Busy.... Not busy...

I haven't blogged in a couple months.  I've been busy..... and not busy...

Ya... how do I explain that?

I LOVE to start. It's usually a new (to me) piecing technique that I have to try out. 

..... Or a pattern that has caught my eye and I am sure I can use what's in my stash. 

..... Or a new time saving tool, except if it's taking me away from my current project is it really time saving?

..... Or a new needle and thread craft (the newest is Romanian Point Lace, I'll talk about that later!)

.... Or I get stuck on current project and can't make up my mind on the next step and purposely look for distraction... The solution usually comes when I stop overthinking the problem. .. this helps but only if I return to previous current project (this statement makes sense in my head.)

Oh, so many things that lure me to START something new!!

Like my son convincing me to commission a Star Wars quilt.  (Not a true commission, I was given free rein of design with only two requirements.) I resisted hard! Because I was currently working on two quilts that have intended recipients (but no deadline)

Meadow's Butterflies

Zebra

I was determined to get these finished and in the mail.  I was using blogging as a means to bribe myself, "when I finished either of these quilts I'll blog about it!"

..... 😼 *Sigh* ... Neither is completed yet... 🤦

 Meadow's Butterflies is very close to done. It's all quilted and bound. I still have to bury threads and add some pictures to the back. It's the pictures that have halted progress. I have to learn how to print them out which means getting on my daughter's computer... (A whole story on its own, I won't go into details..) maybe now that I've told you about it gives me incentive to make it happen!

On the Zebra quilt, I need to applique the legs on then I can move to quilting.... I don't know what's stopping me here. The legs are ready and I plan a zebra stripes design for quilting... Again, here's hoping that by mentioning it here will be incentive to continue.

And so it happened. My distraction. I went looking for Star Wars fabric... Not intentionally! I was at Walmart for garden supplies and some how ended up in the sewing section 😁!

I texted pictures of the few fabrics Walmart has to my son. When he saw this one he said he had to have it to make something. 

It was $2.50/yd clearance so I got him some yardage even though he didn't have a project in mind.

Later he found a simple skirt on Pinterest made out of two squares with a circle cut out of the center for the waist.

Yes. Simple until we realized the print is directional. And instead of cutting one square, we had to make a pattern to cut four corners. And we couldn't resist adding pink tulle.

I'm very proud of my son. As much as I quilt and sew, I hadn't realized this was his FIRST sewing project.  We've worked together making bowties before but I was the one at the sewing machine.  This time, with only a bit direction from me, he cut every piece and sewed every stitch. (And I'm proud of me, because I allowed him to use the new sewing machine I won from Pigeon Forge this year 😌!) 

And aren't these baby girls adorable?!!

These photos make me smile.

Every time I look at them I feel a joyful giggle starting to bubble inside.

That was in May. Now in July late June (!! I got ahead of myself there!!) my son had the opportunity to go visit his friends in Indiana. Since there was left over fabric I made little girl purses to match the skirts. (Here's the Pinterest pin: http://pin.it/YfmdA1m that takes you to Just Another Hangup blog.  Where I got the link to Ruby's Party Bag!)

I couldn't send empty purses. These two comfort dolls have been waiting for a while for finishing touches. They called out to me claiming that they are ready for little people lovin' on them.

I've tried to find an original source for this knitted doll. It's used for many charities. I don't know that any one can claim the pattern as their own. You can search "knitted pocket doll" in Pinterest to find several different versions with instructions for free. 

A short while ago I told my Heart, "I want to learn something NEW with needle and thread!"

He calmly and sympathetically tells me, "I'm sorry hon, your options are pretty thin in that area!" Hahah, isn't that sweet of him!!

Lucky for me... There's Pinterest!! (Yes, by now you know, I spend a lot of time there 😜, but it's limitless and makes ME feel limitless too!) There are so many different types of lace besides crocheted or knitted. And not many books out. Many of the old lace is taught from generation to generation and sadly not much has been put into print.

But thankfully there are bloggers willing to write up what they know and give tutorials freely. I just need to put a little time and research in to find the information. 

This time my searching led me to Thread Head's blog Romanian Point Lace ornament tutorial.

Here's my results.

#1 is on the right. Both the cord and filling stitches are made with crochet cotton, (feels like a #10 but it's an older brand and size is not marked on the label, only "mercerized crochet cotton, color fast - will boil." Lol, what?!)

#2 is on the left. Cord is made with the same #10 crochet cotton & #6 hook and the filling is stitched with size 20 Lizbeth tatting thread.

I hope to start on a bigger piece soon. Thread Head had a RPLAL that looks like it might be my next step.

Well, I had plenty to blog about. I haven't even mentioned that I did start the Star Wars quilt. And quilted it. All it needs now is a binding, and I'm still debating how I'm going to do it just yet. My son says his friend loves it. I'm so pleased with it I asked her if I could enter it in the Old Man River quilt show in Aug. She was ok with that!!

Well that is most of my busy parts. I guess the not so busy parts would be time spent on Pinterest. I still include that time as part of my daily quilting/crafting hours. And even though I haven't finished what I intended to finish, I got plenty done! And now that I've updated this blog I am feeling a sense of accomplishment. 🤗

Bye for now, I'll see you soon!!