Two Weeks Left

I have two weeks left, living in my home of 23+ years. I alternate between excitement at this new adventure in my life, and sadness at leaving what I have come to know and love in this place. The sewing room is all packed up now, even the machines.

Amanda Jean has been working on reducing the number of WIPs in her studio, so I thought I would see what I have that needs a finish. I plan to work on these things as soon as I am set up on the left coast. And just so we're clear, I will also start a few new projects too. The ideas are coming on fast and strong. Change of venue might be the best thing my creativity has had in years.

 First of course, my Penny Sampler. I will be in transit without my supplies for the first half of April, but am excited to see what the month's assignment will be.

 A small quilt to play with circles. This one just needs quilting. I am thinking of some very dense quilting for this, just to play and practice.

 This sweet plus quilt is so cute. It also is a finished top that needs quilting. I will need to figure out how to quilt it once I pull it out again.

 This small quilt is for my middle daughter. She had requested some small wall hanging quilts for her home. I have a whole box of fabrics that she picked out to make them with and a Pinterest board full of ideas. I need to decide how to quilt this one.

 This is my clambake quilt. I started this when I was home fighting cancer. I had cut out all the clams in one week, and began sewing. As fatigue set in, I lost the energy and the desire to work on it. I have since added many rows, but still more to go. My youngest daughter has asked for this one when it is done. It is a quilt as you go project, done with Rachel of Stitched In Color. Clearly some of my clam shells are not as smoothly rounded as others, but...practice, practice, practice.

 This is one I made to use up a jelly roll I had won a few years back. I love how it turned out. It is also for my youngest. It just needs quilting and binding. I think maybe a curved quilting design.

 This big thing is one I started about 15 years ago. I picked out all the hand quilting and need to add the last rows and machine quilt it. My skills have improved since I started this, so finishing it may be a challenge since the seams are not all flat on the stars. I really want to finish this, my oldest WIP.

 This is the small wall quilt made from Amy Gibson's Quilt Block Cookbook. It also just needs quilting. I haven't quite figured out the quilting yet. Maybe some stitch in the ditch and a bit of fancy work in the white space.

 And here is the very last quilt block sewn in my North Carolina sewing room home. The last of the ittty bitty blocks. This one was pretty tough. You can tell I put the top together wrong and had to rip it and re-sew it. These tiny blocks are truly skill builders. Patience and precision.

And here they are, all together. Some I love, and might make a few more of those. Some, not so much. Thanks for being here and hanging out. The sewing room will open up on the left coast as soon as all my stuff gets there. I hope to see you there.

Last Post of 2016-What I'm Working On

So another year has come and gone. A tough one, to be sure, but I am trying to keep everything in perspective. Ever the optimist, I have hope for the future. I want 2017 to be a good year for me and for everyone else too. This new year will be bringing big life changes for me.

I will be retiring. I just can't physically handle the work any more after the cancer and the treatments to get rid of it. I am moving...clear across the country! I am leaving my beloved North Carolina behind and going where weather is milder...Southern California. It will be hard to leave, especially since my children and grandchildren are all here, but that's what airplanes are for, right?

I will be able to sew so much more and I want to continue to create. So, that said, in the midst of all the chaos of moving I am doing two things. I signed up for Rachel Hauser's Penny Sampler class. I am taking the 12 month version. I figure if I get behind in the beginning of the year, I can catch up later. I want to push myself and this class looks like it will do that.

The other thing I am doing is working on assembling a new small quilt for the holidays next year.

 I bought this book awhile back and I am not really into buying many books these days, but this is a great basics book. There are 50 blocks in this book. It gets my creative mind working. (Amy is doing a quilt along this next year using this book)

 I fell in love with this block and just had to make it first. I thought about starting at the beginning, but hey, that's not me.

 Next I played with placement. I don't have any fancy programs to do this. I just use my colored pencils and some graph paper. I'm old fashioned like that.

I've been cutting and pressing. I love how these fabrics are coming together. I hope to be able to keep a project going that I can just step in and sew a bit while the chaos goes on in the house.

And these are the first two blocks together. I am only making nine blocks for an approximate 36 inch square quilt. I may add a border, I haven't decided yet.

One more goal I have is to blog more, once I get moved. I love the way Barbara at Cat Patches blogs almost daily. I love stopping by to see what she is up to. So there's that to look forward to later in the year.

For now, I wish you all a safe, happy and healthy new year, filled with hope and promise. See you in 2017!