What I’m Working On….

It has been so busy here these last two weeks.  I feel so far behind.  I haven’t gotten any real quilting done at all.  Life has been getting in the way…that and the retreat.  I’m not complaining at all.  I know I always slow down with quilting over the summer.  We are typically gone more often and outdoor chores call to take me away from the sewing machine.

I got a new baby at childcare last week.  He’s 5 months old.  So far all is good and we’re adjusting.  Every time a new one comes into care there’s always an adjustment.  Once any kiddo is over 5 month old I start trying to get them into a schedule so that they nap sometime during “quiet time” here.  It’s the only way I get a break.  Sometimes the break is for five minutes, sometimes as much as an hour.  Carver and my other 10 month old are doing really good and typically I’ve been able to get about 45 minutes of quiet time with all of the kids sleeping or resting.  With the new guy I’ve gotten 10 or so minutes all of the days he’s been here.  That’s awesome…time for to go to the bathroom without someone walking in on me..and time for me to eat something….but no time for me to do anything quilty.  That’s totally okay.  Babies come first…but it leaves me with little to report as my evening have been filled with family things and writing blog posts.

I did manage to tackle some of my men’s shirts.  Kelli and I are planning on selling some on Friday before the trunk show.  We debated for a long time over how to tackle them.  We’ve learned that a whole shirt is really more than we need to make a scrap quilt.  Typically a couple shirt fronts, a couple sleeves or a backing is what we need.  That left us deciding to cut our shirts into three pieces.  We’re keeping one and putting the other two out for sale.  That helps everyone get a good variety.  So if you’re coming to the retreat and looking for men’s 100% cotton shirts, we have some for you.

At the retreat we are making two Bonnie Hunter quilts and one quilt Kelli and I designed.  The Bonnie Hunter quilts are Spider Web quilt and Moth in the Window.  I plan on making them both.  Can you believe as of Saturday I had no idea what I was doing for the spider web quilt?!  Several options have gone through my head.  As I’ve been cutting up those shirts I’m leaning more and more towards making it with shirts.  I already have TONS of shirt string pieces…and when I was thrifting I bought a pretty big piece of chambray fabric.  That might be a kind of neat combo…chambray with the striped and plaid strings.

Then I’ve thought that maybe I shouldn’t.  I have an overflowing “bright” bucket of strings too…and I’ll already be doing Moth in the Window in men’s shirts.  Do I want TWO quilts made with shirts?….um, I think yes.   I’m totally in love with my Rectangle Wrangle quilt I showed off on Friday.  (see it here if you missed it)   So after I figure out how many yards of fabric I need of chambray for the spider web quilt, I’ll make my final decision.  If I have enough, I think it will be shirts.  With me leaving for the retreat on Wednesday, I think I better get it figured out.

In the meantime, you can find me at my house trying to get enough of the quilts cut out so that I at least have something to start working on at the retreat.  I’ve pretty much given up on having them completely cut out….Hopefully next Monday I’ll have something to show you.

So what have I been doing….organizing all of this for the vendor show!!

There are THREE WAY OVERFLOWING boxes of shirt pieces.

The stuff in the foreground of that photo and the stuff in the next photo will all be for sale….including the sewing table with the tape measure imprint.

Then Hubby pulled out some wooden boxes.  We’ve had a couple ask if he’d have some available…here are the choices.

..and then there is the enamel wear.  We’ve had several people ask about it.  They are wanting to use them as flower pots!

We are limiting ourselves to one truck load.  Hopefully this will all fit!!

I have a few busy days ahead!!

Next week…I’ll have quilting things to show.  PROMISE!