Still Kicking

Wow, it's been a while since I blogged! I haven't fallen off the face of the planet, just dealing with a complicated mess in my life right now. Any prayers on my family's behalf are appreciated.

I don't know about any of you, but when life is really hard, a few minutes of sewing time is a sanity saver for me. I haven't had much sewing time lately, but even 30 minutes can seem like a lifeline.

I finished all the "Tower of Pisa" blocks in both colorways for Allietare. There are 20 of these blocks in each colorway, for those who didn't follow the mystery quilt.

I am currently working on the star blocks in the brights colorway, and I have 20 of those blocks done, but I need 30. Once I have the brights colorway blocks done, I'll finish up the shirts colorway blocks, then move onto piecing the setting triangles.

I had leftover units from the pink camo wedding quilt, so I pieced some blocks from the extra parts.

I have 12 of each of these blocks, and I think if I set them with some wide sashing, and a border or two, they'd make a decent lap quilt. I love "bonus" quilts like this, just made from extra pieces and a quilt you hadn't planned on making, but somehow gets done. A lot of the quilts I donate are made just this way. I made all of these blocks as leaders/enders.

My current leader/ender project is the second baby quilt I need, and I've got half the rows assembled now. I know I'll have the second baby quilt top together before I finish the Allietare blocks in both colorways. This second baby quilt will need a little applique, and that can't be done as leader/enders, but at least I'm making some progress on multiple quilts in the short bits of time I've had to sew. I'll need to take the time to cut out another deadline quilt, so I can use it as my leader/ender project once the baby quilt is assembled.

I know I have too many quilts in progress right now, and my plan to deal with that is this. Until my 8 deadline quilts for this year are finished, the only leader/ender projects I'm allowing myself are another deadline quilt, or a UFO. No new starts aside from deadline quilts. Once my deadline quilts are finished, I'm OK with starting something new, but I'm hoping by then I'll have several UFO's to quilt top stage. Once a UFO is a quilt top, I don't worry too much about it. If an occasion sneaks up on me, I can quickly take a quilt top and turn it into a quilt. Once it's a quilt top, I can use the leftover fabrics in other projects and not worry about needing it. Every time I need to baste a couple quilts, I try to baste and quilt one extra one from my quilt tops. It usually keeps the quilt tops down to a manageable number. Right now it's the quilts that I have all the blocks made, or the quilts I have the sub-units made, but not the blocks that are bogging me down. I have often assembled quilts as leader/enders, and that's what I hope to do this year too.