This is a day I feel confident blogging about. I managed to get a few of my rows sewn together on my faux hexagon table runner, that was given to me by my mom's friend. I received it in December while I was visiting my family and finished cutting out the pieces and got the layout the way I wanted it. Then it sat in a baggy waiting for me to have a design wall, since I said I could not work on it until I had one. Then once I got the design wall up, I put it on and it has stared at me for 2 weeks, mocking me with it's diagonal seams on straight rows. So I finally bit the bullet and did a few of them, and I don't know what I was so worried about.
If this had been all I got done today, I still felt like I had accomplished something. This helped me get through the morning. My son decided that he wanted to throw a fit because he wanted to go bye-bye and Mommy said no. No joke, he cried from 8:30 until 10:15 this morning about it, and 45 minutes of that was in his crib. We think part of it is that he is still recovering from being sick, poor kid.
He did much better after his nap after lunch. Then just before his bedtime I remembered that I needed to work on the grommets, since the first part (putting holes in the fabric) has to be done while he is awake. So I used the residual frustration from this morning to get the holes and grommets into another 10 double hammock sets. That's 80 holes and grommets. My grommet muscle hurts now. Here there are all ready for their photoshoot tomorrow. I'm hoping to have them posted all the way to Etsy before I go to bed tomorrow. Though I may just do the photo stuff tomorrow and post them on Friday. We shall see.
Then as if I hadn't done enough already, I had a mountain of laundry to tackle next, and a bed to make, since the sheets were in that pile of laundry.
Now I am joyously celebrating with a bowl of ice cream, prepared by my sweet husband, while blogging.
May Fortune smile upon you.
Back in December of 2011, my mother introduced me to quilting. While many women (and some men), start by piecing together squares or strips and then progress to more difficult things, my mother knows me better. She decided that I would love to learn English paper piecing. She had been doing diamonds when she came to visit earlier in the year. I thought that looked like a good idea. I had been known on occasion to take my knitting needles and a small project to work on while I watched a movie, sat in a class, or even in church once in awhile. I liked to have something that I could keep my hands busy and my mind and eyes open.
So in December, while I was visiting, we went to Joann's and found a whole lot of fabrics that I loved together. We then went home, and she imparted of her hexagons, and hexagon knowledge, and I began. I have been working fairly steadily on this project since. It is often the exact excuse I need to sit back and enjoy a tv show on Netflix.
I have found that is a great stress reliever. It is easy to get lost in each of the tiny stitches. I typically keep it on a quilting hoop that my mom got me for my birthday this past September. This allows it to stay off of my lap, so I don't get too hot. It also means that I can see my edges better, to know where I'm working. By the time, I got my hoop, I found that I was spending a solid 5-10 minutes everytime I picked up my quilt just to find where my needle and thread were. I was also getting really tired of having such a lopsided quilt, since I couldn't see what part of the quilt I was adding to. (Some people find my difficulties with randomness a tad odd.)
Many quilters have commented on the craziness of starting quilting with something this difficult. I have actually found this to be almost easier for me than regular piecing. I can understand why they would say this would be difficult, but for me, this consists of no more than basting and stitching. Whereas, I dread squaring, and cutting, as these could so easily be messed up. Here it is at the quilt retreat at the end of February. Photo was kindly taken and shared by Suzanne.
This festive set of 2 basic dishcloths and 2 dish scrubbies are made of a
red, green, and white composite cotton yarn. The scrubbies do appear
lighter than the dishcloths due to the use of white tulle to give them
the gentle roughness that will help remove the food from all of your
dishes including your nonstick pans. 
