Sidetracked!

I declare that my nickname should be "Sidetracked"....why, because I do it so often! I was working on making the BOM for the quilt guild, I wanted to finish all of them by the next meeting April 7th. I'm hoping a lot of others will do them so that if someone wins them, then they will be able to make a full quilt out of them....sidetracked again. So, I'm digging through my scraps, since most of the blocks I chose for the year are scrappy, next thing 10 days have passed and I think I'm finished....wrong! I look up to the top of the book case and there are two more large popcorn tins stuffed full of scraps. Those are just going to have to wait until next week, I will finish these blocks first.

Since I devoted so much time to sorting scraps, I went looking for scrappy quilt patterns (another side-trip) and found this absolutely fantastic website called Quiltville. http://www.quiltville.com/

Bonnie Hunter is the owner/author of it and she has lots of free instructions for many scrappy quilts. I discovered that she and I share basically the same system for organizing scraps (good thing since it was in day 5 of sorting scraps or so that I found the site), I just added two more boxes to my stash labeled "Crumbs" & "Strings". I feel totally justified for not throwing out all those scraps, just wish I would have done it sooner. I now have a basket sitting on the shelf that I toss leftovers from my project and told myself that I would go through it at least once a month or more as I needed to sort it...no more buckets, cans or assorted ziplock bags full of scraps!



Yesterday, I finally finished the pillow shams made from the free pattern I got from "Design in Machine Embroidery" magazine donated by the HoopSisters. It is a "Turned Ribbon" and the quilting and piecing was done "in the hoop". They provided a second block intended for the back, but I decided to add some 3D organza based flowers from Jenny Haskins, "Gracious Impressions" and make a matching pillow sham. They really turned out nice and will make a lovely gift.















Well, today I'll continue working on the BOM for the guild. I think I have about 5 more to do. Once I finish them, I need to pull together the stuff I need for the April Program....me on "Machine Embroidery and Quilting", the pillow shams are part of it. I need to pull quilt tops, place mats and anything else I can find that I still own and haven't given away yet...which isn't a lot. I'm going to cover threads, needles and stabilizers as well.

What a beautiful day Saturday was. I spent the morning and afternoon with others for National Quilters Day. We sewed and shared a potluck lunch. When I got home, I got new numbers on the mailbox, then spent a few hours in the garden, raking and cleaning up. First signs of spring have appeared, the sun was shinning all day...what more could you want. I seem to always get more done on sunny days.

Next stop was church service, then a quick trip to Walmart to replace the Microwave that "blew up" while I was gone this afternoon. Tomorrow....or rather today, I'm going to finish sorting my fabric scraps which has turned into a week long process and work on backing up files on my desktop. It's been way too long since I've done it, and I really need to get it done before a disaster hits in the guise of a hard drive crash. Learned that lesson the hard way more than once...so why have I waited so long to do it? Guess because it's such a "pain in the tush". The bigger the hard drives, the more to back up.

I am so bad about keeping up with this.....what have I been doing the last 3 days???? Sorting scraps. No kidding I think they are multiplying like little bunnies overnight. Yesterday, I thought the end might be in sight, but found a large bucket and bag of scraps I didn't know about. I'm sorting them into strips (1 1/2, 2, 2 1/2, 3, 3 1/2, up to 6 1/2" wide) and then into piles of fabric to stick in with my FQ boxes. I found yardage in with my scraps....why I just cannot throw it away like my friends do, I can't tell you. Pieces too small to go in the strip boxes are being cut up into blocks. I know, it's like a illness...with no cure. With any luck, I might get done with them by Sunday. I hope!!!!

Just got through watching DIY Dish first episode and they made the cutest little layer cake pincushions....such a cute little gift item for friends for birthdays and Christmas....I'll have to get the bin of felt out and see what I can whip up. Love Heather Baileys Turtle pincushion, that looks like another must have pattern.

http://www.thediydish.com/feed/

While in Florida on vacation, I bought the cutest thread catcher pattern. It's from ArtFabric Studio....Catchit Frog with Lilypad Pincushion. I need to go through my Batik bin and find exactly the right fabric to make him.

Okay, time for a quick shower and get back down to the sorting. I so do love being retired and having my "workplace" aka Studio just downstairs. All it needs is a TV, but in lieu of that, I listen to Audio books and multi-task. I really should also continue stitching out the thread samples of all the machine embroidery threads I own...I forgot to do that yesterday. It would save me so much time to know what I really do have on hand so I don't end up buying duplicates like I have in the past.