And soon, a pillow

I had quite a few scraps of Pam Kitty morning left, including a couple of kitties from the panel, and some nice edging that was on the panels. So, I'm making my daughter a rather large throw pillow. Here's the front:

And here's the back:

It was my first time for a mitered borders:

And my first time doing reverse applique:

I used the same process for the patchwork that I used in the bathmat I did last fall.

I'm loving all of it so far. I can't wait to get it quilted up and sewn together!

See what others are working on this week at Freshly Pieced.

Pam Kitty is finished!

I've been getting more & more frustrated with my limited quilting abilities, and this quilt put me over the edge. I very badly wanted to do something, anything, other than a simple cross hatch, but there we were. Me & my walking foot had to make do with all we knew. I have since picked up an embroidery foot for my machine, but do you know I haven't even taken it out of the package. Why is free motion quilting so nerve wracking? I'll push through at some point, because I'm getting more & more eager to have options when it comes to quilting.

The main reason it bothered me on this particular quilt was because I wanted to bring out the diamond shape arrangement of the kitties. So, instead of fancy quilting, you can see I added some blue trim to outline them. I'm very happy with that trim. My intent upon entering Hobby Lobby was red ric rac, but their red was too dark. Now that the quilt is finished, I think the smaller blue trim is better anyway. It seems to show up much better in person than in these photos.

The other thing that is very different in person is the color of the kitty blocks. They look almost yellow here, and when you're looking at the actual quilt, you don't at all notice they are not quite as white as the background. Maybe it's operator error on the part of the photographer?

The back is a pink tonal I picked up at Joann's. I didn't have a lot of options, oddly, as nothing seemed to go well with this. You would think with so many different colors going on, I'd have plenty of options.

 The binding was part of the Pam Kitty line.

My daughter has slept under it 3 nights now, and we both just love it.

Now that it's finished, I've been eyeing my bundle of Salt Air. That's what I really want to cut into next.

Edited to add: Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday

Break time is over

I've taken a little break from sewing. Life was getting busier, my daughter's recovery from her tonsillectomy was rougher than I expected, and sewing was beginning to feel more like a chore than something fun. Good time to take a break.

One very unpleasant daily task was helping my daughter with her homework. The teacher has been sending home different homework since the new year and we spend about a quarter of the time on it than we did before Christmas. This is a very welcome change! Between you and me, I wasn't expecting any homework in kindergarten anyway.

And my husband has come off overtime, so not only is he home on Saturdays, but he's home 2 hours earlier on weekdays. A very welcome change for time management, slightly less welcome on the budget.

And there's been one other pretty big change. I've been diagnosed as ADD. See, they didn't diagnose many kids as ADD when I was in school. And when they did, it was usually the boys that couldn't stay in their seat. There were signs that would be recognized today. One story I've told several times, just for it's humor value, is the time I simply would not stop talking in class. It didn't matter what the punishment was - if I was around other kids, I was going to talk. So my teacher, Mr. Hullender, moved my desk away from every other classmate's and butted it right up next to his. At the next parent teacher conference, my mother asked him how that was working for him. He said "now I talk to her." Like those boys not being able to sit still, I could not shut up.

ADD has been mentioned regarding my daughter, so almost any article about it catches my attention and last fall there was a news article describing an adult with ADD. The things I read in that article were enough for me to start conversations with my doctor, who sent me to another doctor. I don't think it's ever a short process, and they're still testing different doses of meds on me now, but I feel more stable than I have in years. More capable of actually doing what I'm supposed to be doing. Less overwhelmed by the same duties everyone else does naturally. Being able to focus on my work and get it done in a timely manner is enough to free up a couple of hours a day.

And so, with all this collective extra time I've had lately, I present the top to my daughter's next quilt:

It sure does look huge in contrast to that tiny little face on top, doesn't it? It's a pretty standard twin size, 63" x 81". The print fabrics are Pam Kitty Morning, the solid Kona white, and the pattern is a 9-patch with snowballs. I'm very happy with how this turned out - it's going to be an adorable quilt. Despite the gloomy expression on my daughter's face, she is tickled with it as well.

I wrote about another blogger putting all his fabrics in a bag and mixing them up when he was going for scrappy, so I tried that this time. I think I have identical fabrics next to each other only twice in the whole top. That actually worked much better for me than trying to keep them apart!

I did have some minor trouble with the seams lining up between the snowballs and the 9-patches:

Since the seam on the snowball is at an angle, the seams don't nestle. The best I could do was keep my 1/4" seam accurate and hope they lined up, which they did most of the time:

But if anyone has made one of these and can give me any tricks to lining them up, I sure would appreciate it. And it wasn't until I got done that I realized the white in the panels was slightly darker than white. I've decided this is part of the quilt's charm. Makes the kitty squares stand out more.

Edited to add: Linking up to Freshly Pieced for her WIP Wednesday.

Using time to motivate

I had said last year that I was going to post about time-saving techniques whenever the inspiration hit me. Today's post is less about saving time and more about motivation.

For years, I absolutely hated to unload the dishwasher. Just dozens of items that need to be put back in their home - it seemed so tedious, and actually, I think it overwhelmed me a little. So instead of taking care of it as soon as they were cool enough to handle, I'd let the full dishwasher sit there for a day or more while dishes piled up on top of it. I knew it wasn't smart, but I couldn't seem to overcome myself to handle it more efficiently.

And then one day I happened to notice the time on my stove before I started and when I was done. 2 minutes. Good grief. All those years of letting this very minor chore get on top of me, when it literally took 2 minutes to accomplish. I can't claim I never procrastinate anymore, but nothing like I used to. Anytime I feel like groaning looking at it, I just tell myself - 2 stinkin minutes. It doesn't matter if you like it or not because it's such a quick thing to do that makes a huge difference in the overall state of the house. Because, you know, if your dishwasher is full, you don't even see the logic of bringing your dirty coffee cup in from the living room.

Since then, I've discovered that many, many household tasks take a fraction of the time my mind built them up to be. So if you've got that thing you hate to do, and you procrastinate way too long in doing, just time yourself. Maybe, like me, when you realize just how little time it takes, you'll have a better attitude about it.

A humbling post

I decided to do one of those photo collections I see on other blogs of the projects I have completed this year.

Wow. And this doesn't include dozens of smaller projects - an unfinished table runner, lots of towels, and bags - I didn't even include my mini messenger bag that was pretty time consuming. I'm not sure whether to be impressed, or embarrassed. I work nearly full-time and have a young daughter. I think if I'm going to be honest with myself, what this reflects is misplaced priorities.

I've never been much of one to make New Year's resolutions, recognizing that it's usually just setting yourself up for failure, but nevertheless, I do resolve that next year will be very different from this. I will relegate my sewing to the position it belongs, that of a hobby. A hobby that fills my FREE time, not stealing time from other obligations.

The past few days have found us quite removed from life as normal. I have gotten a first in over 2 years week off work, and my husband is using the last of his vacation days as my daughter recovers from having her tonsils removed. Despite her pain, it's been very nice to take a break from life. To just snuggle on the couch for hours watching movies and have daytime naps. We're smelling the roses, so to speak, and we need to remember to do that after she recovers as well.

Tetris, anyone?

I knew when I started quilting that my step-daughter would be someone I would make a quilt for, but it seemed to take forever to get a good idea. I saw a Tetris quilt (not for the first time, ironically) and knew that to be the one. She worked through college testing Tetris on cell phones. She and her husband are still in the gaming industry.

Aside from her, virtually no one in my family is a gamer. I would try to explain this quilt to them, but would just get blank squares. And questions like "why so much gray" or "sure is colorful." Oh well.

This is the back, just using whatever size strips of color I had left, plus some snow and the gray, which is coal.

I used a tutorial from quiltergeek. I was determined to have every Tetris shape whole, so as to make the design more readily apparent, and of course the only way to do that was to include at least one square of gray on each line, otherwise the line would go away. So it's basically the worst played game of Tetris ever.

I don't remember all the names for the solids - sorry. The finished size is 84" x 92", and of course I used warm & natural batting. I quilted on each side of the seam, plus one line down the middle of each block. It's pretty heavily quilted - I tend to prefer that.

It was a very fun quilt to make.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone. I did get my Christmas project done and will probably post pictures on Christmas evening. I'm so excited to finally share it!

I have 2 gifts left to wrap and then I am completely done with all Christmas preparations. I got an earlier start than usual this year, and stayed on task better than usual. Even when I do get an early start, I usually end up fighting the crowds on the 23rd for those last few things that I've procrastinated about. I'm looking forward to a much more relaxing holiday as a result.

Now if I could just get this house clean...

In the meantime, my husband's birthday is today and I'm just telling you it's no fun having a birthday a couple of days before Christmas. I can't count the number of years I've forgotten until the last minute & had to steal out one of his Christmas gifts for a birthday gift. His cousin called me yesterday saying we never did anything for his birthday and could we do something this year. So, with 2 days notice, I'm planning a small birthday party for him. It's a good thing is very favorite food in the world is hamburgers - I'm not sure I could do much else on such short notice. It's also pretty amazing that everyone we want to be there is free for the evening. Including a very dear to him old friend that he hasn't been in touch with lately. He doesn't know anything about the party yet, but I'm not sure I can manage keeping the whole thing under wraps - how do I hide 5 pounds of ground beef with all the trimmings, and keep him from noticing my preparations when there's no one available to get him out of the house? So I'm sure I'll tell him, but I'm keeping the old friend a secret. I'm looking forward to the look on his face when he sees him again.

I'm trying not to let recent events dampen our celebrations, but I have to admit to having my mind on that more than Christmas lately. I tend to internalize my thoughts & feelings somewhat, but even if I did want to voice them, there seem to be no words. What do you say? That it's unbearably sad? That it's scary? While true, those words are so incredibly inadequate. I wonder if that's why the gun control debate has taken center stage so quickly. It's so much easier to think about and talk about that. I just keep reminding myself that I'm not doing that community any good by not enjoying my own celebrations. In fact, enjoying my daughter more is probably the best thing I can do. That and pray for those families. They will certainly need God's grace to achieve any semblance of normality, really at any point in the future. I imagine the loss will be as great in 5 years as it is now.