Where oh where have I been?

I don't know what happened, but sometime in October, the sewing switch was flipped to the OFF position.  My poor lonely machine has only been used once, and that was a hasty hem on a skirt lining!  In January!

I suppose I have a good excuse.  It was kind of a depression/holidays/basketball/studying thing.  You see, in October I found out that I failed the bar exam for the 5th time (the depression), then the Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Years holidays were nuts, then came following my Wildcats, and re-studying for the bar again that I just took the last week in February.  For the last time.  EVER.  Whether I passed or not, Hubby and I have decided that enough's enough, and just maybe it's not God's will that I should actually BE a lawyer.  I get those results in April, and I'm so glad to have it behind me. 

Another thing that's kinda hampered my quilting is the fact that my two major WIPs, the Irish Chain and the "Path to Pembroke" went wonky on me.  I have the quilting about 90% done on the Irish Chain, but I couldn't settle into a groove for the quilting in the big open block.  I went round and round about what I was going to do, and ever since then, it's just sat, folded up, on the sewing room floor. 

Path to Pembroke totally went wonky, and I haven't finished piecing the top for it.  It's going to be a quilting nightmare, I'm afraid.  I think I got the bias stretched or something wrong.  So I kinda gave it up to frustration and ever since then, IT'S just hung, folded up, in the sewing room closet. 

I'm really bad about not finishing things and starting more things, so my goal was to finish (quilting on the IC and get the top done of PTP) those two things before I started anything else.  That poor PTP quilt has been in progress for a year now, and I was soooo in love with the fabrics and the initial piecing of it. 

Anyway, now I'm itching to start a new quilt for Hubby, even though he could probably care less about having his own quilt.  But over Thanksgiving I did collect some old button-down shirts from my parent's house and from Goodwill and cut them up for quilt fabric.  There's a great pattern in the June 2009 American Patchwork & Quilting mag called "My Guy" that I would looooove to make with old shirt fabrics.  And it's all rectangles, no crazy triangles or diagonal seams or seminole piecing techniques....so I'm thinking I NEED to do it to get another GOOD, easy quilt under my belt, right!? 

Then there's the Bridal Sampler...  Call me crazy, but I am seriously considering doing most of that by hand-piecing.  I know.  Insane.  But I really need a hand project to do and I'm thinking that would do the trick.  I've already cut pieces for about 5 or 6 blocks and put them in Ziploc baggies. 

This is why I don't knit.  I never had a long enough attention span. 

Update: Double irish chain top...DONE! Path to Pembroke top... 70% done. Baby quilt... giving me more fits than its worth. I'll never, never, never, try to make a pattern from a picture again! Oh, it's probably 65% done, even though my seam ripper has been over a quarter of it...grumble, grumble... But hooray for ONE FINISHED TOP!

Sigh. Bloggy friends, I quit. After a week off from sewing I sat down before church tonight to begin fixing the baby quilt pieces. There are A pieces that go with B pieces and, you guessed it, I started sewing A's to A's. I did 6 before I caught myself! On top of that, our internet is down for some reason and I'm posting this via cell phone. I sure hope things improve when I return from church!!

No time to sew...

I had a rough and busy week, so I didn't find any time to sew...which means there's nothing to blog about...which is why I was never sure about keeping a blog in the first place.... At any rate, I thought I would at least pop in and post something for the whole 3 people who read this.... Have a great Labor Day weekend!

A fantastic friend...

Yesterday after work I was having a rough day. One of those, get a Diet Coke and some m&m's and go for a drive on some slow-driving back roads. So you can imagine my absolute delight when I got home and found THIS is my mailbox from my friend Becca:
That's right! Bonnie Hunter's Scraps and Shirttails! But wait! It gets better! I opened it, and LOOK!
(Sorry, that pic is a little blurry, but I was in a hurry. A blurry hurry.)

So, of course, I had to whip up a little thank you! I won't reveal it just yet, but I will give a sneak preview!
So stay tuned for more details! I can't wait to share this little project with ya'll!

Accomplished tonight: One gift for a special friend. Details tomorrow.

Sleepy Sampler Saturday...

(Note: It's freezing here!! I'm on my porch in a knee-length skirt and polo shirt and I need a quilt wrapped around me!! Whoever heard of 68*F weather in the middle of August?!)

Today has been a sleepy kind of day. I have a mile-long list of intentions, but no energy yet to go get-em. I'd really like to get a couple more blocks made on my sampler.... Yes, the Queen of WIPs is taking on a sampler. Am I crazy? I have wanted to do one for awhile now. I think it would be the best way to learn new techniques bit by bit. I tried designing my own…but didn’t think it would look very good… Plus, there are lots of “mega sampler” pattern books out there—Amish Circle, Dear Jane, Dear Hannah, Civil War Diary, Civil War Love Letters, and Sylvia’s Bridal Sampler, just to name a few. I’ve checked all these out over the last year or two, wishing I would dare to take on such a project.

Confession: I am often easily intimidated and overwhelmed. So while I was evaluating these books, the pieced triangles in Dear Jane intimidated me and the nothing-but-foundation-patterns in the Civil War quilt books intimidated me. As a long time reader of Jennifer Chiaverini’s books I knew about Sylvia’s quilt and was intrigued by it, but didn’t seriously consider it until I found the newly published pattern book at my public library.

So, back to this confession of mine. This intimidation often spills over into fabric…I often find that I can’t bear to cut fabric in my stash out of some paralyzing fear that I will waste it, ruin it, or otherwise put it into something that ultimately will never be finished or will be ugly. I can’t bear to cut up all this beautiful fabric in my stash… but I definitely want to USE it!

So I think from now on I will post "Sampler Saturday" posts, and show you my progress. So, here's what I have from last week: