just keep sewing...just keep sewing...

Some days I feel like I've gotten myself in over my head with these quilt-alongs.

And then I catch up and I feel better.

No extra sewing this week for any new projects (though one is in the works...more on that in a minute), but lots of blocks to show!

First, the next installment of the 100 blocks in 100 days, blocks 23-30!

(I really AM trying to keep this from becoming a cat-centric quilt, but...)

(...this one went better in my head...)

This gets me caught up through today.  Tomorrow I'll make another batch, as that seems to be working for me - to make three or four at a time and then focus on other projects.

Other projects like the books!

I sewed up the remaining covers for the last eight yesterday, but still have to put sashing/borders on those.  A few others were completed earlier and make up the remaining 11 that are needed for my plan.

(this one looks so much like records!)

I hope to get the remaining borders/sashings sewn on tomorrow, as my needle REALLY needs to be changed, but until I'm done sewing through paper, I hesitate to put in a new one.

This afternoon, instead of cleaning the house up some, I opted to sew more on the jelly roll quilt along quilt.  For some reason, I'm having trouble getting into this one.  I was all in when I first saw it and excited to sew.  But now, it's like a chore.

Earlier in the week, I forced myself to sit down and sew two columns.  Not blocks.  Because it seemed columns would be easier to keep track of.  And they probably are, but there are a LOT of pieces to sew.  So...I'm doing two columns at a time, leader-ender style.

The first two:

(The color is faded out, but I layed these out down my upstairs hallway and the window provided a nice, bright effort to wash everything out...of course, the other end is dismally dull by comparison, but who ever said taking photos in an old house was easy?!)

And after the second round of effort tonight:

Taken from the opposite end of the hallway, we have exactly the same problem.  (Also, please note that that is NOT a real bug.  It's a cat toy.  It functions like a hex bug...I think...before the battery ran out.  Now it serves as a noisy thing to whap around while I am trying to sleep.  It is NOT a good toy to play with during daylight hours.  Or when mom is awake.  Nope.)

But you can start to see the "waves" forming.  Two more columns and I will be joining the long, dreaded seams.  Hopefully the last set will have me more motivated, but at this point I want it finished and will push myself to at least get it into a top.

Because there is another quilt to be made!

Remember my friend Sarah?  The one who, because of her pregnancy, got me to start quilting?

Well.

Her daughter, the daughter that got THE first quilt, is pregnant.  In her mid-20's and married, so a very different situation than her mother faced, but pregnant no less.  I don't know the daughter.  I'm not sure if I've even met her.  (Sarah and I live only an hour apart, but I'm sure you all know exactly how it goes when your friends have kids and you don't, or vice-versa!  Me being in college during the birth of at least two of hers didn't help the situation of meeting them either.)  But I do believe this "bun in the oven" needs a quilt.

I've already chosen a pattern, but am trying very hard to finish up a couple of quilt (tops) - the books and the jelly roll quilt - before I purchase fabric.  Because I know once the fabric is here, it will be an awful temptation to start working on that instead of what SHOULD be done.  (Also, baby is not due till early 2020...2020?  Sheesh, where is time going?!)  But when that all starts to happen, you know I'll be sharing progress!

And with that, I need to get going.  Busy couple of days coming and I'd better make the most of the time I have!

Happy quilting!

Katie