Saludos Desde Corn Country

It's long past time that I let you all know what I was doing. I safely set my feet on Illinois soil two weeks ago yesterday, and during these last two weeks have been enjoying my self proclaimed vacation time (which, however, ends today). The time has mostly been spent catching up with family and friends, staying in touch with people in Texas, taking walks to enjoy the foliage and fall weather, and a little bit of half hearted job searching.

Although I had wild visions of all the sewing I would do during that time, at first I was too disoriented (for lack of a better word) to do much of anything. I had pretty much all of season 5 of Project Runway to watch, so I got out a hand quilting project and did a lot of watching. I finished season 5 in three days - the quilting took slightly longer, but I'm in the process of the hand sewing on the binding. It should be done today, so...pictures soon?

Anyway, my mind is overflowing with projects I want to start, but when I finally decided to get down to some sewing I found that I felt compelled to finish some old projects before starting anything new. I HATE when that happens to me! So boring! The fact is I LOVE starting new projects. And whenever I do start them, I had better finish them right away or else they get boring! Not boring enough that I want to abandon them, because I still like the projects. They are, however, boring enough that I'd rather be starting something new.

So anyway, I've been working on this:



It is affectionately known as "the quilt that makes you have songs stuck in your head," click the picture for a bigger view if you want to know why. The center squares are from a fat quarter by Block Party Studios. I started this FOREVER ago. And it has spent most of its life marinating in a shoe box, but I'm determined to finish it. I actually only need to do four more blocks. I think part of the problem is that the block, while not terribly complex, is pretty time consuming to both cut and sew. I was rotary cutting for and hour and a half the other day and only cut four blocks. And the strips were already cut.



But I digress. I'm totally in the "powering through" phase on this. I hope to cut the last four blocks today. For as long as it's taken me I'm really pretty fond of it. I think it will make a cute lap quilt, and I will probably gift it, although I'm not sure who will be the lucky recipient. Who gets to have a song stuck in their head every time they look at it forever.

Donations

One last post from Texas. Probably the last one anyway. I had a couple more pictures of donation quilts that I wanted to shared. That is to say, quilts that have been donated to the shelter, not ones that I have made to donate.

I think this crib quilt is darling. The little bears have faces that were inked on by a marker that hasn't been very permanent so they've faded quite a bit.


This is a two sided quilt made of clothing scraps - wool, double knits, seersucker, etc. I love this kind of quilt - free style, recycled, unconstrained.

The front (or back):


That print that says "No! No! No!" also says "Yes! Yes! Yes!" in glow-in-the-dark letters. Cute, huh?

The back (or front):


I'm having the hardest time trying to sort through my enormous salvage fabric stash to decide what to take home with me. Since I am flying there are major space/weight limitations. I will probably send myself a package, too, but even still I'm not going to be able to keep it all. Maybe there's no reason to keep any of it. I didn't pay for it, and I could easily to return it to the donations pile from whence it came. The problem is that I have project ideas for most of it, therefore it's already taken on a new life for me and I'm already sort of emotionally committed to it. Not to mention the fact that I'm not sure if it will find another good home if not with me, and I'd hate to see any of it go to waste.

Well, somehow or other I have to part with some of it. I hate to jettison the flannel sheets since I see them as being so extremely useful. I don't want to let go of the linen since I've got a great selection of it. I want to keep the felted sweaters because I've been wanting to do a felted sweater quilt for a longgg time. I've made tons of plans for the pillowcases. Well, you get the idea. The wool blankets have already been re-donated. Those, at least, I was ready to let go of. I've let go of a few flannel sheets that were pretty worn out. However, I still have a ways to go, and the sorting will continue. What would you keep??

The Southern New Mexico State Fair

We got to go to the Southern New Mexico State Fair this last week. What a great time! I love fairs. There is a lot of great stuff to do at a fair, and I think fair food is only a small (if important) part of it. The fact that there will usually be quilts is a major bonus.

Apologies to the makers of these lovely creations - their information was not posted, so I have no way to give them credit.

These are my three favorites. If I had to choose one favorite, I guess it's this first one.






These tumblers were the favorite of several people in the group. It's hard not to appreciate a classic scrap quilt like this.


Not a quilt, but I enjoyed these displays of self portraits by school kids.