Everyone Move One Step to the Right

As you work in your sewing room, do you ever feel like you are just moving stuff from one place to another and not actually getting anything done? I've been feeling a bit like that lately.

I have several projects that have been hanging around in eyesight for far too long. Does a quilt sewn into rows really need to sit for a month before I sew the rows together? Does the backing I cut fabric for really need to sit out for two weeks before I finally sew it and layer the quilt for basting? Probably not. I was cutting the 2" strips from my scrap user system most of last summer, and I still haven't finished sewing up what I cut, never mind finishing cutting up the browns which I never got to. I start to get really grumpy when things are in my line of sight for too long. 

All of those orange and yellow blocks I had been sewing? I finally finished sewing those up. I never counted any of the pieces I cut, but oddly enough, I ended up with an equal number of orange/yellow/orange blocks as I did of yellow/orange/yellow blocks. That's great, because I had always planned on using the blocks to alternate for each other. Even better is with the 192 blocks I finished with, I can make a twin sized quilt set 10x12, and a throw sized quilt set 8x9 and use up every single block. I've (mis)counted pieces while cutting before and not had it work out so well. 

My sister is visiting and since I already had a houseful, I put her in my sewing room. In an effort to clean it up a bit, I finally got that quilt that's been in rows for a month into a quilt top!

I also got the backing fabric I had cut sewn up, and have the quilt laid out ready for basting. I'm hoping to start basting it tomorrow, but we'll see. 

Subcutting strips seemed a good quiet thing to work on while talking to my sister, so I have the Modern Technology Quilt all cut out and ready to sew!

I injured my left knee over a year ago, and it's doing fine now. Just as I was about to start walking for exercise again, I injured my right knee! No fun, and just as I was pretty much back to normal! My sewing studio is in the basement in our house, and all the climbing of stairs just isn't giving my new injury a chance to settle down. I came up with a temporary solution to cut down on trips up and down the stairs. 

I set up a sewing area in my living room (not for the first time), and I'll be piecing in there for now. I'll still be going downstairs for other things, but not nearly as often, and hopefully my knee will appreciate the break. I'm really thinking moving to a one story house is a wise idea. I've got three projects upstairs to sew on, and it will take quite a while to sew up all of those. The log cabin blocks I was making will likely be finished by next weekend, but the others will take a while, especially the Lady of the Lake blocks.

In non-quilty news, DH crashed on his scooter a week ago. Thankfully, he suffered only minor injuries, but Italian scooter parts are expensive so the bike is totaled. He's healing up nicely, the bike has already been towed and the insurance company has already paid. Now he's looking for another maxi scooter. The one he totaled was a Piaggio X-9 500cc, and his other scooters are only 200 cc bikes. He likes to have one that will go highway speeds without a problem. He has a motorcycle too, but he loves his scooters. He supports my quilting so I support his two wheeled hobbies. I think my hobby is safer though ;-) I don't even have to wear a helmet!