Stories from the Sewing Room

My goal for May is to sew together the 25 blocks pictured here.  They are part of my version of Bonnie Hunter's Grassy Creek mystery.  I had stalled out when we got to the part with sewing all the strings.  I am still unsure I want to sew all the strings, so I set this one aside.  I decided a good way to decide what to do is simply start assembling the parts of the blocks I like and go from there.

I'm also working on a project made almost entirely from my scraps.  Here is a literally very small piece of the project.  {The only thing I purchased was backing fabric specific to this project's recipient.}  Bonus points to me for figuring out how to draw up and print my own foundations in EQ8.

Of course I am also quilting.  I returned two quilts to their owners over the past few days and worked on a few others.  

Here's a sneak peek of a guild project.  I forget which charity this will fundraise for. I chose to quilt it with the Curlique pattern.  I always wonder if this one should be pronounced "cur-leek" or "curlicue". 

I'm still working on removing all the foundations from my For the Love of Geese quilt top.  It's going a bit faster than I expected; however, I'll still be glad when that step is done.

I am happy to report that I have filled a book box with quilting books, patterns, and other assorted things that I will donate to the Treasure Shop fundraiser for the other guild that I belong to.  There's one box less stuff in my room. Progress!

I am really happy that I was able to spend the weekend buying flowers.  It was really relaxing and rejuvenating and I'm glad I took the time to go outside and do something I mostly enjoy.  Here is my haul from one of the four places I went.  Also, did you know you can buy sugar at Menards?  You'll pay a premium, but it's there.  

I also couldn't pass up these beet plants (bought two, only one pictured).

Part of the process that I don't really enjoy is pulling weeds.  I wouldn't mind it that much other than we have a major spearmint infestation in our lower garden.  We planted one of those little square containers and it went insane.  I do not use chemicals in any of my gardens or my yard, so pulling the spearmint out by hand is the only way to get rid of it.  We all worked on it as time, the weather, and, for two of us, our out of shape, middle-aged bodies, would permit.  We made a good dent, but there is a lot more to go.  We found that using cultivators to loosen up the mulch really helped with getting down to the roots. If you ever feel the urge to plant spearmint, don't!  The only good thing I can say about it is that the deer don't eat it.

If you have really sharp vision, you might see all the milkweed coming up in the photo below.  It makes the garden look a bit sloppy as summer goes on, but we can host monarchs.  Last week I saw a sparrow eating dandelion fluff in my lawn.  That was a new one.

All the irises are starting to bloom.

This one is called Batik.  It looks really good this year.  I'm not seeing many buds on my ultimate favorite, which is Crater Lake Blue.

I've finished several more quilts.  Here's a sneak peek of one of Charlene's quilts.

And here is Sara's quilt in progress. I'm really pleased with how this came out.  The pattern took a while to line up and stitch out properly.  It was worth the effort.

I'm wrapping up another king size quilt for Amber.

If you have something you need quilted, my wait time is about a week right now--that's the shortest wait I've had this year.  Head over to my long arm quilting business website to sign up. I'd love to work with you.

I wasn't great about taking pictures this week, but I finished the last seam of my For the Love of Geese quilt.  I am now removing the papers.  I made three more masks for my kids. I sewed another charm pack's worth of my Cupcake Mix project that I don't think I've worked on in close to a year. And by sewed, I don't mean finished, just sewed the background and charms to the paper. It will still require cutting the parts from the paper and then assembling the blocks. It might be another year before I get to that.

Which leads me to talking about stash.  A few weeks ago, I saw a Facebook post that I just can't stop thinking about.  I took a screen shot:

I look around my beautifully organized closet in my sewing room and realize that that FB post could apply to me some day.  I definitely have things I've hoarded or saved for a special project. It's time to use all the stash.  Clearly this will take me some time.  I've been pretty good about buying only what I need to fill in fabric requirements and mostly shopping my stash when sewing during the past year.  But as you can see, I could easily make three quilts and not even make a dent.  I could probably not even dent it with 10 quilts.  My stash brings me joy and it brings me shame.  I see possibility and I see excess and sometimes I see failure. Maybe you can relate?

The right side of my closet is all batting rolls and scraps.  I use these for my business, so it doesn't bother me as much as the rest does.

This past year has been so odd.  I've fallen out of most of my good routines.  There's rarely a sense of urgency to get anything done because most every day is exactly the same.  I know I need to get into better routines, particularly with my eating, exercising, and sewing.  Maybe with cleaning and yard work. Eh. I could definitely manage my time better. Anyway, hopefully I haven't been too much of a downer.  

Turning to something more positive...our Baltimore orioles and rose breasted grosbeaks have arrived.  The orioles stay with us most of the summer.  The grosbeaks are usually here for a few weeks.  We have a bluebird nest in the bird house by the vegetable garden.  It has five eggs in it.  We also found a nest on the floodlight on the back of the house.  We can see the nest from the deck, but it's at the other end of the house, so not sure what's in it.  I'm guessing a robin. It's a pretty big nest.

I bought a series of books for my son--Keeper of the Lost Cities series by Shannon Messenger.  He's part way into the first one and enjoying it. I'm into book five and ordered six, seven, and eight today.  😊 They're sort of along the lines of Harry Potter, but with a female lead.  I recommend them.

Let's end with some sewing, shall we?  I got out my Grassy Creek mystery and will be working towards finishing it over the next few months (or longer; we'll see). Definitely not the greatest picture, but it's nice to have something on the design wall again.  I had to laugh when I saw that I managed to put them all on an uphill slant.