What I've Been Doing While I Should Have Been Doing Something Else

Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task. –William James

Have you ever asked a child to do something they don't want to do? They fuss and whine and complain and drag their feet and try everything they can think of to get out of it. And after all that time and energy they put into not doing the thing, they could have done whatever it is three times over. I do that sometimes, too. I think that is why it is so frustrating for me when the Not-So-Little Bugs do it .

I've been dragging my feet on the quilting on P.'s beautiful String Ring Dresden for a while. Now don't get me wrong. It's not that I don't want to do this project. I volunteered for it, after all. It's more that I'm scared that I'll mess P.'s quilt up. It is intimidating to quilt for another quilter. I'm a bad, bad friend and she has been very patient with me. The quilt has been at my house for nine months. For the first five months, I ignored it. When I couldn't ignore it any longer, I broke down and started quilting. I got almost to the half-way point and then I lost my mojo. In trying to get it back, I pulled something else out that I thought I'd just work on for a bit. But it turns out that this project was bright and shiny and oh-so-distracting, so I worked on it for just a bit more. After six weeks, I decided it was time to put it away. But I didn't quite. I was the perfect covert dragging-my-feet opportunity and I took advantage.

I kept the little embroidered labels out to work on when I have a few minutes of sitting and waiting. I knew that Grandma Week was coming up and they'd be perfect for when the adults all sat around and talked after the kids had gone to bed. And because I knew Grandma Week was coming up, I decided I didn't want to get in the middle of quilting and have to stop. I embroidered all of the block names and the quilt name in their reds and blues.

After I finished the block titles, I knew that I couldn't work on filling in the details, because that would look too much like avoidance. I decided to keep that "get out of quilting free" card for another time. But except for that really dry spell for the last three weeks of June, I sew almost every day. I needed something else that would get me out of quilting, but not be too obvious. I puttered around with some half-square triangles. And then, just to break up the monotony, I started a completely new quilt. I think that might have been an outright tantrum against finishing the quilting.

Fabric Auditions

Call Backs

Final Casting

Rehearsals

Dress Rehearsal

The performance has been put on hold, though. I stashed the project away to be finished after I finish P's quilt. I finally got up the gumption, put on my big girl Machingers and am quilting again. With any luck, I'll be finished in a week. Photos coming soon. Unless I decided to procrastinate again.

Also, I am officially out of places to stash projects, which {hopefully} means a few more finishes. Soon. Ish.

South for the Winter

Give thanks for what you are now, and keep fighting for what you want to be tomorrow. –Fernanda Miramontes-Landeros

Since July 4^th I've been puttering around with my Patriotic Sampler. This is a project I started before LadyBug was born {which was 11½ years ago. Can she be that old already?} and is my second oldest Ph.D {Project Half-Done}. I keep thinking I need to put it away and work on something else, but there is always another something fun to tinker with on this quilt. I put together 120 flying geese for the outer border. I ♥ geese. And I ♥ this no waste method for flying geese.

I also made the transition pieces for the centers of the flying geese border. When I originally planned it, I'm pretty sure I envisioned diamonds {square in a square} at the center of each side between the geese. But because I didn't write my plans down anywhere, I had to come up with it twice. When I finally added the border to my layout graphic, I put in alternating strips of red and blue to bridge the gap between the different colors of geese. But once I had my strip sets sewn, I knew they needed to be diamonds rather than squares/rectangles.

I scanned the blocks and added them in to my layout. I really like how the diamonds look {compare to the previous incarnation}.

I forgot math while I was working on my border centers and accidentally made the ones for the sides too long. It took me for. ev. er. to get the background triangles in the corners right. I only discovered the blocks were too long when I went to square them up. But aren't they pretty?

Anything that I went to that much trouble to make does not end up in the discard bin. I decided to use them as a part of one of the place mats. {Backstory: I have this huge blank wall in my kitchen. I want to make a quilt for every month to display there, and have coordinating place mats on the table, which is next to the wall.} Place mats are fun, but I think for any future quilts, I'll probably do a table runner instead of place mats. Because no one will eat off these place mats. Ever.

A row of geese on each place mat was the original plan. I really like how it looks. There will be a sashing strip between and a border of the same width all the way around.

Since I used those discarded stripey diamonds on that first place mat, I decided to mix it up a little on some of the other place mats as well.

Another one with a row of geese.

Three diamonds made out of the geese units seemed to fit really well with this block.

And another one with just geese. It was purely coincidental that I ended up with three with rows of geese and three with something different. It was also purely coincidental that I posted them in alternating order.

I love the pretty red, white and blue scrappiness of this project. And I love the tan that ties everything together.

I started to put sashings on the quilt blocks for the top. Here it is on my living room floor up on my design wall. I debated about whether to just go ahead and put the top together, but I still need to finish eight of those tiny paper pieced five-point stars {I made three more since my last report} that go at the corner of each block. And didn't want the quilt top to sit folded somewhere for the next nine months until I can get to quilting it, so I only put things together insofar as they won't have to be folded when I put them away.

My last bit of puttering was to figure out how to label this puppy. Two of the blocks {The Old Red & Blue and Land of Liberty} are original designs by Marcia Hohn at The Quilter's Cache and her terms and conditions of use stipulate that any original block be credited to her and her site referenced in a permanent manner on the back of the quilt. I picked up ideas and/or patterns for a number of the other blocks from other folks around the internet {credits here}, so in fairness to everyone who creatively contributed, I decided to make a little embroidered label for each block. They are between 1½" and 2" tall and 4" wide. There's also a label with the name of the quilt {This Land Is My Land} and credits to me for piecing, layout and quilting. I'm going to put them together in a strip that will go up the back of the quilt along length of the seam where I join the two pieces of fabric to make it wide enough. I'll add varying lengths of strips of red and blue fabric or left over geese between each embroidered piece. I'll keep the labels in my go bag for hand projects for when I know I'll be sitting and waiting. Hopefully, I'll have them all finished when I'm ready to get this quilt out again and finish it. {Sidebar: LadyBug had her pre-6^th grade well-child check the other day. I didn't bring anything to work on because I thought we'd be in and out in a jiffy. The last few times we've been in for other things, I've barely got my project out when they're ushering us out the door. But after 10 minutes in the waiting room, we sat for a full 30 minutes in the exam room before the doctor came in. I think they forgot we were in there because they weren't busy. We entertained ourselves with a rousing game of "I Spy." Lesson learned. Always bring a project. Always.}

I put everything back in the storage tote today. I made myself little notes and put things in separate baggies so that when I get this back out again, I won't have to reinvent. There's not much left to do before I have a flimsy. Eight 5-point paper pieced stars; adding the sashings and corner stones to the blocks, sewing the blocks together, sewing the flying geese border together and adding it to the quilt.

Yes. Next year is definitely the year to get this quilt finished. But for now, the 120 geese {and company} are flying south for the winter.

Tiny Stars All In A Row

[Miss Tick] said, “Are you listening?”
“Yes,” said Tiffany.
“Good. Now . . . if you trust in yourself . . .”
“Yes?”
“. . . and believe in your dreams . . .”
“Yes?”
“. . . and follow your star . . .” Miss Tick went on.
“Yes?”
“. . . you’ll still be beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy. Goodbye.”
–Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men

Since July 4^th, I've been puttering around with my patriotic themed quilt. I finished the last two blocks for the top and then started putting together some tiny 1" paper pieced stars. My little pile has grown from seven to 20 of 31 {27 for the front and four to go on the label on the back of the quilt}.

I also decided to measure my blocks for accuracy. This is one of the first quilts I ever started {it's my second oldest Ph.D} and I knew that some of the blocks were a little off. The blocks I did last year and this were OK, but most of the older blocks needed fixing. Some of them just needed to be taken apart, the pieces squared up and put back together with an accurate ¼" seam allowance. Others, I unpicked, changed out a few fabrics and put back together, and I even completely remade a couple.

I'll probably be moving on to another project soon, but my goal is to have the pieces close to being ready to put together into a quilt top when I get it back out again next year. I'm think I'm done with the stars for now. But I put together the blocks that go in the corners. I love how they came together!

I think I'm going to work on the flying geese a little bit, and then it will be time to put this quilt away for a while. Next year, I will remember to get this out in time to have it finished and displayed for the holiday!

Seven Days Without Sewing Makes One Weak

Doldrums: \ˈdōl-drəmz\
Noun
1. a spell of listlessness or despondency
2. a part of the ocean near the equator abounding in calms, squalls, and light shifting winds
3. a state or period of inactivity, stagnation, or slump

Once upon a time, about 2½ weeks ago, I kind of fell into a funk. About six weeks ago, I made a major adjustment to my schedule so that I could be around more for the Not-So-Little Bugs during summer. Overall, it has been a really positive change. I like being the first one in at work. I get a lot more done while it's quiet. And I also get to go home before everybody else; before lunch even. I think, too, that going to bed earlier {it's usually still a little bit light out} and getting more sleep has had a positive effect on how many migraines I get and how long they last {i.e., I'm having fewer and they don't hang on for days}.

I'm trying to keep this as non-whiney as possible, but what this little back-story is leading up to is that somewhere in there, I kind of lost my "me" time. And maybe a little bit of me, too. I know that making sacrifices for your kids is part of being a parent. But I kind of felt like there was a whole lot of resistance in the ranks to where I wanted to go {which, in the literal sense, was anywhere but sitting around at home staring at the screens all day}, getting up early to go to work, going to bed early so I could get up early to go to work, and trying to out-stubborn {in a happy, positive, encouraging kind of way} the reticent {or alternately defiant} Not-So-Little Bugs all combined to make me feel like I was kind of failing a little bit at life. Subsequently, not even sewing sounded fun. So for a few days, I didn't.

Going without sewing for a few days is no big deal. Sometimes you just need a little break. Going a whole week without sewing was kind of a red flag for me. I decided that I'd better get back to the machine and I started to write this post. Well, sort of. I had a clever post title {I ♥ puns}. A few more days went by and still no sewing. At around the 11^th no-sew day, it became a bit of a game and I decided to see if I could go a full two weeks without sewing. I think that was the turning point and by day 13, I was itching to do something creative. It was the 4^th of July and it is kind of my tradition to work on my Patriotic Sampler for a few days every year around this time. {I know. It would make more sense to start working on it in April so it would be finished and ready to display on the 4^th.}

I've been working on this sampler for about twelve years now. I started it when I was pregnant with LadyBug. She's eleven. It is my second oldest Ph.D, and I don't know why I don't just finish it already . I'm so close. Anyway, I decided I'd work on some of the itty, bitty paper pieced stars that go at the corners of the blocks in the sashing. It was then that I found out that my post title was more true than I knew. After the first star {which took an hour because I fussed and fiddled and unpicked a lot to try and get the stripes to line up} I was ready to quit. My sewing muscles {the mental ones that help you push through a boring/difficult/unpleasant part of a project} were seriously out of shape. I persisted, even though I didn't really want to. The non-stripey ones only took thirty minutes each. Seven down. Only twenty more to go.

Cute, no? They finish at 1". Who designed this quilt anyway?
Oh. Right. It was me.

After I'd had my fill of that, I put together one of two remaining blocks for the quilt top. It has been cut out and ready to go for, oh, I don't know. Four years now? This one is called Land of Liberty as was designed by Marcia Hohn at The Quilter's Cache. I kind of love it. Pinwheels and flying geese in the same block? It doesn't get better than that.

For the final block, I had three contenders, only two of which I can remember at the moment, so I won't even bother to tell you about the losers. I showed them to Mr. Bug and he said, hands down, this should be the final block. It is called Spiderweb Star, and it is pretty awesome. {Note: if you make this block, reverse the cutting directions for template piece C/CR.}

I also fiddled around at the old doodle pad {Microsoft Picture Manager & Microsoft Paint} and changed my sashing from tan {the same tan used for most of the block backgrounds. Yeah, not sure what I was thinking there.} to white, moved the blocks around a bit and added the flying geese border. It's kinda wild and crazy. I think it will be a little more mellow with a scrappy collection of reds and blues in the flying geese section. I'm debating about whether or not to add a border between the sashing and the geese and another on the outside of the geese. What do you think?

Block Credits:
Row 1 - left to right
The Old Red and Blue by Marcia Hohn at The Quilter's Cache
Zig-Zag Flag inspired by Karen at The Recipe Bunny
Our Eagle pattern from a BOM my mom did at her LQS

Row 2 - left & right
Glory Flag pattern from a BOM my mom did at her LQS
Crossroads traditional block

Center Section - left to right, top to bottom
Uncle Sam pattern from a BOM my mom did at her LQS
Patriot's Star {modified} at eQuiltPatterns.com
Banner Flag by Elizabeth
US Ribbon at Compuquilt
Pledge of Allegiance Embroidery by Elizabeth

Row 3 - left & right
July Fourth traditional block
54-40 or Fight {modified} or Star Shield traditional block

Row 4 - left to right
Land of Liberty by Marcia Hohn at The Quilter's Cache
Courthouse Steps traditional block
Spiderweb Star at McCall's Quilting

Zig-Zag Flag and Other Patriotic Quilt Blocks

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
–Francis Scott Key, The Star Spangled Banner

Last Wednesday {July 4^th} was kind of a big deal around these parts. There are parades and flags and fireworks and red, white and blue everywhere. I had the day off work {it's a national holiday, after all} so I decided that I wouldn't be any farther behind on my quilting to-do list if I took a break from what I am currently working on to do a little something fast and fun, but still on the to-do list. You see, I was distracted inspired by a super cute door hanger by Karen at The Recipe Bunny, who'd linked up to my July Finishes page. I thought her zig-zag flag block would fit perfectly in my Patriotic Sampler quilt. I had picked a couple of blocks that I just wasn't feeling the love on, which is probably why it has sat in its box all sad and lonely for . . . a really long time. I pulled it out, thinking I could throw together a scrappy 12" block with 108 HST's in an afternoon.

I tend to over estimate my powers of fabric persuasion. It took me the afternoon just to cut the fabrics. I got the HST's and the blue section {which may or may not have appliqué stars added to it later} put together before fireworks. I had a busy work week last week, so I fit in a bit of sewing time when ever I could and finished the rest of the block over the next few days {instead of hours}.

When I open my box of red, white and blue fabrics, I always wonder why this quilt isn't finished. I've been working on it since before LadyBug was born. I love the fabrics and colors and theme so much. So while I had it out, I put together a couple more blocks. I did a banner flag, which finishes at 5" x 12" {odd size, I know}, and I love it! Getting a good photo of it is another story.

I also put together a Patriot's Star and I think this is my absolute favorite block of the whole quilt. I reduced the pattern to 5" and omitted the black stained-glass effect outline. I just love how it turned out.

I've got 13 of the 15 blocks finished now. I'm pretty sure what the last two 12" blocks will be, and then after that I've got to paper piece 27 - 1" five-point stars for the sashing. I'm not really looking forward to that.

This quilt is on my list of quilts to finish this year, so hopefully I'll get back to it soon. In the meantime, I'm off to work on another distraction important project.

Sew Day: Escaping Critter/Bug Jar Quilt

Though snails are exceedingly slow,

There is one thing I'd like to know.

If I out run 'em round the yard,

How come they beat me to the chard?

–Allen Klein

Once upon a time, about three years ago, my mom and I started making an escaping bug jar quilt. Every week during that summer I went to her house and we had a sew day. We started with the little paper pieced critters. The snail was first because he is too cute, although an actual snail in an actual garden is anything but cute. He is still my favorite of all the escaped critters in the quilt {Coin and Natural Fairy Frost, Chestnut Moda Marbles}.

Then there's the dragon fly who needed a little sparkle {Aqua and Platinum Fairy Frost}.

And the beetle, who must be from some exotic land {Lipstick, Celestial & Violet Fairy Frost}.

The sticky-tongue frog makes me smile. I Photoshopped an eye on there so he wouldn't be sightless for his big internet debut {Lily Pad & Red Fairy Frost}.

If this mouse weren't so cute, I'd be setting a trap. Instead, I'll just leave him some cheese {Silver, Bubble Gum & Natural Fairy Frost}.

I'm pretty sure quilt spiders aren't poisonous. Better play it safe, though, and keep away from Miss Spider {Red & Fog Fairy Frost}.

Mr. Chameleon is playing it pretty casual, trying to blend into the background. If you don't look closely, you'll miss him {Lettuce Fairy Frost}.

When school got back in session, our Bug Jar Sew Days became less frequent. We scaled them back to once an month and we took turns traveling back and forth. The picture below was taking on our last sew day in February of 2010. We got our jars all cut, as well as the corners for the background.

We keep our fabrics in a storage tote. Whoever travels for our sew days gets to take the tote home and the next sew day will be at her house. The tote has been at my mom's house for more than two years. Yesterday, I went to her house for a sew day, but we didn't actually get to the sewing part. We did get all our background corner pieces marked and ready to sew on the corners of the bug fabrics to make them into jars. And we picked out some fabrics for a cute little firefly, which isn't included in the quilt pattern but was made by the same designer. It is too cute not to include, especially since I have some glow-in-the-dark Fairy Frost that will be perfect for it! The storage tote is at my house now. I hope it will be much less than two years before we open it again to work on our quilts.

Spooky Quilt Top

Halloween is huge in my house and we really get into the "spirits" of things. –Dee Snider

I'm doing a little happy dance. I got the Boo to You! quilt top finished and I really like how it came together. I was worried that the row of Jack-O-Lanterns might not fit in with the rest of the quilt since I added it to the pattern, but I think the scrappy border brings it all together nicely.

I've also got the scrappy borders on one of the place mats, but my batteries ran out before I got a picture, so I'll just have to show you it later. It is kind of big , but I suppose that doesn't matter too much since no one will ever eat off the place mats. They are for decoration only.

Read more about this project:
About this quilt and blocks in progress
Small Witch in progress
Witch place mat and quilt top in progress
Happy Jacks
Ghost and Black Cat place mats in progress
Pumpkins and Bats place mats in progress
Candy Corn place mat in progress

The Anatomy of A Migraine

It just wouldn't be a picnic without the ants. –Unknown

Yes. I still have a migraine. I can't be absolutely certain if I've had three different ones since Friday, or if it is just the same one that won't go away.

No. I'm not going to give you the run-down of what is and is not a migraine. And, no. I'm not going to give you my complete medical history. I just thought that The Anatomy of A Migraine was a sort of compelling post title . I'm really trying not to be whiney about this, although I know I'm not succeeding. Blogging is about what's on your mind, and a migraine is what's on my mind lately. I have to say this much, though. My mom gets migraines too. And she just goes on doing whatever it is she has to do; work, kids, grandkids, dinner, chores, whatever. She just keeps on. I used to wonder how she could do it because my migraines used to be the kind that made me want to curl up into a ball in the dark, under my covers, with an ice pack on my head until it went away. As time has passed, the headache part of it has devolved from a nauseatingly intense and debilitating pain to ranging in sensation from an almost intolerable and still quite nauseating pain to a dull ache in one side of my head that I can almost — but not quite — forget is there. I can still go to work and do laundry and cook dinner, but I move at a snail's pace, coherent thought is elusive, and there's not much left over for anything creative.

So, I'm asking nicely. Migraine, please go away, because I really want to get back to quilting the Pinwheel Sampler. I haven't worked on it since last Thursday.

In the meantime, I got the sixth Halloween placemat together and ready for borders. Scrappy piecing and sewing in straight lines doesn't take much brain power, although this one is ¼" shorter in the width than the other five. We'll blame it on the non-coherency, rather than the fact that I really just forgot how to do math for a few minutes.

I'm going to work on cutting fabric for the scrappy borders now. The potential for goof-ups is minimal and at least I'll have something to keep my hands busy.

It's A Toss-Up

Q: What do you get if you divide the circumference of a pumpkin by it's diameter?
A: Pumpkin Pi.

Hilarious! I know!

I had a difficult time deciding what to post about today. My first thought was to complain about the migraine I've had since Friday and to tell you all that a migraine is not just a really bad headache and in fact the opposite of what causes a headache is what causes a migraine. I was going to explain in detail the four stages of a migraine and the ways that migraines bother me and tell you my whole history with migraines.

But I decided to go with the other option, which is to post pictures of more Halloween place mats in progress. As you can see, no matter which way I posted, there's nothing very exciting going on around here, but aren't you glad I chose the less whiney option?

First up, pumpkins {hence the most awesome pumpkin/math joke ever}. I like how this one came out.

And bats! I think this one is fun too.

Only one more to go and then on to scrappy borders.

As a side note, does anyone else have trouble with Blogger/Picasa flipping their photos when you upload them? It flips about half of mine and then I have to go in and edit them in Picnik, which sometimes flips them back for me automatically when I go into the editing tool, as if to say, sorry for having caused you to waste time editing photos you've already edited because we flipped them for you.