of people. A LOT.

In the end, I found a rose(-ish) and green Kaffe Fassett dahlia print, a half yard of Aunt Grace solid that a few helpful showgoers thought came close, and another darker solid that was a match to the Kona Deep Rose on my color card.

When faced with specific color choices, I typically choose to aim around them so I don't miss the mark all together. I was hopeful I'd be close, but not very enthusiastic.

"Oh, and nothing too 'out there'," was another part of the request. Which I took to mean I should stay pretty traditional. Initially the dahlia print was going to play a bigger part in all of this, but it really didn't read "baby," so I used it sparingly.

I dragged my feet on this because I wasn't feeling it, but once I found the flannel backing two months later and pieced it, things perked up a bit. The quilting and a little piece of green there in the binding gave it a little more personality.

And, of course, before it gets washed, the QC inspector needs to test for nappability. It passed.

SO happy to get this one packaged up and out of the house. Finally!