Goals and Motivation

I love crafting.  I also love how I go through phases in my life where different things become more intriguing and compelling for me.  I got a little burned out on crafting over the holidays.  I made 2 aprons for my husband's brother and his wife and then I made a 2 sided appliqued fleece blanket for my brother.  They both turned into last minute works, delaying our departure to my husband's parent's house to finish the aprons, and cutting off the extra fabric for my brother's blanket in the car to the airport.  So I came home to a messy, disorganized craft room.

Needless to say, I haven't really entered back in except while looking for index cards (which I couldn't find).  So I've decided to make organizing and cleaning up (and out) the room my new crafty priority.  One thing I have is 2 giant boxes full of random fabric (from quilting cotton to corduroy to lining material to who knows what this is for).  Another thing I have is a pile of clothes that I either almost love or have bizarre, unreasonable attachment to and can't get rid of, but I haven't bothered to do anything with them yet.  I have been following Amanda Jean on Crazy Mom Quilts and she has this goal of making 101 projects purely from scraps to help control her quilting fabric.  So I was thinking I could do the same sort of thing.  

I plan on:

  1st, picking an article of clothing that I either need to alter or rework and give myself 30 days to do something with it.  If the 30 days goes by and nothing happens with it, it's being donated.

  Once that first one is done, I pick the next article of clothing that day and have 30 days to work with that.  So worst case - I end up giving away 12 articles of clothing by the end of the year (meaning this may take a few years to get through all of them), or best case - I'll have 12+ new items in my wardrobe by the end of the year.  And some I may refashion and realize I don't like the new one any more than the old so off it'll go.  

  2nd, picking a number (101 seams...ha totally unintentional pun!...seems a little high, but maybe it's good to aim high.  Go for Gold!) of projects that I'd like to complete that use up my 2 boxes of random fabrics.  While doing that, I'll go through and decide if some fabrics just aren't worth saving (or should be used as filler or batting for another project).  The idea is to hold off on the next quilt until I get rid of a bunch of this other fabric.  So I'm going bold, but not too bold.  57.  I plan on doing 57 projects with the box fabric before I can look to do another quilt.  

I like this kind of pressure.  Not overwhelming, but for the box fabric, it'll be great motivation to be creative and think of what I need in life and how I can make it out of fabric!  It'll be like my 31 projects in 31 days that I used to do (hey, it's February! I totally missed it this year!  Awkward embarrassment) except that this time they have to all contain fabric.  But that's cool, most of my other one's did anyway.  

Already I've got my mind thinking hard.  Like, if I plan on organizing my craft room, I'm going to need some nice containers for things and I really have loved all those fabric boxes/baskets that I've been seeing and I've got some heavy weight material that would stand the test of time.  

Do you have ideas for me?  I've got a lot of projects to do and any piece of inspiration is helpful!  I'll post them as I do them and I'll show my clothing article that I plan to redo as well, and show the finished product if I end up refashioning it!  So excited for progress.  And cleanliness.  And orderliness.  I like those things.  

See you soon...

(with projects!)

I Broke a Rule...because I like my things to be Something!

When I got into this love of quilting, I set rules for myself.  I could see that other quilters tended to fall into certain habits or have similar struggles and I wanted to save myself from that.  So I made rules.  Very simple rules. 

1)  I only work on one quilt at a time.  ( I can do other sewing and creative things, but only one quilt)

2)  I don't buy fabric for a new quilt until the last quilt I worked on is complete.  Completely complete.  (I haven't done any hand quilting or hand binding yet.  If I ever do, that will be an exception because I have tendonitis issues and I wouldn't want to stress my hands out just to hurry to get to the next quilt).

3) I don't buy fabric unless it's for the quilt I am working on.  (I just found a local quilt store and I suddenly understood why quilters just buy a yard of this, a fat quarter of that.  There are amazing fabrics and I want to use them.  But I'll just have to plan a quilt around them and put it in line!)

4) I don't make a quilt unless it has a purpose.  (Lately those purposes have been gifts for family and friends.  At some point I may run out of people to gift to and I might try selling them on etsy but for now, I want it to be more personal)

I love my rules.  It helps me not spend all of my time and money on quilting (which I probably would if I didn't have rules because I come up with new quilt ideas almost every other day.  It doesn't help that I'm in math classes with graph paper so if I get a little day dreamy I can sketch out my hearts content of Half Square Triangles).  It helps me focus on one thing and have the awesome feeling of accomplishing something and be excited to move onto the next instead of looking at the list of unfinished things to be done.  

So now to the rule breaking.  I have a really good reason (said everyone who has ever broken a rule).  The GillyWhig quilt is sitting in my craft room, backing pieced and batting preshrunk and everything ready to baste for quilting.  But I reeeeeaaally want to free motion quilt it.  I have this awesome idea of clouds and swirly lines representing wind (to blow the whirlygigs).  However!...I have never done free motion quilting.  I need to practice on something.  And for some reason I'm having a hard time just taking extra fabric and batting and practicing.  I still want my practice to be Something, not just a throw away.  Is that crazy?  It sounds like it when I say it, but in my heart, I feel like it's not.  Because I'm a maker and I want my practice to still make something.  (This is me, I kept the first cable swatch I knit - using a pencil because I didn't have a cable hook or stitch holder - and I used it for the handle of a purse I made from an old ski hat around a year later.  So I think it's just part of who I am.)

I started another quilt.  And here come some more excuses.  

A-it's not a full quilt, it's only a wall hanging, probably around 2 feet square

B-it's something I'm going to love for more than one reason (and I don't like making things I don't love)

C-the piecing is a trial run for an idea I had for another larger quilt  (see?  I like my practice stuff to still be Something!)

D-all the fabric I've used for it has been scraps so far (impressive since I buy just a few inches more of what I need, typically (I'm on a budget!) and I only have scraps from 2 quilts)

These are my stacks of 1" cut squares.  Yep, they're going to be 1/2" finished.  Mini is so adorable.  I love them!  I sort of want to be surrounded by towers of 1" squares of fabric.  How can I add this into the decor???

Of course, now that I've started this quilt, I don't want to mess it up with a first attempt at free motion.  So I'm back to my old problem.  My sister said just practice on some big square that can be turned into potholders.  So something along those lines.  Maybe a cute bag or something instead, though.  Potholders never held much interest in my mind.  And I only make what I love, so a bag would work, yeah?  What are your ideas?

See you soon!

(with a look at how I'm making my illegal wall hanging!)

Cheese and a (WiP) Quilt

I was looking in our cheese drawer the other day for some tastiness to add to a savory crepe sandwich when lo, I beheld that we had quite a selection.  I was curious and soon discovered that we have 12, yes 12 varieties of cheeses in our fridge (14 if you include cottage and cream).  They are: spicy cheddar, pepper jack, asiago, smoked gouda, spiced gouda, gorgonzola(crumbled), another nameless blue cheese(solid), fontina, gruyere(we actually have 2 packages of this - we love it), parmesan&romano(combined so counted as one), feta and laughing cow.

I love cheese!

Anyways.  I decided to start a quilt.  We'll see if I end up liking it.  I got inspired by, and am using Quiltville's post as a guide.  I love it because it's an all scrappy quilt, no unifying sashing or anything.  But my possible problem is that my scraps aren't from other cute quilts like good scraps are.  Mine are random fabric I've acquired from old clothing, thrift stores, clothing/whatever swaps and things found on the streets.  I don't know what material is used for most of the fabric.

Here it is: so far a bunch of strips cut and placed in 6 strip blocks.  I placed them in a rail fence pattern to separate them visually but still pack them into my enclosed sewing area.  

I needed 5 more squares, and I'm cutting entirely new fabric for the most part so they'll get rearranged.  The hard part is not knowing how it'll look in the end.  I know it'll change once it's all cut and resewn and there are few layout options as well, but the suspense is intense!  

Below is the pile of strips for the above squares (6 strips/block x 19 blocks = 114 strips measuring almost 3 inches tall).  I've gone through some MacGyver, the Voice, The Fashion Star, Project Runway and Hell's Kitchen episodes to cut them.

I'm a little nervous about the end result, but strangely getting more excited as I write this.  I got a new iron today, too, since my old one just decided it didn't like being hot anymore.  So now I can unwrinkle the rest of the fabric I need to cut and maybe tomorrow (finger's crossed) I can start sewing blocks together.

One thing I am excited about (which I know may put me in a minority) is that once they're all sewn and recut into tubes (check Quiltville's page to understand the process), I'll have work to take with me for on the go, waiting in a line, got to class a few minutes early, waiting for the red light at the bottom of my street that sometimes takes 2 minutes to recognize I want to get across.  I love having something to do when I'm not in the house.  Yay!!

So I'm working on this one.

Excitedly.

See you soon!

(with a quilt top sewn?)