So it is 11:06 at night, I have to get up at 4:00 am and I am wide awake. I should have never taken that nap this afternoon. I can't sew, (it would wake up my husband) so I decided to blog. Killian made me a nice mug of warm milk and hopefully by the time I am done, it will have kicked in.
This past week I went to Pack Expo with my husband. It was a great time and I bought home a whole suitcase fool of swag. Mostly bags but lots of pens, some stress balls, and some tape measures/rulers. But mostly bags. I had to buy a new suitcase to bring it all home in. I had a great time and saw some amazing machinery and cool applications that I would love to see at my work.
We got home late on Thursday night and I was looking forward to working on the two quilts that need borders on Friday. Guess what, I didn't. I did clean up the studio a bit, I did laundry, and I did start to cut the borders, at least the inner border. But that is where I stalled out.
Knowing that I can't force myself, and get good results, I decided to try a different tack. I set aside the borders and pulled out the 2 inch blocks I had left over from the Joyfully Scrappy quilt (one of the ones that need borders). I decided I would just start chain piecing them into 4 patch units. I pulled my machine to the front of my work surface and started. Or I should say tried to start. The fabric wasn't feeding well at all. The surface of the machine was rough and a little tacky.
I did a quick wipe down of the machine and I still couldn't get the fabric to feed smoothly. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what had happened. Then I remembered, a few weeks ago I had sprayed a basting spray onto a cork board to get some paper to adhere. I had not protected my work surface from over spray. I had cleaned up the surface but didn't realize that my machine had been hit. Clorox wipes wouldn't remove it. So I put the machine aside until I could get a Mr. Clean Magic eraser.
That was when I decided that I didn't have enough contrast in the 2 inch squares. I decided that I would take more of the 4 inch square blocks and make some more 2 inch squares. Which then evolved into planning a quilt using 16 patch units and four patch units. Over the past 3 days I have cut 1400 - 2 inch squares. I am rather excited to get going on this quilt. It will be another quilt that is using up what I have on hand.
I got inspired to use what I have in my stash from watching a video series on YouTube. It was by Karen Brown of "Just Get It Done Quilts". She talks about shopping from your stash first. She even talks about inventorying your stash and figuring out how many quilts you can make with what you have. I haven't inventoried my stash yet. That is a project for a weekend when my daughters are around. Anyway, she has a blog page and several more video series as well as a face book page, You really should check her out. It's like group therapy for quilters, especially beginner quilters.
So instead of finishing up UFOs, I have started another one. I think I've mentioned before that I really like the piecing part of quilting. Even though I really need to get better at it. I plan to get my sewing machine cleaned up tomorrow evening. Then for a little while each night I will stitch away to my heart's content. I will make this my getting back on track project. Basically a project to work on when I am feeling the need to stitch but not the need to finish up a project. Sort of a way to recharge my quilting energy.
I will definitely get around to cutting those borders and making the backs for the two quilts sitting on the long arm. I will also get the label on the starry night quilt. Plus I need to finish up my Irish chain quilt. I am excited to get that one done and on Millie because I already know how I am going to quilt it and what thread I am going to use.
On top of that Emerson wants me to make him a quilt for his bed. I know what I want to do and just need to pull the fabric from my stash. And I need to make Aurora a quilt for her bed too. Don't know about that one yet. Too many plans and not enough time.
What is in your stash? What project do you have planned? What is inspiring you these days?
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