Monday, April 15, 2013

easing back into things

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My motivation for spending time in my sewing room seems to have evaporated as of late.  Its certainly not for a lack of projects to work on, because those are plenty, but for some reason, the sew-jo seems to have hit the road.  I will say, sometimes when I have so many things in various stages of completion, my brain just can't decide what to work on first, so naturally I just don't work on anything at all.

I've seen some elaborate forms of project tracking here and there, and always thought it was a little bit much, but it may be just what I need to keep things organized and prioritized.  I will admit I get some sort of mini high from checking things off a list!  I'm embarrassed to admit that I still have blocks for a do. Good Stitches quilt tucked away in my cabinet from last March.  Eeek.  Anyways, if anyone has any magic tracking/organization tips for keeping UFOs managed, I'd love to hear them!

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Anyways, enough boo-hooing about what I haven't been working on, and onto a little something that does have me excited to huddle down in my sewing room and stitch away!  After seeing Natalie's hand quilted Single Girl quilt, inspiration struck, and I needed to stitch with curves.  Like that instant.  I have never made Denyse Schmidt's famous Single Girl quilt, I definitely missed the boat on that quilt along 2 years ago, and thought no time like the present.

I was thisclose to hitting the purchase button for the pattern, but the more I looked into it, the more I wasn't quite feeling it.  Reason A:  Templates.  Ugh.  When I put together my Double Wedding Ring Quilt a few years back, I specifically found a pattern that paper pieced the arcs.  I knew I definitely did not have the patience for cutting templates, tracing, and cutting fabric by hand with scissors.  Reason B:  I wanted more of a circle circle shape, not a rounded square-circle shape.  Reason C: I wanted more space between my circles, and less blank space in the circle center.

So...whats a gal to do??  Of course the only answer is to bust out her compass and random assorted scrapbooking paper (my personal fav for drafting paper piecing templates, as its nice and big at 12" square) and get to drafting a template that was just what I wanted!

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Luckily this was not the headache I had envisioned in my head, and definitely did a happy dance when everything came together perfectly on the first go.  My arc templates are made, and are ready to be paper pieced, and I am just waiting on my order of Essex Linen in Natural for the background, and hopefully this will become a quilt top rather quickly! 

18 comments:

  1. Well, I love it so far! Beautiful color palette, and the natural linen is a perfect accent! Glad to see your sew-jo trying to make a comeback :)

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  2. It's beautiful JEss. I can identify with the sew-jo being MIA lately. Mine comes back in small spurts here and there. I have a quilt hanging on the wall that I need to buy backing and batting for and get to quilting and I think that's partly what's holding me up, AND I have a beautiful stack of Notting Hill that I bought to make a quilt just for me, and I cannot decide what to use it for!

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  3. That is a pretty block! I hope your sewjo comes back, and tells mine to come back, too!

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  4. Definately digging your circle block...it's so clean and cheerful. I competely understand the frustration you feel with so many projects in the wings, in your head and on your table. I was actually right there in that same spot about 3 weeks ago, when I decided that a new project (yep, because I didn't have enough already) that was completely unlike anything I had done before was necessary. It worked, I got the Sew-Jo back and couldn't be happier. Now, I just need to finish it.

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  5. Your block turned out so pretty! I am kind of feeling the same way, under pressure and not sure where to start (it's my own pressure to clear out those WIPs, that seem to always build up!), so I'm sitting at the computer looking at pretty things instead...maybe I should start small. Thanks for sharing, it's nice to know I'm not the only one!

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  6. I swear when I have too much on the go I can hear the gears jamming in my head as I back away from the project pile in panic! This looks like a nice gateway back into things though :o)

    I have a wee white board I'm popping my outstanding WIPs on this year, divided into quarters (I started the year with 40 of them. Yes, 40!) So I said to myself I could only work on new things if I knocked off some WIPs at the same time. It seems to be working, but we're only 3 1/2 months in!

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  7. Beautiful colours and they look so lovely with the linen.

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  8. I am with you on tiny templates vs. paper piecing. What a great idea and pretty block!

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  9. I'd totally buy your template! I am in love with this block, but stink at creating my own. Would you consider?

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  10. It's looking fab jess! Glad you've got some motivation again,it totally sucks when it disappears!

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  11. I want one! Looks like your sew-jo has returned! Good luck!

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  12. Great block! I can't wait to see the finished quilt...it will be stunning! I feel your pain on the missing sewjo...I think my problem is my sewing room is a wreck with partially finished projects everywhere! I think my plan is to clean and organize and put away everything but the project I want to work on that day...and then just get started and work my way through my stack of projects! Indeed, you've inspired me...today is the day I'm going to get organized, now that my taxes are filed! Nothing like waiting until the last possible moment!

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  13. What a great block! I've never made the single girl quilt either - templates do not sound fun. But paper piecing is wonderful - I love your solution! Can't wait to see the finished quilt!

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  14. What a nice start! And I love it on the Essex!

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  15. I like the look of a really round circle for a kind of single girl quilt. That's why I don't like many of the double wedding ring quilts: not round enough. I've seen one and I asked whether there's a pattern for it. Unfortunately not by now. But there's hope because there are more requests.
    Will you share your templates? I think I might be able to make my own. Perhaps. But if someone wants to share the templates I'm always thankful.
    The circle looks wonderful. The colours are wonderful. I'm curious what a whole quilt will look like.
    I understand your feelings about so many unfinished projects. Right now I have about ten or more unfinished projects and always want to start new ones. But then I would only have more and so I want to finish some but also don't know where to start. Add a constant big lack of sleep (because of two little ones) and a big stress (because of especially one little one who decided to be really demanding 4 weeks ago) and you can imagine that only very little if not no sewing happens. *sigh* Hope there will be better times soon.
    I have no recipe for staying wip organized as you can see. :) I'll tell you when every wip is finished. :)

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  16. You have explained how I work too. So many things to choose from you can't choose what to do next, so do nothing for a while? Yep that's me. I like your block, and the fact that if things don't quite suit you are it up your own way. I do that too ;-)

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