Well, Hello!

So many things, so little time, and yet, I seem to have a lot of time on my hands. I am the queen of procrastination. This is a habit I really need to stop. There are so many things I want to do and yet, I pass on a lot of those things daily. Why? You don't have to answer that. I am sure all of us have questions about ourselves and our habits that we each individually need to scour our own brains for the answers to. Here let me just jump down off the podium. I'm done with that psychology class.

Ah, but I have gotten something done! Two things that I wanted to do in fact. One was to put together a design "wall". I tried a few months back to make something that was in my head, but when it came out of my head and started to be an actual physical thing, it didn't work. That, my friends, is why I am not building bridges and stuff such as that!

Not too long ago, I joined one of the local quilting clubs. To get myself out there and mingle with my tribe. I am so glad I did that. Mind you, I am still working on getting myself out there. I don't go every week and when I do go I don't stay all day as most of the others do. I'm working on that. I don't know if I ever mentioned this, but I have a bit of an "anxiety problem". Meeting new people can at times, be very painful for me. Once I have gotten to know new people, I can't be shut up, it's just the initial few months. I really have to WORK at it. I moved here in January, I have met maybe ten people. Five of whom are my neighbors. Okay, wait. I have gotten off subject.

I joined the club; Sunbonnet Sue Quilt Club. The ladies are nice, and welcoming, I WILL be fine there. There have been two seminars since I started. One was a visiting quilter, book writer, fantastic designer, sewist, etc., etc., Pat Speth. She came and showed us all of her lovely Nickel Quilts. They are all just fantastic. She showed us many ways to cut and sew together blocks from charm packs. I purchased her "The Big Book of Nickel Quilts" and when I was going through it the other day to get some inspiration, I found she had put little tips and ideas here and there in the book. One of those tips was how to put together a design board that could be portable. I just needed two things to make that board, so I took my JoAnns Fabrics 60% off coupon and went to get what I needed, and now I have a design board. (Boy, that was a long way to get to tell you what I had made!)

The other thing I finally got going on was to finish up some half square triangles that I had made up a almost two years ago. (Gees, can it really be that long???!!!) Yes. Low and behold, I had made them out of two charm packs. I didn't like just the half square triangle by itself, so I sewed those together to make hour glass blocks. Four inch blocks by the way now. They are shrinking! I don't remember what the charm pack is that I bought originally, but I bought a Moda charm pack in white to add to the first one I bought. Now. I didn't care for the first batch I sewed, and turning them into hourglass blocks didn't help AT ALL. I still don't like them, but they are what they are, so I will continue with them and make a light quilt to throw on the couch. I may use up some old batting that isn't worth a dime and practice my free motion quilting with it. Who knows? I may start to like it a little after a bit.

Here's my design board with my hourglass blocks on it. I may do some sashing between the blocks, and experiment with that. There's a lot of possibilities...

I really need to get with my quilting. I know now that I need so much more practice. I also know, being in the club will help me get new skills and learn from the other ladies.

The amount of things I need to do is going to take way more time to do, unless I really get on it.

My list:

Three quilts for my nephews and niece. Christmas..ha ha ha

Christmas stockings for my friends (three of those). Christmas ha ha ha

Finish a travel bag for my daughter that I started a while back.  no time line

Finish a quilt for the same daughter that I started a while back before the travel bag a while back

Finish a quilt that I started in the beginning of 2014. no time lines on those either

And then...

Start designing and making wall quilts for sale

along with repairing my loom that the cats broke (Yes, my cats broke the loom) and re-start working with that...gees...yes, I have the time too, I just have to use it.

I'll be back. With a progress report... I'm still unpacking from my move in January...I'll stop now, so I can get started...