Procrastination and Taking Inventory

Hi!!  

Today was suppose to be a cleaning day here at our place.  I've procrastinated all week.  Every morning when Dallas asks me what I plan on doing for the day, I say "I'm going to clean".  And every evening he comes back and I've done no cleaning!  None at all!  However, I have done a great deal of productive procrastinating!

Today was the same ... I'm going to clean the apartment!!  Well ... I kind of did.  Okay, I vacuumed, I plan on cleaning the bathroom and I may even take out the garbage!!  Dusting and washing the kitchen floor is going to wait until tomorrow!!  I need to clean out our storage room too.  I spilled laundry soap on the floor about 2 months ago.  I did a quick clean up.  Now there's more fuzz stuck to that spot on the floor than comes out of the dryer!!  What I did do today is take inventory of my sewing/crafting space!!  I was amazed at what I found.  

*  I have a whole pile of material that needs to be used up.  

*  I've got 2 rubbermade tubs full of bluejeans taking up very valuable space!!

* 11 finished quilt tops

Top to bottom:  Christmas tree wall hanging, halloween baby quilt, argyle quilt, curved one that I started at your place, Christmas quilt that Mom got me when I was in Taiwan, 6 scrappy squares with everything else white quilt, flannel squares quilt, Hometown quilt (that was going to be the quilt for our bed), Twister Ruler quilt,  light/dark quilt and Barn Dance quilt.

*  2 Christmas stockings

*  Ghosts and pumpkins - I need to attach the pumpkins!!

*  I've also got Snowmen, like the ghost, to finish too!!

*  A stack of squares, already cut, just waiting to be sewn together.  I was going to make another Twist Ruler quilt!!

*  A few practice blocks that I made so long ago that I would have to practice again before I actually do anything with them!!

I think I'm going to make mini pillows out of these blocks or put them into another random blue jean backed quilt.  Have I shown you the blue jean quilt that I made?  

*  Then there's the quilt that Mom bought for herself.  It was a block of the month from Quilt Patch in Moose Jaw.  It's going to be a beautiful quilt, if and when I actually get it done.  Each block takes about 1.5 hours to make.  You have to cut out lots of little pieces - squares into halves and quarters.  It takes forever to make each block.  I think there are 14 blocks that surround the centre piece.  I'm done  8 of the  14 blocks and the centre piece.  The centre piece has a bunch of appliqué on it and it hasn't been stitched down yet.  It's one of those projects that never ends!!

The top bag has the outer board in it.  I think you cut 250 3" squares and then sew them together in a random fashion.  The middle bag has the remnants from the blocks I'm done

These are the last 6 blocks:  

Here's the square I did today:

The colours look better than they do in that picture!!

*  This one needs some binding ... I ran out of white thread so I can't finish this one!!  

I did finish the light and dark quilt top this morning:  

This one was more challenging that I thought it would be.  The sewing part of it was easy to figure out.  It was challenging to determine the difference between light, medium and dark fabrics.  I have lots of mediums in the light spots!  Its still pretty small but I like it!  I don't think I'll put a border on this one.

*  I finished making the blocks for my Ballerina Quilt.  I haven't found a layout that I really like for it yet.  Once I do, there are a dozen 1/2 blocks to make to finish the top.  This one will be easy to sew together.

*  I am still working on the red and white 9 patch quilt.  This one is another one that is never ending .... I'm sure I'll get it done some time, I'm just not sure when!

*  I have a purse/bag that I'm making out of a suit jacket started.  The suit is torn apart, the pattern is made, I'm just nervous about starting ... you know ... that fist cut is the scariest!

I'm sure there are more UFOs, in fact I know there are.  I have a bunch of grain/feed sacks that I either want to make into pillow covers or into a table cloth.   Who am I kidding ... I'll never get it all done!  There's always going to be something else to add to the to-do list!  That's what makes this productive method of procrastinating some much fun and worth doing!!

Here are a few signs that I want to make too: 

This one will go with the "You're the bubbles to my bath"  

I do love numbers!

I just like this one ... lots!!

I think I should make 2 of these ... one for you and one for me!!

I might make this for Carrie.

I kind of just like this one!

This one would be for Cor ....

I want this one 

I like this one ... I kind of thought of Carrie and Brad when I read this one  ....

And my personal favourite:  

Do you remember this one:

Chelsea wants to buy this one from me.  I'm having a hard time letting it go.  I've ordered the material for the back.  Its a bright red flannel or fleece (I can't remember).  I'm not sure I can let it go b/c it took me so long to finish it and I love it!

I better get moving ... the bathroom isn't going to clean itself and I have a hair appointment at 4:30.  My grey hair is taking over and I need a trim!!

Happy Procrastination .... ME

#ilovesummer

Logan and Eva's quilt

Hey there,
So here's a couple pics of Logan and Eva's quilt.  That's number three of four wedding quilts that I need(ed) for this summer.  All have been done before the wedding date(s).  Not bad for a professional procrastinator.

Her

Some little finishes

Hey there,
Here's a couple of little finishes I hadn't shown you yet.  One was a blankie for Tenille's son and they other are the three slabs I sent off to Calgary yesterday.

What's your latest accomplishment?
Her

something to do on a Sunday

Hey there,
I saw this http://naptimequilter.blogspot.ca/2013/06/slabs-for.html  when I was trolling through blogland and think I will try and make one/two this afternoon.  Of course the challenge will be finding similar colour families since I went on a major tear through my scraps a couple weeks ago. It seems easy to make and is close to home.
What do you think?
Her

It's the final countdown ....

That's the song that has been playing through my head for the last week .... now it really is the last week and the final countdown has officially began!!  I hope you had a great birthday yesterday!  In your honour, I visited the dentist for the third time in a month!

I stumbled upon the Joann's website yesterday and saw that their big roll of batting was on sale for 50% off, so I bought it!!  I've been out of batting since last summer and our apartment isn't the best place to lay out quilts to finish them, so I've just kept making quilt tops instead of finishing all of them.  I figure I will be able to use it all up this summer because I have a number of quilt tops made already.  In fact, I finished another top this weekend!! I had planned on getting it done last week but finals, marking and a retirement party got in my way!  It's not as bright as the one in the pattern but I still like it!

It was difficult to select colours for this one because I was using scraps up!  It's not that big and is square so I think it will become a wall hanging eventually (once I have a wall to hang it on!!).  Or it might look good as an accent quilt with the other Hometown quilt.  The one I was making for our bed, that has recently been demoted to the spare bed.  Poor quilt, demoted before it was even done!!  Its sad really!

As you can imagine, I started another quilt!!  I'm so excited about this one because I love the material so much.  Its called PB&J!!  Here are a few pictures of some squares that I started Sunday night:

Since there are 39 squares in this quilt and a lot of cutting/sewing together, I thought I would do it one colour at a time.  Then we can lay it out at your place to pick the colour pattern.  This is the first colour I started with...

Here's the first one put together.... it's actually not sewn down the middle yet.

Here's the second colour.

Here's the third ... all pinned together, ready to be stitched!

I'm surprised how fast I can get these blocks put together.  My goal is to finish this quilt the first week we are on holidays!!  Actually finish it and put it on my bed!!  Now that I have all that batting arriving soon.

4 days left ... we can do it!

ME