Torn! And other random mumblings...

I'm rather torn at the moment, dear Readers. The last few weeks, I've been using my precious sewing time to finish crafting and quilting UFOs. On the one hand, I miss garment sewing so much! and that makes me slightly cranky. But on the other hand, I'm getting the super-satisfying feeling of striking things off a To-Do list, which is nice.

As in everything, the secret is balance. Which is why, when I finish with the current quilting project on my table, I will get back to my own sewing and make something for me.

--------------------------------

A couple of weeks back, my overflowing crafting closet was getting rather stressful, and I decided to make a UFO-project list, with the intention of working on one UFO each week.

Ahem.

I divided my excel spreadsheet into three tabs - one for quilting, one for general-purpose crafting, and one for garment sewing. I starting listing UFOs, along with how many hours it would take to finish the project. And gulp! my quilting UFO list would take 188 hours to finish.

I think I spend maybe 10 hours sewing each week, which suggests that I'd be spending a good third of 2012 finishing up quilting UFOs. I don't think so. I'm going to hide all my quilting UFOs in my parents' basement instead.

--------------------------------------------

All kidding aside, writing the UFO list was really good for me. I've already crossed off two items off the list - attaching the binding for this red quilt, and quilting my brother's t-shirt quilt.

Right now, I'm quilting this woolen scrap quilt for my other brother.

My thought is that I'll give them these quilts for Christmas (though of course, none of these quilts were actually intended as Christmas presents, it's just an artificial deadline to help me get them done and out of my apartment.)

--------------------------------------------

Back in the fall, I'd gone to Creativ (a big crafting/sewing/quilting festival in these parts). I was a bit disappointed by the sewing stuff on display, honestly. (I didn't sign up for the classes though, so maybe that was my problem?) But there was a ton of quilts on display, and they all served as pretty wonderful quilting inspiration.

While inspired, I didn't actually *want* to make a quilt top. Instead, I decided that my mother should make one of the quilt tops I'd seen at Creativ.

(Outsourcing the work? Check.)

So, I pulled fabric for a quilt, started cutting it out, and laid it out all over the floor of my parents' family room, thus forcing my mother to work on the quilt if she wanted to get her floor back and be able to walk around in that room. It worked like a charm! I don't think she's ever sewn a quilt top together as quickly as this one went together.



Pretty, right? I wonder what she should work on/I should cut out next?