new projects to procrastinate the old

I have made zero progress on the baby quilt.  Well, if you don't count deciding on a color of thread to quilt with - I did that just a few minutes ago.  (I still haven't figured out HOW I will quilt it, but maybe inspiration will strike as I type?)

What have I done?

Well, I worked three shifts this past week.  With the start of holiday shopping being this week, I was needed.  It's all good.  I get paid for that.  Money I can spend on fabric, right?

But then I decided I wanted another Christmas-themed mask.  One that had elastics so I could use it quickly for shopping trips - I like the ties for whole-day wearing, but if I'm just running out for groceries, the elastic ear loops are good enough.  And then I decided since I was getting everything out anyways, why not make a few to share at work?  I like this pattern and found a chunk of Christmassy fabric and since this mask thing is not going away and there are ecological issues turning up with disposable masks, I can do something to help, right?

I ended up making six.  One for me, five for work.  The work masks got the pony bead adjusters on them, mine did not.  I saw a few on coworkers on Friday and Saturday!  (But I did put each one individually in a bag and made a note "for safest use, launder before wearing"...wanna cover my bases, though I think I'm healthy!)

Wednesday, another sale at JoAnn fabrics had all calicos 50% off again.  And after leaving so many pretties behind last time, I decided I would rally the quilts and see who needed backs yet.  (Because buying backs is way easier than quilting them!)  I ended up buying backs for four quilts and snagged a 20-yard roll of batting as well.  (The batting was a doorbuster price and I never expected that at noon there would be any left.  But there were!)

The red and green prints will go on the two Christmas quilts I made earlier this year (the one with cars and trees as well as the one with the big stars), but I'm waffling on which will go with what.  The orange is for the Nova Star quilt.  The blue is for my Single Girl quilt.  They've been washed and folded as neatly as I can out of a hot dryer, but I haven't pieced them yet.  They just look so happy and pretty sitting there, though!

I also worked on finishing up the churn dash blocks.  Turns out I had enough fabric to make one too few for a 6x8 layout.  Go figure.  So I raided my stash and found a couple of fabrics that seemed to play nice.

Oh no.  That will not do.  Not at all.

What else can I do?  I cut a few extra pieces into 2.5" squares and added them to my bin.  Maybe I can just make a 9-patch?

Ah yes, that will do.

On to a final layout.  That took a while to get all the fabrics scattered and such.  Maybe not perfect to some of you, but good enough for me.

That oddball does stick out a little, but not nearly as much as it would have with the other fabrics!

I picked them all up, rows labelled, and got back to sewing them together a few days later.

It doesn't really look any different, just a few inches smaller.  I may add a border later, but for now, I'm done fighting with it.  (I'm not confident my stash has anything that will even work, but it's big enough as is if I choose to leave it.)

I turned around and it was quickly claimed.  Not by the usual suspects, but this makes me happy.  Freddie (black) often acts very aloof and wants nothing to do with me.  He sometimes hangs out and supervises, but does not get involved and do NOT pet him or you will get the stink eye.  And Toby (tabby) is learning.  Obviously rather quickly, as he looks quite at home here.

With that done, I needed another project.  Yesterday I spent a chunk of time contemplating the Midsummer Solstice pattern.  The one I bought all the gaudy, bright fabrics for a few weeks ago.  The templates had me concerned, and even more so when I realized there was nothing on the page to make sure my printer had spit them out the correct size.  And then I looked further and found that there were no unit sizes given at each construction step.  I decided the sewing line/cutting line on the templates being a correct quarter inch meant my printer worked properly.  And I figured out unit sizes using math and smaller piece/unit sizes.  But then I looked closer at construction and saw a lot of points to match that, with templates, could get ugly quickly.  And talked myself out of even starting.

But what now?

I remembered this kit!  Given to me last Christmas, I cut everything to be ready for my retreat in January.  I never got to this project, so it just got put on a shelf when I got back home.  Yesterday I pulled it out and started sewing.  I didn't have a lot of time once I actually got going, but parts are starting to look like something already!

I really want to go work on this, but I know that is partly due to needing to quilt the baby quilt.  I'm very good at procrastinating!  But I have to work tomorrow, and Finn goes to the doc for his yearly checkup, so I'd better just take advantage of today, right?

Happy quilting!

Katie