Needles and Pens

(Or, What May Well Be the Cause of My Motivational Slump) No to-do list for me this week, just one BIG to-do. I've had a hard time the past couple of weeks feeling capable of accomplishing anything. No motivation to start a new project, or even to work on one of my many UFOs. No inspiration to even sew a few string blocks... Whatever could be the problem? Hmm... I don't know... could it be THIS ? Yes, THIS is my sewing room. Or what used to be my sewing room. Now it's my storage room for fabric and supplies. And just across the hallway is my actual "sewing" room: Trust me, it's an even bigger mess than it looks here. This is the result of transitioning quickly from one sewing room to two, followed by numerous projects one on top of the other, without cleaning up in between. I don't recommend it. So, I'm dedicating this week to getting these rooms organized so I can start sewing again. And I suppose I could break it down into a few main area...

I almost forgot to blog my to-dos for the week, so before it's too late, here goes. First, I WAS going to put finishing this pillow on my to-do list: But I already finished it before the list was made, so that would sorta be cheating. (The fun stuff always seems to get done first.) Where was I? Oh, yes. The list... well, I've had a little trouble today deciding what most needs doing, and I never actually MADE a list. It's just been one of those days. So I guess I'll just throw a few things out here that have been bugging me and see what happens: Clear off the kitchen catch-all counter. In the sewing room, since I've completely demolished the organization of my flannels, I need to sort through them all again, and maybe come up with another flannel project for the shop. And... (dare I say it?) I've been REALLY thinking about working on that upstairs bathroom that never got touched during last year's "Better Home Challenge." I...

Still no new grandbaby... The due date has now passed, so we're all getting a little stir crazy around here, and when I need a distraction, I tend to sew -- a lot. I've sewn three baby quilt tops in the past three days: A " Wickedly Easy Quilt " from ByANNIE.com, all in dusty, mauvy pinks mostly from the 1980's. (Hate having to admit it, but that really sounds vintage these days. And one of these prints was from a skirt that I wore in high school, so what does that say about me? Wait. Don't answer that. LoL) I ad libbed a little bit on the border: A Sunday mystery quilt, by Cindy Carter of Quilt Patterns from Seattle . Today Cindy posted the photos that have been sent in from the mystery on her blog. If you'd like to see all of the pretty color combinations (or download the pattern), you'll find them here . And here's mine: And today I finished piecing a UFO that was originally for Judy Laquidara's monochromatic challenge last year...

I've said it many times. I am not good at sewing without a pattern. I greatly admire those who are, and also those who can alter a pattern to suit their own purposes. I am not one of those people, and normally I don't even attempt it. However , I wanted a bathroom valance like this: And my experience with curtains has been limited to straight, rectangular panels, so I was forced to wing it this time. It turned out like this: Not too bad! It's not exactly how I had pictured it, but it'll do. I'm actually pretty proud of myself, though the process of getting there was slightly comical (not to mention slow and tedious). I took a leap of faith, and photographed each step along the way -- just in case it wasn't a complete disaster in the end. The process went something like this: I determined that the width of a roll of waxed paper would be about right for the height of the valance (so scientific!), and cut a piece double the width of the window (72...

A group of my online quilting friends held a virtual sew-in last weekend. Amazing how motivating that can be! With the regular check-ins, chatting, and sharing of progress pictures all weekend long, it almost felt like we were all together on a quilting retreat. We often talk about organizing a real retreat someday. Now that would be a blast! This was my sew-in project, a birthday gift for a six-year-old little girl. A very spontaneous project, yet every bit of it was hiding in my stash, just waiting to be pulled together into this little quilt. Love when that happens! I used the Warm Wishes pattern, a free download from Quiltmaker.com, and I was super impressed with how fast the top came together. Every smidgen of the Little Mermaid print was used. The aqua/white polka dot filled in for the last round of blocks, "growing" the quilt from baby-size to kid-size. The borders finished off the teal print, and it took the very last bits of both purples to make the bind...

... but only for the weekend. :o) (Added Friday, February 3: As busy as I was this week, turns out this is my only finish, so I'm linking up this post today with Amylouwho's Sew & Tell Friday and TGIFF at Missy Mac Creations .) While they were away, I had a fun night of sewing with my son's girlfriend. Her mom has been planning an outfit for her to dance in a powwow at the end of March, and they want to applique a Lone Star on the back of the dance shawl. Would I mind helping her with it? LoL Silly girl. It was my first attempt at a Lone Star, and I usually avoid sewing diamonds altogether, so I'll admit I was a little nervous about how it would turn out. Still, it couldn't hurt to try. We started out with this photo for inspiration. We both really liked the swirly layout of the colors, even though it would make the assembly a bit trickier. A little more Googling brought us to " The Challenge of a Lone Star Quilt ," an excellent tutorial (th...

Every so often, someone will ask me, “Why Needles and Pens ?” Since my blog appears to be all about sewing, shouldn’t it be “pins?” It makes sense, right? But the play on words was intentional. When I started this blog, I was at a crossroads, trying to decide if I should keep plugging away at freelance writing or delve headlong into my newfound love of quilting. I thought, perhaps, that I could do both... Needles AND Pens. It seems that the quilting won out. For the past ten years, I’ve been learning and playing and experimenting and creating art in a whole new medium – and loving it. I do so little writing these days, I can’t honestly call myself a writer anymore. Still, the urge to write – really write – resurfaces now and then, in the never-ending quest to discover God’s purpose for me in this life. (Yes, I’m 45 years old and still trying to figure out what I’ll be when I grow up!) I wonder if I’m making a mistake, virtually ignoring that writing gift. I wrestle with those t...

Well, here it is Friday again, and though I've been sewing my poor fingers to the bone this week, I haven't quite finished the quilt for the guest room bed (and since my daughter took off for the weekend with the only working camera in the house, I couldn't share a picture if I had), BUT I do have one other little project in the works, and a tiny sewing finish was involved this week. When I had my first child in 1987, I was fortunate to inherit the cradle my grandpa slept in when was he born in 1890. He had many younger siblings, who most likely slept in it, too, but at some point it was stashed away someplace and forgotten. Thankfully someone had the foresight to hold onto it, and though it skipped two generations of use, it did stay in the family. The original stand was missing (probably why it was never passed down), but when I brought the cradle home, my husband's grandpa (who has since passed) was kind enough to build a stand so I could use it. I'm su...

Could it be that we're only one week into 2012? I've been going great guns on my January Better Home project all week, and having a blast with it! I thought it might be a good time to post a recap of what I've accomplished so far. I started off just dealing with the piles of odds and ends. Fortunately, there wasn't much clutter in this room, so that was a pretty easy task. One of the first items on my list was to designate the closet space in this room for one specific use. Everything that was in there belonged somewhere else. It was such a waste of storage space! Here's the closet, before: Now it's been designated the "Christmas closet," for storage of Christmas decorations, wrapping paper, all those gift boxes that were piled on the bed... The timing on this was perfect. I spent a couple of hours one day packing up Christmas things and it was so nice to have a specific place to store it all! There will probably be a couple more bins yet, b...