A Satisfying Week

It has been a fairly busy week this week. Between work and home I feel pretty satisfied with how I used my time. I came close to getting out of work before I worked 9 hours just about every day except for Friday. I had to cover a line Friday and then needed to meet with my boss to prepare for the coming week. So I worked 11 hours Friday.  But still I worked fewer unpaid hours.  I hope I can keep this up.

At home I actually sewed or studied every day this week. That really helped me keep my spirits up even though my mouth was still sore and my asthma is trying to flare up. I have managed to keep from having a full blown attack and my mouth while still swollen is feeling better. I have not needed pain meds. for the last few days.

So what did I accomplish? This week I made 17 receiving blankets. Yes, I said 17. Now first of all I didn't do anything fancy. I cut flannel to 40 inch squares and then I serged the edges.

I started doing these about 5 years ago.  We had a family move into our branch at church who had basically lost everything. They were expecting a baby boy. A friend had mentioned that you could do large receiving blankets by serging the edges of flannel. I had flannel and a serger so I made some. I used to just serge each side and weave the tails in. Then when my girls started having babies I tried turning the corner, that didn 't work out all that well.

This time I took my circle ruler and rounded the corners. I think they look pretty darn good. I am especially pleased with the bumble bee ones. The yellow edge makes the whole thing pop. My oldest daughter, Chrissy is expecting a baby girl this week. (you know, Aliyah, the one the quilt is for.) But when I started buying flannel I didn't know that she was having a girl. I had the hardest time finding gender neutral baby flannel. The bumble bees were one of the pieces I bought. Later I found out she was having a girl so of course I went out and bought some girl themed flannel. That is partly why I made 17 receiving blankets.

The other reason is I had Tatianna with me, when I found some mother goose themed flannel. She tried to get me to promise that when she was having a baby I would make some receiving blankets out of this fabric. If she was expecting that would have been one thing. but she isn't married yet and in fact she isn't even dating any one. So the likely hood that fabric will be available when she was expecting is about nil. I decided to get double what I needed and make some for her to put in her hope chest. 


Then Tatianna found this really awesome little boy themed flannel. Of course we couldn't let that get away. I asked for enough to make 2 receiving blankets. That was all a couple of months ago.

This week when I started cutting the fabric a strange thing happened. Instead of four receiving blankets from the mother goose fabric I got six. Then instead of 2 receiving blankets from the animal flannel, I got 3. I did some calculations and realized I had gotten at least an extra yard of each one. I called Hobby Lobby to see how we could go about paying for the extra. They were rather stunned. I explained that when we bought the fabric the department was really busy and I think the sales person lost track of how many yards she gave us. I told them I didn't have the receipt anymore but would be more than happy to come in and pay for it. The manager thanked me profusely and said to just enjoy the fabric. So YAY for me.  I get a bonus and my integrity is intact.

Making these receiving blankets accomplished a couple of things. One the blankets are done and Aliyahs box is packed to go. Two, both Tatianna and Perigrine have added receiving blankets to their hope chests. Three, the flannel is taken care of and not cluttering up the studio. That opens up the way for me to get back to some of those UFOs.

I actually started back on the star quilt and finished up the first ten blocks. I hope to work on a block each night and get the blocks done in the next couple of weeks.  Then I am going to do Sashing and Corner stones. Since I want to turn the corner stones into stars, I plan on working on this quilts for a couple of months. I still need to get the borders and back for the Christmas Lemonade quilt so I can get that quilted.

I am feeling pretty satisfied with my month so far. It is amazing how being creative can make things go better. That being said I just found out I need to go into work early and cover a line. So i better close.

How is your month going? Are you getting the stress relief that being creative gives you? What are you working on.