more quilting, but no proof

I keep seeing these year-end wrap up posts and thinking I should do one, but then I keep quilting more quilts and getting too busy and...well...then I had to buy a new computer and let's just say I'm done with overextending my technology bone right now, okay?!  Just the blog for now.

Despite still being somewhat sick (I feel a lot better, but am still very congested, which is super fun...not), I've gotten a fair amount done this week.  I still feel a bit like I'm playing catch-up, but I'm getting there.

First, after my realization that I had no binding for the Molehills quilt I quilted last week, I remedied that.

I promise it has been sewn and pressed and sewn to the quilt, but as always, I'm lazy and the phone stayed on a shelf across the room instead of taking photos.  This medium grey is just perfect with the colors of the quilt, in my humble opinion!

Tomorrow I go to my guild sew-in, so maybe I'll get a photo then, when I'm working on it?  (Don't hold your breath!)

And then I felt well enough last Thursday that I loaded ANOTHER quilt on the longarm!

This is another fairly recent finish and I'm not thrilled with how it came out compared to the pattern (colorwise), but even if I decide to donate it, at some point it needs to be finished, right?

I have no in-progress photos, but will say that my machine behaved like a dream.  Not one single thread break.  And I was using black thread, which can sometimes be a huge hassle.  I'm not sure what I did, but maybe the technology and virus gods decided to be nice to me since I've had a rough few weeks?  (I also got a new phone at Christmas and I hate having to reset all my preferences...why can't those transfer, too?!)

I did an all-over design that was called something about ferns, but it I could not help but think of the folded lining of the intestine.  (Nerd alert!)  I'll have to remember to get a photo of that design when I present the finished project.

This, too, now has the binding sewn on, ready for the hand-sewing side.  This one, at least, binding had been prepared ahead.

That gives me THREE quilts needing hand-sewing of binding to take with me tomorrow.  That was my goal.  Yay!

(But I'm also hoping that the string of finishing quilts keeps going beyond this small goal.  We'll see how my motivation goes without a solid deadline.)

In other news, with the start of the new year, I wanted to start a new scrap journal.  Last year I started one and wondered if I'd make it through a whole year.  I basically saved all sorts of random bits of things (fabric bits, receipts, banana stickers) and stuck them into a weekly planner.  It was fun and looking back was great.  I could remember when I started a quilt and even remembered some projects I forgot!

You can kinda see here the 2022 is busting at the seams, but that little elastic strap was nice to keep it all kind of contained.  I struggled to find one that I liked for 2023 and the one on the right is what I settled on, but it had no elastic.

No problem.

A few rivets and some elastic and I'm in business!

But then I realized I was out of glue sticks.  How did that happen?  I thought I had a package of a half a dozen, but they are MIA, so I put it on the list.

Also, with the new year, I've started a new reading goal.  I'd been tracking my books on a couple of apps on my phone, a process that started because I was tired of reading 10 pages of a book and wondering if I'd read that one before.  It started out with one app, but then Goodreads came along and that had a few more features, like a reading challenge where it tracked how many books you read.  And then this year, super nerd Katie heard about Storygraph and I was in love.  It obviously tracks your books and you can join reading challenges (multiple options!), BUT they make you graphs using your books.  Pie graphs and line graphs and bar graphs about genres and pace and number of pages and all sorts of goodies.  So you know I signed up, right?

And that led me down a rabbit hole, of course.

Which lead me to realizing that my stack of books in the hallway outside my door was just boring when I could put it on a cart like other people.

So after a quick trip to the store to purchase said cart (and glue sticks) and some strange looks from my cats about the noises I was making (which were forgiven when they realized there was a BOX for them to play in), I dragged this up to compare the old and new options.

I wasn't sure how or if this would fit in the spot, but it is beautiful and I would find an alternate home if needed.  I also wasn't sure if all the books would fit, but they do...I even have room for more!

Not that I have any plans to buy more books right now.  I need to read more of what I already have.  But I'm working on it.  One book has already been removed and I'm over 100 pages in!

Turns out it fits nicely.  It sits sideways next to the door and though the cats don't have as much room to squeeze in and out of my room as they used to, the door opens just fine.  (The cats just have zero patience and want to go through the door as though it rolls up like a garage door, not swings like a bedroom door...even without anything there, they try to get through a half-inch crack as soon as they can see it is kinda open!)

In other news, Finn, the cat who loves bags of apples and bags of carrots...

 ...also loves celery...

He is the weirdest cat.  He was mad when I took this away and put it back in the fridge.  But when he tried to start nibbling at the leaves, it was time to put it away.  I don't think celery is dangerous, but it's not a good habit to encourage.

And with that, I am going to find something more productive to do than sit at this new computer any longer.  (I'm sure there are still odds and ends to modify to my liking, but for the most part, things are doing what I need.)

Happy quilting!
Katie