I Am Quilting...I Swear!

I need to get to ''done'' on a project. A few of these projects are nowhere close to being completed. Not anytime in the next few years. Others are projects that are impressive and will get done soon, but I am not allowed to show you pictures of them; such as the block that I am making for the Austin Area Quilt Guild's raffle quilt. There is supposed to be an unveiling of it a long time from today, so sometime the future you will all be wondering how I get all of these fabulous things done.

Here is my secret:

1) stockpile finished projects and only use your camera once a year to take pictures of them.
2) sign up for tons of small projects. ''Hey, look at this kick-ass seam ripper case that I made!''
3) give your stuff to other people to finish, then take credit for getting it done . (well, I did put the binding on...)
4) start giving yourself credit for pulling fabric off of the shelf for a project. Sometimes, it takes me an 8 hour day to pull a stack of fabric for a project. 7 hours of it is spent cleaning, cooking, washing kids, and putting out small fires. 1 hour spent hiding behind my sewing desk with chocolate and a quilting book.
5) Pull out projects that you finished years ago, then ''re-post'' them. No one remembers (or cares?) about the quilt you finished in 1992. Go ahead, technically, it's almost vintage.
6) and now, I am going to start posting blocks that I finished, even if they are a nine patch. Like I said a few posts back, a nine patch is quite an accomplishment to me these days.

It is now 12:30 in the morning. I have a fresh pot of coffee. I am going into my sewing room.

Wordless Wednesday

Let Me Tell You (x3)

I think that it is time for a new post; would you not agree? I have a few tidbits of information to share today. First, I have become totally spoiled by my ''secret'' mug rug swap giver. Christine provided me with a stack of fat quarters (a big huge stack! \0/), a beautiful card and note, and two very wonderful mug rugs. She hand quilted one of them (love it!). I love so much about these. The colors on the one under my mug is colorful and matches my sewing room perfectly; so that one will have a new home next to my machine. The other one, with the tiny, tiny paper pieced tea cup shall sit next to my green laptop on my desk; again, matching perfectly. I think that she came to Texas and snooped in my windows to make sure that she coordinated them exactly. (just kidding Christine, we all know you are way more normal than I am.)

The next bit of news is that I got another shop sample done, but the picture didn't turn out very well, and I am way too lazy at this point to drive to the quilt store to take a better picture of it. Never look back, I say...unless there is a cute butt involved. The pattern is called Snapshot, and the Fabric is from Moda's Sandy Gervais called Lovely. I used a panel, cutting the circles in half, then using those as the focus print in the pattern. Here it is:


Last, I have my new replacement 2011 Chevy Equinox. I sure did miss my car. I did not realize how much I loved that car until she was totaled. My friends are telling me that I need to give her a name so that she will stick around longer. So she is now called ''Natasha''. A beautiful but mean babushka with a protective and durable outer shell. She needs a good ol' North Dakota car quilt in the back though, as a Christianing. I wouldn't dare bust a bottle of champagne on her butt when it could go well in my cup, on my mug rug.

I love IKEA!

This is how the corner of my sewing room looked before I replaced the bookshelf.

And this is how it looks now:

I am a firm believer in utilizing wall space for storage, and visual impact, especially when you are trying to store things in a sewing room. I have so many more books on my shelves now, with plenty of space above those to stow other sewing supplies away. The key is to get narrower shelves so that the weight of the books will not bow the individual shelves over time. It also helps to keep your books together in groups such as: applique, scrap quilting, how-to, quilting designs, etc, etc. remember to keep the books low and lighter things up high. As you can see, you don't have to be afraid to build those shelves almost up to the ceiling. I promise it won't look terrible.

So that is my before/after for the day...now I just have to go ''fix'' the other 3 corners of the room...see y'all tomorrow!