I Admit It....

I've been stalling, or at least uninspired. I have 5 quilts that have to be done this year as gifts, and several more that I'd like to see at least started.

I picked patterns for a few of them, made templates for one, printed triangle paper for two more, but still, they sat. My desire to finish the ring quilt, and my lack of enthusiasm for the new projects, prevented me from starting them, and distractions have made the last border of the ring quilt take a lot longer than I'd have liked.

BUT...it's done. Finally. And with the finishing of it Saturday night came a very welcome surge of energy for the new projects. The quilt is so big, I don't have anywhere in my house big enough to get far enough away to photograph the whole thing...and it's too wet to take pictures outside. Here is a stretched out view, such as it is.

Below is a view of the border motifs.

And here it is draped over my little couch by the window.
I spent my free time on Sunday pinning fabric to triangle paper for part of Marshall's quilt (I'm hoping to buy at least one more of the needed fabrics this week) and for one of my nieces' quilts. The pattern I said was Emma's quilt has changed as I didn't have enough of the background fabric I pulled for the whole thing. As I chose new fabrics, the new choices seemed to fit Katie more, so it has become hers and I have to choose a new pattern for Emma.

The triangle paper is pinned for Katie's quilt, and I've cut the larger 1/2 square triangles and pinned them together.

I had a nice stack of sewing waiting by machine this morning.

As Rachel and I decided to watch a movie after her Bible study, I really didn't want to start the machine work yesterday because I couldn't to it and watch the movie at the same time. Instead, I got the freezer paper templates all marked for Debbie's quilt (my sister-in-law) and I cut that out while we watched the movie. These are the stems and leaves that are cut from freezer paper, the green fabric is what they will be made of.

When my husband has to go to bed earlier than I can fall asleep, I make a late night out of it if I'm able. Last night, after watching "No Reservations" with Rachel, Lucas, and Ruthie, both Lucas and Rachel went to bed, but Miss Ruth was still raring to go. We settled in to watch "27 Dresses" and about midway I looked over to see this...

On today's agenda is the stack of sewing by my machine, then cutting apart the triangle paper pieces and maybe even pressing them and pinning them for the next step.

The quilt that weighs heaviest on my mind at the moment is Marshall's as I'd really like to have it finished by his party, which is on May 23rd. I'm hoping to get both the red and the border fabrics on Thursday, the batting next week and be basting the weekend of the first. That will give me 3 weeks to quilt it.

Once that one is done, I can breathe easier as the other 4 are all for Christmas. While I'd still like to work my way through them and be done by the end of September, only time will tell if that is a realistic goal.

I also really want to spend some time on the posy and celtic as I'd love to be basting that on hunting weekend, which is the weekend before Thanksgiving. I still have to secure the second side of several sections of the applique and need to get fabric to make more bias for the border design. It may be hard to find the combination of colors I'd like to see in one fabric, so that's an unknown at the moment.

Ruthie came downstairs a little while ago in this getup, she was in Rachel's room and got into some of her accessories.

While waiting for pictures to load, I've been able to get some of the sewing done, so the pieces for Marshall's quilt are sewn now. We have sports fever in our house these days, with both the Bulls and Blackhawks in the playoffs in addition to our baseball addiction. Tonight will be spent in some combination of machine sewing, unpinning, perhaps repinning, pressing fabric to freezer paper and cutting for yo-yos while watching first the Bulls, then the Blackhawks both go for wins in their games.

Time to get to it!

Happy Quilting,

Sue