Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Tedious Tasks Tempt Me

Tempt me right away from blogging until I have something worth showing off. I have been doing other things, but now that I'm officially in the third trimester, I think my nesting instinct has kicked in. So far it is showing itself in a rush of new creative projects and finishing old ones.  Some women organize their sock drawers or linen closets.  Not me!
First thing I organized was my craft closet and after discovering all the half finished and ruined challenging sewing projects of the past year I became engrossed in crafting. I have a list on my craft closet bulletin board with a list of projects that I would like to complete in the next year.
Remember my craft closet that I blogged about a while back. Still love that little space. It also doubles as a prayer closet when I need to hide from my family and spend some time with Jesus. It also houses my vast collection of maternity clothes at the moment, as well as photos, important documents in file cases, and a couple of my weapons. :-)
Back to projects though.
So my list of projects is about 10 items long, and now after only a week or so I have two of them crossed off!
Here they are:

Some trendy, hip roman shades that I made for a friend who had oddly sized windows in her kitchen. They are actually functional too, they lift and lower. Thank you marthastewart.com.

Also, a baby quilt I started over a year ago, had a friend sandwich it for me, and just had to finish the binding by hand. One of the many partially finished projects I uncovered in my closet. Now it is done and ready to spend some time on my daughters bed.

The real pride in this quilt though is that it is my first quilt I've ever finished that has no visible flaws to it. I know it is no where near perfect, but to unsuspecting observers, it looks nearly so. That is quite an accomplishment for me! You should see my first two quilts....well, actually there is a reason you probably haven't seen them on here.  I still use them, but they are somewhat embarrassing every time I take a close look at them. Sigh.
This quilt is called the Baby Rail Quilt pattern, and it was my fourth quilt. So lets do the math. My first two quilts I still have and use despite embarrassing flaws and now this is my fourth.
Where is number three you ask? Probably in a landfill sadly, that thing was beyond ruined and ugly, and I just could stand to waste any more good time on trying to make it less ugly. So I tossed it and started the baby rail quilt.
Number three taught me two lessons though.
    1. Don't buy fabric that is cheap or that you don't totally love, you will never eventually love it, even if it is made into a quilt.
    2. Practice sewing in a straight line, but it helps if you cut your fabric straight on the front end.

So where is quilt number five you ask? It is in the making. It is third on the list of projects to be completed. Nothing worth showing at the moment, just heaps and heaps of 2" squares, but it is going to be my first scrap quilt. When finished it will be an oversized Queen blanket and will play on the light and dark fabrics I used.
Something like this quilt, only my shapes aren't triangles, they are 2" squares. I'm so excited to start piecing this quilt and see how the variety of colors come together.

Because this project list and the pregnancy hormones are spurring me on in my creativity, you may not see or hear a lot from me. Until I have more finished projects to dazzle you with!

1 comment:

abbie said...

That is such a cute quilt! And I LOVE the curtains you made :)