Eep. It's been two weeks!

Um.  Not quite sure how that happened.
I've been productive.
Survived parents visiting.  Battling a sinus infection.

I finished my March  A.L.Y.O.F.:

Blue Project Linus Quilt



I've also been chipping away at my FAL list.

Also Done:

Malka Quilt



Black, White, and Color quilt



Rolling Pink and Grey quilt



 Burgundy and Khaki quilt



Monkey quilt



Pin basted the Scrap Vomit #2.  Going to try to quilt it this week.





A huge thank you to Lisa from Modern Balabusta.  She's a goddess.  I haven't had the smoothest transition into March.  Spent a lot of time feeling blue and being sick.  She sent me a fabric care package!  I didn't photograph it separately because I immediately started pulling stuff to mix in and play with.  She knows my love of Tula well.
I'm itching to play with this pile now:



I am thinking of a medallion quilt.  Something scrappy and crazy.

I'm also working on a Must Dash quilt (so have wanted to do one for a long time) for a new child of a faculty member.  He doesn't know it's coming, so it's not late.

I'm almost done with my Covert Robin swap item.
I need to finish a pouch for Stash Bash.
I haven't started making (but I have a design chosen) for my I love the 80s swap.

In the next week, I have to hem my Spider skirt.  I have an EPP pillow to finish.  I may have one more baby quilt done before March is up.  Still have a batch of UFOs.  Haven't been keeping up to date on my BOMs.  Trying to wedding plan.  I have a batch of 50 folks' worth of custom crayons to make next week.  Oh, and I'm going to see my mom and do a frenzy of meetings with wedding related peeps next week.  I have ordered his wedding ring and booked all but one bit of the honeymoon.

Dammit.  I want to eat the ears off many a chocolate bunny right now.  Struggling to take back off the 5 lbs I gained back stress eating and eating out with my folks.  Blarg.  Zumba for me tomorrow.

Whew. Now I can share.

So the guest bedroom is clean.

That's a miracle.

Also a miracle, the dining room table is clean save for my sewing machine.
The room is as clean as I can get it.  Given that we might *might* eat one meal there, I'm not stressing about it.  I did discover that I cut through the table cloth with my rotary cutter.

Oh well.

*cough* Isn't that what the runner is for?


I can finally share the one crafty thing I've accomplished in the last week and a half.

I pattern tested for Sara at Sew Sweetness.

Her Petrillo bag.  I cut into some Parisville in my stash for it.
It's pretty.
And new.








I did the zipper!  It came out fabulously!

You can check out all the other fabulous versions here.

Still so many projects to finish.  Blarg.

Oh.My.Torture...

Ok.  So my parents are coming this week.
That's not the torture bit.

The torture bit is the fact that I had to clean out/clean up the guest bedroom.
See...that's my sewing storage place.

But...um...they felt the need to have a bed to sleep in when they get here.

So...I'm *still* cleaning it off.

That means I haven't gotten any crafting done, really....because I've been cleaning.  (I did get some pattern testing done for one that's being released shortly.)

I had to clean out a hall closet to clean out (*cough* hide *cough*) some of my stash.

And it was so torturous.  Not only do I HATE cleaning  (even at my most OCD, I don't like completely scrubbing it all away), it was like an attack of "oooo...shiny".  SO MANY PROJECTS.
THAT I WANT TO BE SEWING NOW.

I also got a migraine Sat night, thankfully after The Pirate's sushi bday dinner at Tomo.  I was not an affectionate fiance at that point because I needed absolutely darkness with no sound.  (That also meant I didn't Zumba today as I had the post-migraine wobblies.  Does anyone get that?)

I tried to console myself that next week will be all mine.  (I can sew after work....and re-mess up the room. Hopefully, I'll cross a few more dones off my FAL list...and make a delivery to Project Linus that is long overdue.)

The  other HUGE news is that I get to go to the Stash Bash.

So.  There's that.

And I apologize for the lack of pictures.

March--A Year of Lovely Finishes!

I've got to set one goal for March.  March is looking to be a bit crazy, so I'm sticking to one only.

My goal for March is to finish my Blue Project Linus Quilt.  It's pinbasted.  I think I have binding made...somewhere.




Other FAL projects I hope to finish this month (but I'm not going to run myself into the ground trying to hit them all) and their status:

Monkey quilt:  Pin-basted, waiting to be quilted
Malka quilt:  Top pieced, waiting to be pin-basted
Black, White and Color quilt:  Top pieced, waiting to be pin-basted
Spider skirt:  Needs to be hemmed
Scrap Vomit #2:  Top pieced, waiting to be pin-basted
Superhero EPP:  EPP part almost done.  Making it into a tooth fairy pillow.
Star Block Project:  I have an idea, but I haven't started messing with it yet.  The block is assembled.
Rolling Pink/Grey quilt:  Top pieced, waiting to be pin-basted

In the super short term, I still have two blocks to finish tonight...and a pattern to be tested by Friday.
More pictures then (but not of the pattern testing until it's released).

... And now some eye candy!

My perhaps proudest piece...I made a journal cover for my Weightwatchers Tracker.

AND I TRACKED ALL MY POINTS TODAY and didn't eat junk.
But....oh....I so wanted sugar.

I cut all the pieces out for my pattern test, but I was too wiped to start sewing it.

I tried to finish a paperpiecing block that I'm WAY late for.  (It was meant to be mailed by Feb.)  I suck at paper piecing.  Thankfully, her background is Kona white, because I'm going to have to cut more after I F-ed it up.

I finished my 3x6 Hive H blocks:








Other finishes I haven't posted pics for before:

My green journal



the now fixed apron for Pirate


(He can't take a picture without making goofy faces.)

My Hope Valley bag




In progress:

The Malka quilt


The Blue Project Linus quilt


Scrap Vomit #2


The Black, White, and Color quilt top



I really wish I had another 2 days off to quilt like a mad woman.

I'll try to post full pics of the quilt tops later this week....maybe even with a few of them actually quilted.  (Oh, and I finished the khaki and burgundy quilt, but I didn't take pics of it....or the spider skirt.)

Refocusing.

I feel like I've been on a bit of slump lately.

I haven't been eating well (or mindfully) and I've let my weight creep back up to 160.  Yup, I said it.  That means I have gained back at least 7 lbs.  I want to be down at least 10 lbs over the course of the next month and a half.  It should come off relatively quickly if I stop eating crap and start Zumba-ing this week.  I'm making a cool fabric journal cover for my WW journal to make me notice it and fill it out.

I've just been feeling overwhelmed.  My class has been a social swirl that has felt incredibly draining.  My folks are coming to visit in two weeks.  The house is still a mess.  I spent the weekend chipping away at mess in the guest bedroom/sewing dumping grounds.  The bed still isn't clear, but I'm getting there.  Hope to get there completely by Friday.

We didn't have a location picked for the honeymoon....or rather we did and it was international, but then we realized we really couldn't afford it.  Which made me frustrated and kind of sad.  BUT...we did narrow it down to two domestic choices and picked one this weekend.  We'll be honeymooning in DC, which I'm REALLY excited about, as I lived there briefly, love museums, and the wealth of free activities means we can splurge a bit on the hotel.  Plus, the place will be completely new to The Pirate, as he's never been there.

I've been stalling on wedding planning.  The truth is, I feel guilty spending so much money (and the fact that some of it isn't my money isn't helping).  We're not going crazy on the budget, but I'm still a guilt spender....not sure why...I think it's how I'm wired.  I'm also struggling for ideas to tie it all together.  The ceremony is in an art gallery, but the reception is not (and it is a more old fashioned venue).  We both love books.  I'm not very traditional.  I've never had a dream wedding in mind.  I don't live in the city in which I'm getting married, and I have to get everything sorted when I go up to visit in April.  I'm kind of floundering.  My mom, who is very different than me, style-wise, has lots of ideas, but none of them are exciting to me.  The food part involves a lot of negotiation, as I have some ridiculous allergies, but don't want other people to suffer because of them.  Ack.

I still have to finish my taxes, which, really, I have no good excuse for other than I have to dig through a pile of papers I've been too lazy to file.  That's on tap by tomorrow night.

I have a ton of UFOs.  I spent most of yesterday and part of Friday working to clear them.  Literally, trying to clear my head in a physical manifestation.  (Does that make sense?)  I went at it like gang busters.  I pieced the Malka quilt top and a back.  I sewed together the black, white, and color quilt, even though I'm missing a few blocks...I'll use those for something else.  I also found some flannel in my stash for the back.  I quilted (but didn't bind) the blue Linus quilt.  I have the pink/grey quilt pinbasted, as well as the monster quilt.  I sewed up the Scrap Vomit #2 quilt top and pieced the back.   I sewed up the spider skirt.  (Still have to hem it, but I SUCCESSFULLY installed an invisible zipper!)  I held off on the Tula skirt because the spider skirt fitting forced me to acknowledge that my eating has gotten out of control.  Prior to Sewing Summit (post major weight loss) this size fit.  Now it doesn't.  And I want to sew more clothes but not have to worry about them being too big or too small.  So, refocus it is.

My word for March is REFOCUS, in case y'all couldn't tell.

I do want to acknowledge all the folks who have given me boosts when I've been feeling down or out of it.  It's helped.  More than y'all can know.  My real life peeps have been overwhelmed with their own lives (or sick) lately, so I've been missing friends.

I'll have a picture post (mostly just pictures) coming this evening.

My plan for today:
Track my food!
Make a cool cover for my WW journal.
Sew some bee blocks.
Cut out the pieces and start working on some pattern testing.

Three down!

I set as a personal goal to make at least 12 Project Linus quilts this year.

I just finished three, binding and all.

First up, my Lovely Finish for Feb...the monster quilt.



Then I got into making strings over the weekend.  My scrap bag is now half full.  Still need to make some more to clear it out.  But, I took the ones I finished and made them into a baby quilt.


Finally, I took my leftover skill builder blocks and made a baby quilt.


I still have work to do on the Pink/Grey quilt, but that one isn't going to Project Linus.

I've got a few more to tackle from my FAL list before I deliver them to Project Linus.  My hope is to get at least 6 done by the end of March.  So far, my FAL stats are 13/33.  I'm hoping to get 2 more done this week.  Not too shabby.

Today, I got a massage.  Deep tissue/sports.  Gonna have bruises tomorrow....but it will be back to the chiro as well.  My shoulders were all jacked up.