Get Organized!

Today, I realized that my sewing table looks like this:

What a hot mess.  And, for the record, that's a tin full of Danish Butter Cookies, just in case I need a snack, I won't have to walk the frightfully long way downstairs to the kitchen.

I think I need to get cleaned up.  There's barely any table left!!  How can any one work like this?  It's a little ridiculous.  And I need to write down some "assignments" on a calendar, because OMG it's already 11 days until Christmas!!  ACK!  (That's a word, right??  Yes, it must be -- Cathy the cartoon says it all the time...) 

OK, here I go to put some stuff away!

I was in a QUILT SHOW!!

Even though I've been a quilter for about 20 years, I have never had a quilt of mine in a quilt show.  Well, I guess there was this one time at the fair when I was a teenager, but it was SUPER STRESSFUL!  I mean, the JUDGEMENT!  Ugh!  I have a large enough anxiety issue without all of that pressure and judgey-ness on my hobby, for heavens sake.  So, over the years, I've decided that my quilts will remain in my house, and only shared with people who, if they have a judgement or criticism, will have the good sense to keep it to themselves so I don't have to throat-punch them.

But then, my friends in the Rubystreet Art Quilters group had a show at a local library recently, and there was no judgement to get into the show, there were no prizes, no juries, no stress of any kind really.  So, not one but TWO of my quilts hung in that!  And, it was amazing; I was very proud of myself, and I didn't have a panic attack over it.  Success and growth right there, people, that's what that is!

Here they are, hanging in the library's rafters:

This quilt is one that I've posted on here before, I think.  I started it a long time ago, and recently got it quilted.  It's from the book Material Obsession by Kathy Doughty and Sarah Filke.  Their version had brown backgrounds behind the flowers, but I was really into white at the time, so that's what I used in my version.



This quilt was totally inspired by the book Sunday Morning Quilts by Amanda Jean Nyberg & Cheryl Arkinson.  I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE this book, and I've made several projects from it.  I thoroughly enjoy their scrap quilting method called "Slabs" and I used that idea when I made this quilt.  It's called "Blackout", and was a Christmas gift for my husband.  He is a gun collector, and has one called a Blackout 300, which as far as I'm concerned, is Greek for "expensive."  But as he was explaining to me what makes it a Blackout and a 300, and I was trying to listen, I had this quilt idea flash before my eyes, so I got to work.  The cross in it is supposed to look like when you look through a gun's sights, but as I am a Girl, I wasn't really certain what that looked like, so I made up my own interpretation.

Here it is up a little closer so it's easier to see all the separate pieces in the "Slabs."  One thing I did NOT think about with this quilt is that we have a white cat.  White cat + all black quilt = a big ole non-practical mess...

So, there are my OFFICIAL show quilts!  Ha, I was in a show!  A couple more non-judgmental things like this, and I may get up the courage to enter a real, juried quilt show...who knows?!?  Of course, I may need to up my meds before that happens...

Sick computer no more!

Hooray! My computer is fixed!! And I've been working on so much fun stuff!

Like a modern quilt from the book Material Obsessions by Sarah Fielke and Kathy Doughty. It's made with fabrics I bought at Ruby Street Quiltworks here in town...I love the brown + pink color combination.

And I finished a quilt for my niece Addison, who turned two today!! I just love it! It started with some cute butterfly flannel that I bought from Fabric.com, and it's white background polka-dot coordinate. Then I found some flannel plaids in my stash that matched, and some purple flannel for a darling curved border. And, I'm so tricky, it says her name on it, even! Aunt Heidi is GOOD!!

And I've made a jacket for myself, but I don't have pictures of that done yet...My project shelf is looking emptier, but still has many quilts left to finish...I hope to get more accomplished soon!!