Productive Days

Yesterday didn't quite go as planned, but that's the normal way of these things. My nap took a detour when the roofing guys showed up to replace some shingles that had been blown off in our last major wind storm. For some reason, I can't sleep when people are walking around on the roof. ;-)

However, I took and made that time highly productive instead. I got all of my chores done and then went and did the grocery shopping. By the time afternoon rolled around, I did not feel even the slightest bit guilty for taking a few hours and concentrating on my quilting.  As a matter of fact, I enjoyed that feeling so much, I'm going to get all of my chores done this morning again, same chores as yesterday of course, before I start quilting again. That guilt-free feeling is a great one. :-)

I managed to finish up one block yesterday. I did my Ohio Star and rather like how it turned out. We had open interpretation on what we wanted to put in the center, so due to the sun I carefully fussy cut and placed there, I opted for a spiral. The rest is done in "echo shells" which I sketched onto the fabric before I quilted them. It went a lot better, I'm sure, than if I'd tried to do that without the lines. My spirals already show me I can't keep a consistent distance.

Yes, I have a thing going right now for music fabric. I came across them in my last trip to the quilt store and bought several fat quarters knowing I would be using them in this quilt. Since I recently started playing the flute again, it's appropriate and I love them.

My little quilt extension table worked like a charm! I love that little table though it's forcing me to change how I sit at my sewing machine and where I rest my arms as I work. I'll get used to it as time goes by, but it is odd feeling right now.

I have been studying my Modern Dresden Plate and trying to decide how I want to quilt it. We're supposed to be learning pine needles and then use more echo shells, but I'm not sure I like that idea for my block. Mine really looks more like a sun than it does a flower.

However, I might just go ahead and do it the way she suggests to get it done and over with. While I find this quilting technique easier than if the entire quilt top was already pieced, it's starting to get tedious. That might be why I prefer piecing quilt tops to quilting them.

She is teaching another class on Craftsy called "Free Motion Fillers Vol. 1". In there, she has you make a smallish quilt where the entire thing is mainly focused on the quilting aspect.  Funny how much I want to make that considering I am thinking that quilting itself is annoying. However, to be able to show that I 'can' quilt free motion and to complete something like this would be a great accomplishment for me.  Last night, while digging out other random fat quarters for the back of the sampler quilt, I pulled all of my tonals to get an idea for the other quilt. We'll ignore the fact I want to actually finish 4 other quilts before I start it. ;-)  Based on my choices, I went with a rainbow color palette with a black background. It's nice having a decent sized fabric stash.

These lovely fabrics are a combination of my hand dyes, batiks, and normal cotton tonals. I think it will be lovely when it's finished. I'm also planning on quilting it in a light gray thread since I obviously want the quilting to show on this one.

I'm thinking today is going to be "piecing day" so I can finish the last 4 blocks for the sampler quilt. That right there might take the entire day as we're talking 2 blocks with curves and then 2 paper pieced blocks.  However, it would be great to have them finished and ready to be quilted.  If I'm going to do that, I suppose I'd better get up and get a move on. I have things to do before I can sit down with my beloved sewing machine. :-)