Sew many things

Those of you who thought I might be setting myself up for a guilt trip with my last post, don't worry! Alas, I never feel compelled to stick to my project list. Sometimes I should, but I don't. Lists help keep me organized, remind me of projects I want to do, but don't stand in the way of enjoying my hobby. I have other lists I can't ignore, but my quilting to-do list is just a reminder.

And just to prove my point, with all I had to do on my list, I took an hour Sunday afternoon to make a little minkee blanket for a friend who's having a baby. Not on my list, but done, and it was fun! There's nothing like the feel of minkee, and that's soft flannel on the other side.

I'm taking Tonya's class and playing around with the letter A. It took me awhile to get started, even though I've been trying some wonky letters on my own. What color scheme? How big? Which letter? I just couldn't get over the hump (life seems so much more secure with a pattern). Finally I decided it didn't matter which colors, what size, which letter. Just do it! So I am using only pieces from my scrap bin, at least to start. I have never made a capital letter, so I'm starting with those. And I'm trying all sorts of sizes, dictated in part by how big a particular scrap is. Here are my first two.
I tried scribbling some A's for inspiration, and found I couldn't loosen up and get creative with them. So I googled "letter A" and this is what I came up with.

Wow! I'm off to have at it!

Keeping up with the Joneses

First off -- Happy Birthday, Jocelyn! My little girl is 23 years old today! And I am turning into one of those crazy adults who mutters things like, "My, how time flies."

Now on to the Joneses. There are some very energetic quilters out there in Blogland. While I don't wish to measure my productivity against the ridiculous standard of what everyone else is accomplishing, I do feel inspired by the start of a new quilting year, so to speak, as the school bells are ringing again and the mornings have a slight nip in the air (actually, the latter hasn't happened yet but, Mr. Weatherman, please take the suggestion). So I am going to lay out a few projects and plans. The list is not definitive, but thinking aloud is helpful.

1. I am back in school! At least, I'm taking an online quilting class with Lazy Gal Tonya to learn to be a little more wonky. You can check out her blog here and scroll down the sidebar to find links to all her tutorials. So far, this has really been a good class and we just got a new assignment today! I'm going to work hard at not letting other things interfere with what I want to do in this course.

2. We need a quilt for the wall behind our couch. I have some ideas (inspired by Sandi Cummings' book, Thinking Outside the Block) but need to JUST DO IT.

3. By September 30, I need to finish the Happy Houses quilt for a Project Linus Make A Blanket Day demo.

4. This past week brought me a couple UPS deliveries. The first was two big boxes from my sister. Her husband is in the military and they are packing up for a tour in Germany. Rather than taking all their t-shirts from past assignments with them, she sent them to me to put into a quilt -- more like ten quilts! She said to use the best and toss the rest. It should be fun, though finding fabrics to coordinate will be a challenge as military colors are not my usual color scheme.
4. I bought some Asian fabrics from a fellow blogger who is clearing out her collection of those to make room for fabrics that fit her current interests. We both win! I love the look of Asian fabrics and have a scrappy quilt I plan to make for someone who is very into all things Asian.
5. And of course -- I want to finish two more I Spy quilts before the holidays (one is almost done), complete my Stroop quilt, make some things for the guild bazaar at the quilt show, and put some patterns on the Hearts for Linus blog I do for the guild.

Hmmm... all this without looking at my list of projects, which is pretty long. I think I can accomplish all this IF I can keep organized and work out a system. Time to hop to it!