It’s all about flexibility, right? After setting my goals for this year I started thinking about the best way to achieve them. I want to make some progress with my quilting skills and also need to spend time on my Etsy shop to keep it growing. I decided to make a schedule of sorts. My nature is to hop from one thing to another and that is usually inefficient. I start something, sew and then move to something else. No real plan. So, I decided I would earmark some time twice a week to sew on my products for the Etsy shop. Any other sewing time that was available would be used for quilting projects.
Ahh…. the best laid plans. The week just didn’t allow for a schedule! If you are a local reader you probably remember we had some pretty crazy winds last week. Which led to this:
I wasn’t home when this tree fell over but my kids were and they texted me this picture. Yikes! So, with a tree that size on the ground, we had to call the tree guy to come deal with it. One thing led to another, as so often happens, and we ended up with this:
No point having the tree guy come out and only clean up the fallen tree. He took out another tree, cleaned this pine you see above and topped two more trees. Might as well get it all done. So this created activity around here and I was distracted from sewing the first day or so.
Woke up with a migraine on late Monday night. I get lots of migraines…. not very fun. I have learned over the years that the day after a migraine my brain is frighteningly similar to a plate of scrambled eggs. I cannot focus or think straight and driving is not even an option. Cutting fabric is such a waste – might as well just throw it away because it won’t be straight, accurate or even close to the right size. If I sew it is highly likely that I will stitch something wrong sides together or upside down. Don’t ask me how I know, but trust me, I do. So instead of sewing that day I sorted scraps. I had been tossing my scraps into a paper grocery sack under my sewing table for the past 8 or 9 months and it was full.
It was fun to look through all of it. Remembering all the projects that I had made over the past year or so. Didn’t take me long to get it sorted into little piles by color.
Apparently red, green, blue and brown were mycolors for last year. Very little pink and only one tiny scrap of yellow. Kind of funny to see it all sorted out. I found some jars that I had in the basement which held about 1/2 of this and the other 1/2 is sitting in Ziploc bags until I figure something out. Anyone want to make me some of those cute fabric boxes that other quilters use for scraps in their adorable, organized sewing rooms? That would be great, thank you very much.
I left the blue and white scraps out as that is the January color for RSC15. I took a quick peek at the first row for Mari’s Classic Stitches BOM at Academic Quilter and plan to get started on that fairly soon. The block is a Broken Dishes pattern using lots of HST’s. It will be fun to get started on those. She has several options for block size with each row so I need to figure out a plan before I start cutting.
I do have a couple of finishes for this week. Sunday I got the RSC14 quilt top assembled. It is so pretty. I sashed it with a light gray polka dot fabric.
I’m very happy with the way this one turned out. I wanted to add some width so the border on each side is 4 inches rather than two like the top and bottom strips. At this point I am making good progress on this one and should have it sandwiched, quilted and bound by end of the month. (I hope, I hope!)
I also managed to finish up a couple of Chemex Coffee Pot cozies for my Etsy shop. This one is my favorite for the week. The fabric is from an Alexander Henry line (Dia De Los Muertos). Most of the line was a little weird for me but this piece is so fun. I wish I had bought more of it.
So the week was kind of crazy. I wasn’t really able to work to the schedule that I had planned on. It’s ok. There’s always next week. Hope all of you are working on something fun!
Linking up with sweet Lorna at Let’s Bee Social, Connie over at Freemotion by the RIver and Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts. What a talented trio. Pop over and check out all the work that is linked up with these blogs. The links are posted at the top of the page, under Link Ups.
You’ve been busy this week! I love your rainbow quilt. LOL, I had to look twice at the photo of the figure in the tree – I thought at first it was a monkey and my brain wasn’t computing??? Must have been quite the wind!
Love that butterfly! Great job on the scrap organization. I precut mine into squares and strips and organize by size, but I have enjoyed seeing everyone’s cute ways to organize by color (like your jars!).
Thanks. I love the butterfly too. I do cut a bunch of mine into strips (I have another tub with strips sorted by color.) But the scraps that aren’t long enough for strips were being tossed into the bag and are now in the jars!
Take care,
B.
I thought the tree guy was an escapee from a fairy story! Or a decoration you had put in the tree. Lovely quilt and great scrap organization.
Honestly Lori, I was amazed by how he crawled around in that tree. He was really high up there.
Thanks for stopping by!
Take care,
Bernie
I’m glad your week turned out better than it started!! Fallen trees are sad, and migraines are no fun at all. Your quilt top is so pretty with the sun shining through it. And I love the coffee pot cozy–as always. I just thought of a way I could get those fabric boxes for storage–make one a month following RSC15. Nah, that’s not going to happen, but it would be fun.
Thanks Janine! It was a pretty day for taking quilt pictures. The weather has been unseasonably warm – I know everyone else is freezing right now but we are in the low 70’s. Yikes, too warm for January. The fabric boxes would be fun to make but I am not sure where I would put them in the sewing room. I need to clean the closet which basically only has fabric in it. Then maybe I would have some space.
B.
Holy cow, I love your RSC14 quilt! It turned out so lovely! That is some seriously strong wind to take out a tree that size. Glad it was only a tree and not anything on the house. Love the scraps! Hope a better week is coming!
Yep, it was crazy wind. I think they said it got to about 60 mph. Since it was right after a long overdue rain, the water hadn’t even soaked in. Lots of people lost trees and because of that, lose power too. We got lucky and didn’t lost power.
Thanks for the compliment on the RSC quilt. I bet the RSC15 quilt will be even better!!
B.
What crazy weather! Glad the tree fell AWAY from the house rather than towards it! Sorry to hear you suffer from those migraines. Looks like sorting through your scraps was a great way to spend the day after. And make some progress in organizing. Looking forward to seeing that pretty RSC14 quilt all quilted up!
Hi Lorna,
Yes, very glad the tree fell onto the grass. Much better!! And that it didn’t fall on a car. Usually my husband parks right under those trees. That would have been miserable.
I am going to get the backing put together today and hope to get it all pinned for quilting. Then have to decide how to quilt it. For me, that is usually the hardest decision!
B.
Never a dull moment right Bernie.?
Love your cozy and quilt colors.
HAPPY NEW YEAR !
That’s for sure. I am kind of hoping for a dull weekend. We shall see….. :-).
Hope you have a nice weekend Vickie.
Dearest Bernie,
Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your bloog.
Your quilting is way way beyond anything I could do.
The tree that blew down, is that the one that dripped the red plums on everyone’s cars ?
Reta you are so sweet. You were one of my original Quilty mentors!! I am still sewing stuff with all of the fabric you have given me. Wish you were still my neighbor!
Yes, the tree was one of the messy plum trees. We were so I glad it didn’t fall on a car!
Take care, b.