Trying to Stay Ahead While I Fall Further Behind

 I've been trying to schedule a few blog posts ahead, because life is just insane right now. We had only been home for five weeks after that two month trip, when we had to make an emergency trip to New England again. We had a bunch of legal things to attend to, as well as some medical issues to sort for my parents. We didn't know how long things would take to straighten out, so we opted to drive again. We drove there in four LONG days, spent three days running around getting stuff done, then took six days to come home. Thirteen days gone, ten of which were travel days, 5,500 miles on the van, and loads of stress! 

I'm still sorting things out from here, but all is as well as can be for my parents right now, and for that I am truly thankful. More trips out there are inevitable, and we will go as needed. My sister and I have tried to talk them into moving here for years now, but they don't want to move, which I totally understand. I also know, that if all my kids move away, we WILL move near one of them. Trying to do elder care from across the country is not easy, and much more complicated than if we only had to cross town to deal with something. My MIL is here in Southern AZ, and we are closest in distance to her, so we are torn between our aging parents. When we are the ones who need help, I'd like it to be as easy on our kids are possible. 

I do realize that we are blessed to have three of our parents still alive in their late 80's. It's amazing really. We also want to be there and be helpful for all of them. My MIL lives about 8 miles from us, my parents live about 2,600 miles away. My MIL was hospitalized days before my parents had a crisis. What do you do when they are all having a crisis? Thankfully my SIL stepped in and took care of things here, while we went across the country. 

Right now everyone is stable and cared for. That's the goal, right? I'll enjoy the lull while it lasts, knowing another crisis is just around the corner. My parents celebrated their 68th wedding anniversary on September 13th. How cool is that? So much to be thankful for, but that doesn't eliminate the stress. 

DH is hosting a scooter rally in October. I'm rapidly running out of time to get things done for that. No matter what is going on with our parents, we still have other obligations to meet. I've put other things aside for the last couple days, and I got the rally bags made.

Now I've got to to get them filled. I have some smaller zipper bags I was going to sew some trim onto, that we'll be filling with emergency type stuff, like zip ties and duct tape. I told DH rather than sewing the trim on, I'm going to take a scooter stencil we already have, and the screen print ink we already have, and decorate the plain zipper bags with that. I can likely get them done in an hour or so, where sewing the trim on the store bought bags would be fiddly and take much longer. Sometimes taking the easy way out makes a lot more sense. I already have a lot of the things that are going in the bags, just a couple more things to buy. Stuffing them won't take long at all, it's not as big a rally as we sometimes do, and I've pretty much got stuffing rally bags down to a science. 

That's all the sewing I've gotten done since we got home, but I am already prepping for National Sew a Jelly Roll Day on September 19th. I chose a jelly roll I wanted to use, and cut the background fabric I'll need for the pattern I want to use. I'll have to sew up some strip sets before I cut anymore, but I need a play day. The jelly roll and background fabric were all in stash, so it's not even an expensive play day! Is anyone else ready to play on Sew a Jelly Roll Day?

Finishes #18 and 19

 Having a stack of basted quilts sure does make it easier to get quilts finished! My stack is going down quickly, so I'm going to have to find some time to baste a few more. I know I won't run out of quilt tops anytime soon, the quilt closet is full of them!

I wanted to try out the walking foot with my new Bernina, so I opted for straight line quilting on this one. For FMQ the 735 does better with poly thread, but I have a lot of cotton thread too, so I used cotton thread for this and it did just fine. I was sure it would do OK when I was using the walking foot. 

One thing I did not like was because I was turning the quilt frequently, I hit the screen several times and changed the setting accidentally. I think next time I use the walking foot on that machine, I'll tape a piece of template plastic over the screen, so if I do hit the screen with the quilt, no settings will change. It's always interesting adjusting to a new sewing machine. 

My stash does not have much in the way of teal or aqua, so I've found this dark teal works well as background for my scrap quilts. Since few of my scraps are this color, it doesn't blend in with most of my scraps. I think the teal makes for a more modern looking scrap quilt too. This quilt just used my 2" cut squares for the four patches, and teal 3.5" cut squares to alternate with them. If you want to make a very scrappy quilt with decent contrast, try a color you don't use much for the background, it might be just the thing. 

This quilt is from a pattern in American Patchwork and Quilting August 2024. It was a flying geese challenge and this was Emily's quilt. I started with a pastel batik jelly roll, and opted for a navy background so the pastels would pop. I liked this pattern so much I cut a second one out at the same time, but that one has a white background, with darker colors for the flying geese. I made the Flying Geese for the second quilt, but it got stalled out there. It's in a project box waiting it's turn. 

You can see I used a really pale backing for this quilt, which made choosing a thread color for quilting a little challenging. I decided to use a variegated thread on top (Fantastico Birthday Cake by Superior Threads in case you were curious) Between the blues and pinks in the thread, the quilting shows but isn't shocking anywhere. In the bobbin I actually used a very light colored thread, not pink but more a pinkish-lavender. I auditioned a light pink first, but the pinkish lavender actually blended in better with the back, and worked with the top thread as well. I thought white would be too stark of a difference in the bobbin, and if I had any tension issues at all would really be shocking on the top with that navy background. I was really happy at how little the bobbin thread shows on the back. It can be hard to choose threads when the top and backing of a quilt are drastically different colors. 

My goal for the year was to finish 24 quilts, only five more to go! 

Ignoring the Deadlines

There's a lot going on for us. Between caring for elderly parents on opposite sides of the country from each other, and the ridiculous amount of repairs we've had to deal with since we've been home (Can I just get a break from all the breaking, please???) we're a bit stressed. Sometimes I am super productive when I'm stressed, BUT, when I'm stressed, I rarely work on what I should be working on. Of course, when things get to the point with the elderly where you are having the really hard decisions like hospice or long term care options, it's really heavy. 

DH is hosting a scooter rally in October. I should be working on stuff for that. OK, I did get some bags cut out, but haven't sewn a stitch. I had ideas for Christmas gifts, some involved, some really easy. Have I sewn on those? Sort of, I started working on one quilt. Mostly it's a big fat NO. 

So what have I been working on? Well, I am mostly doing my one hour of quilting per day, so I am seeing some finishes, but none of these are deadline projects. I mostly just wanted to piece easy stuff. 

Before I left on that big trip, I had cut out all these blocks from my Civil War fabrics. Are these deadline projects? That would be a no. I have other blocks cut that are nice and neat in project boxes, so I left those alone, but when I came home and saw this big bag, I just thought how nice it would be to have these blocks sewn up. There are enough blocks cut in that bag for at least 3 quilts. I know I cut enough for the Trail Mix quilt I want to make, plus I cut enough uneven nine patch blocks to make another quilt, and I know I cut extra of each of the blocks for Trail Mix so I could pick and choose which blocks I wanted to use, so I'll likely have a second Trail Mix inspired quilt from the leftovers. I do have some leftover bits and strips of Civil War fabric, so depending on what blocks are left after making the two main quilts I have planned, I can either use the extra bits to make more 6" blocks, or evaluate how many strips I have left, and possibly start something else entirely. Any way I do it, I'll be busting my Civil War fabric which is the goal. 

Here are my piles of 6" blocks so far. I have a couple dozen not shown that need to be pressed, and only about a dozen left to sew. That Missouri Star bag is empty now that I'm down to the last dozen blocks, I've just got them next to my sewing machine. 

Am I the only one who ignores deadline stuff when stressed? Please tell me I'm not. I think it's a matter of wanting my sewing to help me de-stress, when deadlines can stress me out when I'm already stressed. When my stress levels are normal, I actually do really well with deadlines. In this case, the Trail Mix quilt has been on my want to make list for years now, and taking the time to sew up something I've wanted to make for years makes me happy. Will I be more stressed later because I'm doing this first? Maybe, but that's a problem for another day. For now, I'll just work on what I can handle working on, and if everyone on my Christmas list gets money this year, that's OK too. At least with cash I'm never guessing at the size 😉

Finish #17

 I'm inching ever closer to my goal of finishing 24 quilts this year!

I've made this block a lot of times, but usually I do a scrappy dark/light thing for an allover pattern on the quilt. This version I'm more thinking of as a Diamond Tile pattern. This quilted up nicely on my new Bernina.

Earlier this year I took some fabrics out of my stash that I no longer wanted in it. Since I have SOOOOOOO many quilt tops in the quilt closet, rather than just donate the fabric, I decided to use them for quilt backings. This is pretty typical of how I've been making quilt backings lately. I didn't have enough of the Peanuts fabric to do the whole back, and my quilt top was wider than WOF. I looked in my fabric drawers, that has fabric up to one yard, and found something that worked with the Peanuts fabric. I didn't need to it to match, sometimes I think contrasting is actually better. I cut the Peanuts fabric vertically, off center on purpose, so I could add in the other fabric. Now I've only got small scraps of both fabrics left, and it's cut to Scrap User sizes, and will get used in a scrap quilt or two. Busting two fabrics out my my yardage is a win, finishing another UFO is a win, and I'll take it!

Playing with Panels

Last year for Christmas, I made DD#1 a quilt with a minky backing. It was a surprise, she didn't know it was coming. I had never made anyone in her family a quilt with minky, and now that they know the wonders of minky, they all want one. 

 There are SIX people in her family, SIX! Can I make six quilts for Christmas that aren't even started yet? The one I made her last year was actually a Christmas quilt, so I do plan on making her a year round quilt, and that's already started, she wants a Civil War Sampler quilt, I've got the sashing and cornerstones done, and about half the blocks done. For the other five quilts, I'm starting with panels.

These are to be quilts to be used on the couch, while curled up with a book, or maybe watching a movie. I'm thinking 48" x 72" or so. I don't want to have to piece the minky, but I could go a little wider, and for the men of the family, I could go a little taller. I've bought extra wide minky before, but for a couch quilt I see no reason to, I bought standard width minky. Most minky says it's 60" wide, but you don't get 60" of usable fabric, and some of it isn't that wide even with selvages intact. I can go wider than 48" though, maybe 54" or so wide. 

To give myself a head start, I'm going to be using some panels for at least part of the quilts. One of my grandsons, I was really stuck on, but when we visited, I got a chance to talk to him, and he's really into fantasy books. I can work with that. I read a lot of fantasy books myself. 

The fabric on the left of my design wall is actually two panels from the Wizards and Warriors collection by Quilting Treasures. I have a third one of those panels as well. On the top right is a panel from the Legendary Journeys collection by In the Beginning. In the Beginning has a LOT of fantasy panels, and I've got several of their dragon panels. The bottom right is the castle panel from the Wizards and Warriors collection.

I also got this digitally printed library panel, that looks like it could be in one of those castles. I have a little bit of a couple of the companion fabrics to the Wizards and Warriors collection, and I just ordered the border fabric that goes with that collection, but it hasn't arrived yet. Obviously, this is way more fabric than I need for one quilt, and once I start making some blocks, it will really be too much. That's just fine with me, I had always planned to make multiple quilts with the Wizards and Warriors panels. I donate a lot of quilts, and I know they get more girl quilts than boy quilts, and charities tend to be lowest on teen boy quilts. Fantasy books can easily be gender neutral, but these panels definitely read teen or adult to me. I'll be making my grandson's quilt first, but I am sure I'll have at least two, if not three, fantasy quilts for donation when I'm finished. 

I don't have the whole quilt planned out yet, but I know how I'll be starting. My grandson's quilt will be a medallion style quilt, with a tall rectangular center. I don't have the center figured out yet, but I do have a pieced 12" border planned, and I might use the border fabric around that. I haven't decided which pieces will make the cut yet, but I see some fun quilts on the way. Since I have more quilts to make that aren't started, I may just set the extra pieces aside once I get his quilt top made, so I can start the other panel quilts. I haven't decided how this is all going to work, and every panel I'm using in these many quilts is a different size, so each one will be an adventure for me. 

Sometimes I dread working with panels, because they are so often printed off grain, but at this point, I've done it often enough that I have some coping strategies to deal with that. Overall, I'm really looking forward to this challenge.