Wow!

How long has it been since I Blogged?

I have not given up on my goal of finishing something everyday for a year. I've just given up on blogging about them all! LOL! So maybe it was pretty unrealistic to find one thing I could finish everyday. But TRYING to find one thing everyday to finish put me in a particular state of mind, that being one of striving toward a goal of finishing. With Quilting there are times when you can often get something done in one day, finish a paper pieced block, or finish putting the binding on a top. There are also times when you can work away all day at something and not get it done, such as doing the machine quilting on a large quilt, or putting 15 pieces on an applique project. There is just no way to finish some of these things in one day. Two days yes, maybe three, but I found myself not bothering to work on some of these more lengthy projects in order to get something else shorter done so I could blog about it. Soon I ran out of things I could get done in less than one day.

Then this whole Sookie Stackhouse thing happened and I thought about giving it up entirely. But I still have to finish things! So I calmed myself down and I started working on some of these longer term projects, and here are the ones that I was able to finish entirely.

First the quilts:

I got the blocks for this one a few years ago at swap. We were swapping fabric and blocks that we no longer wanted to finish and I think I swapped a shoebox full of scraps to this woman for the blocks for this quilt. Anyway, the blocks weren't made very well, I had to cut off most of the points in order to get them into a quilt top. But the top turned out nice and I practiced this greek-key type of football quilting on it. It turned out great, except, my husband, a Lion's fan, complains that the quilt isn't big enough even for a lap robe. I figured it could be a chair hanging or a wall hanging and maybe a bench warmer for the games.

This also started as fabric from a swap. I must say that this is one of the most effortless quilts I've ever made. The fabric with the bears on it is from a collection called "A Quilter's Gift", you may have heard of the story book with the same name. While I was cleaning out my stash several of these fabric came out and seemed to just go together. I put them aside and then one day as I was looking through the kitted projects I saw this thing and decided "today is the day!"

I pulled it out, gathered a couple more fabrics and started cutting, before I knew it the top was together, Easy peasy! I layered it at the library a few weeks ago and then this past month quilted it, it only took the better part of one afternoon to quilt. That night I sat watching TV and hand sewed the binding. OK, totally finished with very little effort! WOW!

This picture is only here to prove that when you see me display one sock that is finished on this blog, the other one is not far behind. Some people only make one sock and the second one never gets finished. I'm just the opposite. It takes me forever to do the first one but once that's done, I can't wait to get the second one finished!
While I was still in the winter mode I wanted to get some more knitting done. I finished this shawl in record time and then I used the leftover yarn to make a nice thick scarf. I used to have lots of leftover yarn, but these days I don't want both a stash of fabric and of yarn so I try to knit up whatever yarn I have leftover from a project into something useful. As a result, I have a huge number of scarves. I'm going to have to add them to the box of stuff I sell at craft shows.

Speaking of which, I probably should add these bags to that box as well. I now have about half a dozen of these I've made. I wrote the pattern for them and I need to take pictures of them to put on the cover. One of these days I will be able to really start working on my pattern design company and maybe making some interesting extra money. But for now that's in the future still.
Another thing I like to do is pick up the odd needlepoint project when I find them at thrift shops. I love to do needlepoint and have ever since my Aunt Joyce gave me a needlepoint kit when I was in grade school and I figured out how to do it. I made a mistake though. She saw that I was having fun doing the project and asked me what I was going to do with it once I finished it. I told her I would probably give it away. She misinterpreted it to mean that I didn't want the thing. And I never got another handwork kit from her. I wish now that I had told her that I didn't know what I was going to do with it after it was finished but that I was having a great time doing it and I loved the gift. That's the information that she really wanted anyway. I finish the needlepoint projects I do these days into the pockets of bags or purses that I design around the needlepoint.

I finished this quilt top for the store. We're having a class in how to do this quilt and how to use the ruler that this quilt was made from.
and another quilt that I finished for store use. This is a paper pieced pattern and I've taught two classes now from this pattern. It's so cool, I want to keep it. When it's run it's course at the shop I'm going to redecorate my living room around this piece! LOL!
Here's an applique block from the Country Cousin's book that we're doing at guild. I finished it and it's residing with the rest awaiting more blocks to make an album quilt.
this one is the Breadfruit Hawaiian style applique. I did this one for the Interquilten Applique BOM.
Last but certainly not least is a face quilt depicting my friend Anne Nelson. I took this picture when we were on a picnic after the bridge walk with a group of friends. We were eating cupcake's because it was Anne's birthday. Anyway, I was searching my coffers for a picture that I could use to make a face quilt. I tried taking one myself and found that if it's an indoor picture with a flash it won't work because the flash fills in all the cooler shadows and flattens everything out. The picture has to be taken in sunlight and it has to be at an angle so that part of the face is in shadow. After coming up with this little piece I was brainstorming with Tawni (proprietor of Interquilten and my employer) we thought about finding a photo of someone famous who will be performing at Interlochen this summer and making a face quilt of that person. If the person isn't too famous we thought we might try to approach the person into making an appearance at the store while they are here to see the quilt that we make. So Now I'm searching out images of either Garrison Keilor, Lyle Lovette, or Foreigner. Sheryl Crow is in June, which doesn't give me much time to finish a quilt with her face on it. She would have been my first choice. And a face quilt featuring the three talented men from the Moody Blues with a backdrop of a Knight wearing white Satin is just the thing I could sink my teeth into except having that ornate of a project done by June 26th and generate enough publicity to attract their attention? Might not happen.

OK, so these are the thoughts I've been having this past month. Was it worth the wait? I'll try not to wait so long to blog again. Maybe even later tonight if I get this one applique project done. I better get it done, it's due tomorrow!

Cindy
Still finishing even though you don't know about it!