After a week of waiting for things and writing bits at work, I handed (almost) everything I needed in by Friday over to my Manager yesterday, and now I’m feeling drained. And, I won’t lie to you, a teensy bit bored. Only ten more working days until I’m on vacation, and I really think I need the time off.
Am currently desperately avoiding buying anything on fabric.com (mostly because shipping to Canada costs $24USD, so to make it worthwhile I have to buy over $60USD worth of fabric, and then it’s not really “saving”, is it?) Plus, I should be saving my money for (well, the mortgages, and my looming income tax payment, but beyond that) the quilt show members’ boutique this weekend.
Quilting woes
Having trouble with ALL of my current quilt projects at the moment. I counted, and I think I have about seven or eight on the go, mostly because every time I “hit the wall” with one of them, I just put it to one side and start fresh. Also doesn’t help that I’m constantly bursting with new ideas. Sigh.
1. Fire and water (red/green) Amish bar quilt, as featured on LJ recently. Problem: still not cut, or crinkled, or added borders. Seriously re-evaluating my decision to hand quilt it, as it feels like it should maybe be machine quilted.
2. Icy squares (blue/purple) quilt, which I won the blocks for in the Feb. quilt guild meeting block of the month raffle. Problem: half the squares are butt-ugly, the other half don’t coordinate well; should I add sashing? make more squares? add a border? re-cut and re-fashion them? add grey? add dark blue? gaaahhhh…
3. Little Red Riding Hood (red / straw yellow) baskets. Problem: all fabrics chosen, quilting pattern chosen, but am paper piecing and it’s finicky.
4. Osgoode Hall floor tile replica (burgundy/brown/sky blue/tan/sandstone). Problem: same as red riding hood issues.
5. Baby Kaleidoscope (blue/pink/tan). Problem: working with calico is painful. My brain hurts from trying to decide on complementary fabrics without moving towards solid colours. Argh.
6. Double Irish Chain (fuschia and turquoise). Problem: miscalculated slightly and am quickly running out of white fabric, which is bad because it’s a heavy weave and will be hard to find more stock of. Also feeling a little queasy about my colour choices and how they will look in the end. Erg.
7. Strip quilt (red/brown/gold). Problem: requires excess of thought. Piecing has slowed to a halt. Can’t make up mind about inner gold/brown sashing bars. Red and gold fabric has exploded all over the damn place. Bah.
Finally, have two massive foam rectangles waiting to be neatly upholstered in awkward brown faux-leathery fabric for JVL’s mom, and really want to get the big bastards out of my work space ASAP. Am scared of trying to install zippers, worried about major puckering/poorly sewn seams when attaching top to sides with piping in between. Worried I do not have proper foot for sewing machine. Almost certain I have not yet developed *any* skill in 3-D sewing, advanced non-cotton fabric joining/cornering techniques. Am still going to bully on with it anyhow, keep fingers crossed, hope for the best.