New year, old projects.

It seems that each new year we take stock of life and evaluate our accomplishments and failures. Some decide to try to make changes with lists of resolutions. And the crafters? We have piles of unfinished projects that we look around at and realize it's been another YEAR and we still haven't gotten them out of the UFO pile. STILL!

Well, that list seems to be ever evolving but some of my projects have been on it for multiple years. Don't worry, I won't list them for you. Or even show them to you. That would take a LOT of photos.

So I'll start this year's blogging by sharing one project that I've been working on for the better part of a year already that hopefully will see a completion in the next few months. 

Hopefully. 

At this point in life you'd think I'd know better than to be hopeful about quilting projects getting finished. 

But I thought it deserved a share at the completion of over 200 blocks. 201 to be exact. Just need 41 more and I'll have enough for a king size quilt. It's all scrappy and happy and is the "rainbow rows" from the #apqquiltalong2015 pattern. So close to finishing. 

So close. So far. Still a lot of work before this one is ON MY BED! Can you imagine? I've never made myself a bed quilt. My kids all have quilts. But a king still seemed like a lot of work and time and commitment. Good thing I picked a super quick project. HA! not. 

Wish me luck finding some time to finish this one! 
I love it even from this picture. :) 

Daydream

The only goal for most people in doing anything is to find more time to spend doing things that make them happy. Quilters neeeeeeed more time to quilt. There will never be enough hours in the day or years in a life for most of us fabric addicts. Maybe some people have their addictions under control. 

I do not. 

I like diet coke. 

And fabric. 

And apparently books and gardening and volleyball and piano and kids. 

Oh and science. ANYTHING nerdy and genetics/physics/chemistry related totally gets me going. 

I fully admit it. I'm an addict of MANY things. 

But if I could combine enough of them together and multitask my enjoyment I could create the most productive and efficient enjoyment machine for my life. I could sit in a garden drawing molecular models in my quilt designs sipping diet coke watching volleyball on television (no volume) while the children frolic through the plants nibbling berries and licking popsicles to classical music. It'd be awesome. And then maybe I could find time for the mundane cleaning and laundry type activities that seem to fill up entirely too much of my life at present. Hello sippee cups. And trips to the potty (Potty-training twins is a blast... said no one ever.). And endless dishes full of food that wasn't even touched. (No wonder my parents just took us to McDonald's.)

But constantly trying to whittle a little time from each of the necessary activities of life to make a little time for a hobby has kind of turned into a game. For instance, if I can get these dishes done while making dinner, flipping a load of laundry, and helping a kid get their homework done, I can free up at least 30-60 min that night for something else. If I do them sequentially I won't even finish today. One day when the kids are all grown I will probably find myself multitasking my hobbies. And then I'll miss the sippee cups and everything else. :)

So I'm sure a few loads of laundry and dishes have had to sit a few extra hours so that I would even have quilts to share on my blog. 

How do you find time for quilting? 

This little baby quilt is in Kate Spain's Daydream fabric line for Moda. 

I quilted a different texture pattern in each of the continuous negative space sections. Quilting multiple designs in a single quilt is so much more entertaining. I highly recommend you try it. You could get a new addiction! 

It could really use a name. I was thinking something along the lines of "party streamers." Any thoughts?

It measures 32" x 36" and is in the shop. 

Striped Diamonds

See, I had a LOT of fun with that fabric.

Strip heaven.

I made paper pieced diamond strip blocks out of them.

And I used the same fabric for the backing as the giraffe applique quilt. 

Look at all those happy strips. :)

It is also in the shop.

A Stitch in Color

I don't know how many of you are readers of Malka Dubrawsky's blog, but I've been enjoying for quite a while. 

Long before she ever was designing fabric for Moda. 

So, I was thrilled to get my hands on her first line, A Stitch in Color, and have some fun with it! 

I also took my inspiration for the quilting directly from some of her quilting projects and wow, that was fun.

It made me want to quilt like that all the time. 

A little nature to match!

Maybe you can see my quilting better in this one? 

Oh, and the backing. 

It looks like another quilt. 

It's the cheater fabric in the line - the "panel" of sorts. 

It ended up at 37" x 42" and is in the shop.