I want to write!!

My mind starts to scream at me, "I want to write!!" So I get out a piece of paper. That beautiful white paper with pretty blue lines and a pen that is just waiting for my words to be written. Or it's my computer screen showing me a white background with a flashing cursor waiting for my fingers to fly across the keyboard to produce letters on the screen. The entire time my mind keeps screaming, "I want to write!" So I say back, "I know. I'm waiting. Now what? Where's my character? Where's the person I can bring to life? Who is my hero or heroine that I can lavish my love on. That I can build worlds and adventures around?" Then my mind answers back quietly, "I don't know." Then the urge fades away like everything else. Softly, as if it was never there, it fades away. Then I am left staring forlornly at a blank piece of paper and holding a useless pen. Or I'm left staring at a blank screen, the cursor blinking sadly at me awaiting my commands. My mind has abandoned me. The same mind who wanted to write so badly failed to produce the one thing I needed to start. So I quietly put my pen and paper away. I quietly hit the 'X' in the upper corner of my word processor and call it a night.

Now what?

Well, as I was just telling a group of friends, today is a day made for quilting. We had a lovely rain storm come in last night and it has decided to hang around. Weather forecasts are saying that it will be here all day long. My oldest was supposed to have football practice this evening, but it will be canceled. Our city doesn't like having its fields destroyed in that manner. School will be a light day due to the way our program is set up. So now what? Well, I've been saying for some time now that I have felt the need to quilt building up. So, it's time to do something about it!

Now for the ultimate problem. What to work on?! I've only been quilting for about 7 years, but I've built up a lot of UFOs (Unfinished Objects) and ideas in that 7 years. Not to mention a lot of fabric.

I've been playing with the idea of making a quilt for football season as it gets colder. I'd make it a nice large one. However, our football season is over Oct. 18. Is it worth actually stressing out over getting one finished in time? I just couldn't tell you. Of course, it would still make a lovely quilt to just use from here on out. I just don't know if I want to put that kind of importance on it.

In trying to help myself with my dilemma, I went out to my best record of what I've done. That would be my Webshots album. I used to have this great journal that I'd been keeping of everything I'd been working on. Of course, I can't find the silly thing anymore. Then again, I did start one on paper... Hmm.... I wonder where that went? LOL It might be tucked on a shelf in my sewing cabinet.

Okay, that does it. If you can't tell, I'm completely clueless right now as to what I want to work on. There are the things that I WANT to work on and then there are the things that I SHOULD work on. Nasty things, those "shoulds" So, how about if I meander off now and go do some research. Then I might be able to narrow down what I want to do. Well, either that or drive myself completely insane. That's always possible too. *grin*

I knew it!!

TaDa! I knew it would happen sooner or later. The quilt bug finally bit. It's almost hard enough to make me want to wash some fabric for a new quilt. The background is to be all black and all of my black is Moda. I bought it when a quilt shop was having a 50% off sale or something. It's a pure black, no mottling, with Moda's wonderful feel and weight. So, I bought an entire bolt of it. Needless to say, I never washed it and now I wash it as needed. It's the one fabric I'm sure of having enough of when I need a lot. Soon, I'll run out and then I'll be sad. This was a one time purchase for me.

Anyway, the reason behind my new quilt. First of all, it's for me. It's to be all black and red. I came across the perfect pattern in a baby quilt book of all places. LOL They have a version that uses a single background with 4 different fabrics, all the same shade. Well, I can take and toss out the need for 4 different fabrics and just use one.

Oh... the reason. I'll get there eventually. *grin* My oldest son now plays football. As we all know, football is inherently COLD! We're already dropping happily into the 50s on some days. So, I decided that I wanted a football quilt. My son's team colors are black and red. I love those colors (more black than red though, please) and decided to make a quilt. The pattern I picked is simple enough to put together. The only drawback is that I want to make it big. We're talking around twin size. I want to be able to spread it on the ground for the family or wrap everyone in it as needed. So that's going to take a lot of fabric and a lot of cutting. I haven't really thought about the quilting part yet. Maybe this is a good time to try the "Quilt As You Go" technique some more. I only have done that once seriously in the past. This time, it doesn't matter what it will look like all together. I just want it done!

So, I will get started on that soon. Maybe I can start by washing the fabrics tonight. Is a football quilt worth "wasting" lovely red batiks on? *smile* I have some gorgeous red batiks that would look wonderful. Maybe I will. I mean, I need to start clearing them out so that I have an excellent excuse to add more, right?

Yup. The quilt bug has bit. May it last all winter long. Heck, may the bite last long enough to dig my way to my fabric that's stuck in my son's messy bedroom! Oh, boy. That thought right there is almost enough to make me want to give up. Ugh. Oh, well. I will persevere and get it going! I want it done within 2 weeks. Think I can do it? Okay, that may take a miracle, but I'm up to the challenge. *grin*

It's Coming!

It's coming! I can feel it! LOL That is, my return to quilting. I can feel it building up. It has been for a few weeks now. Our temperatures are falling below the 80 degree mark now and that makes comfortable quilting weather. I'm almost wondering what would happen if I "forced" myself to quilt. I'm so close to finishing up DSW's quilt. It was half quilted when I got hit by my anti-quilt 'wall'.

I'm actually wondering if I stopped quilting because that's also about the time I moved my quilting stuff out of that bedroom for DSG and moved it back to the living room. When I set it back up out there, I made sure to set it up so that I could work on things. However, all of my drive to quilt died. So... I'm not sure how to "spruce" it back up again.

Actually, I'm getting ready to reorganize my living room again. It's just set up all wrong and it's way too crowded in there. It's time to start getting rid of a lot of things and see if I can't find a better way to organize everything. I also need to do something about our "school room." Right now, we just use the kitchen table. Unfortunately, a lot of their things require wall space that I just don't have in there. Ugh! I wonder if I can snag my neighbor and get him to help me move the couch out. The boys never actually sit on it. They just turn it into forts all the time. LOL They might miss it, but I know that I won't! I'm sick of walking on the couch cushions all the time and saying, "Pick up the cushions and put them back on the couch" constantly all day long. It's annoying.

Oh, well! I'll get this all figured out one day. When I start quilting again, it will be great! I can almost feel that urge quilters get to just sit and handle fabric. If you think about it, we're really weird like that. *grin* I think that if I 'force' it right about now, I could get quilting again. After I move the living room around. Then watch out! That sewing machine will hum again!

So Sad...

Okay, in the land of quilters, this is terribly sad. I was browsing a few sites that I like to look at for patterns and fabric and realized something. I'm still not interested in quilting! That is such a sad thing. I just can't seem to jump start my engine, so to speak, and start quilting again.

I don't know if it has anything to do with how my living room is organized. As that's where my quilting stuff is, that can be important. I organized it shortly after my desire to quilt died at the beginning of the summer so my idea wasn't to keep it easily accessible. Now there is so much piled over there that I probably couldn't use one of my machines even if I wanted to! The "joys" of living in a home where there just isn't enough room for everyone.

I guess that it's time for some serious reorganizing. Time to dig through things that we own and ask, "Do we really need this or is it just taking up space?" Of course, with quilting stuff, surely it's not taking up space. Then again, some things we bought way back when just isn't going to be used. At that point, I guess it's time to pass it on to someone who will, huh? Of course, I'm not sure where all of that is... My house is such a mess!

Before Labor Day weekend, my house didn't look all that bad. Then we went camping. When we came back, things just started to get flung everywhere when we got home. I now feel completely lost again. I think it's time to devote some time every day to organizing. I'll get my house back at some point, right? We'll just ignore my sons' bedrooms. I have one son whose stuff is 'leaking' out into the hallway. That has to be addressed. As for the rest of it? As long as the door can be shut on it, I'm cool with it. LOL I might tackle it after I get the rest of the house clean. That will take awhile. Maybe by the time I'm done with that my urge to quilt will return. That would be nice. Especially since I left my middle son's quilt about half way quilted. Isn't that nuts? I was going good on it and then BAM! The anti-quilting wall jumped up in front of me and that was the end of that!

As of today, I have no urge to make anything. That's incredibly unsettling to me as I normally have to work on something at all times. I guess my house is getting to me and smothering my creative ability. Yes. It is time to tackle my home and start getting it cleaned out. This is getting ridiculous!

Hmmm.... I wonder how long this is going to take? I actually find that a scary question!