The prettiest sight ever...

...is an empty project box!!

Yay! Boy, do I feel like a big, whiny baby now! It took no time at all to get this top quilted and the binding on. It does help that I did a big, loose, loopy pattern with stars thrown in over the big light areas:

A close up:

The back:

This one will also be gifted to House of Mercy. Hopefully it will have some little boy snuggling in it soon! The work was made much easier with one of my FAVORITE things about Christmas:

I LOVE popping one of these peppermint nougats in my mouth and just letting it melt! My coworkers all laugh at me...they tell me it's "grandma" candy. That's okay..I like'em anywho!! lol Now, I am taking Mary's advice (thanks, hon!!) and rewarding myself with a little piecing. I figure tomorrow is soon enough to grab box #2 and see what is in there for me to finish up!!

Must......be.......strong......

Oh, I need this sewing time tonight!!! Work has been awful this week (and we are only 2 days in!!) and I am behind in just about everything housework wise, too. Tonight, though, is for ME. I am going to sew. I NEED to quilt up the Seven Shirt quilt. Remember that I am NOT going to start anything until it gets done?? I want to quilt it, but I want to piece something..anything! lol I thought maybe I would just piece for an hour and then move on to quilting, but I am afraid I won't enjoy the piecing because of the lack of quilting guilt! Does this ever happen to you?? Sigh..I guess I will just quilt the darn thing. It really won't take long because I am only going to do a meander over it. Then I will be able to piece guilt free. No, not really because then I will know I should be pulling box #2 and working on THAT project. I know there is a compromise in here somewhere...now just to find it. The need to piece is fierce...but, I....must.....be....strong.....

Inch by Inch

I am disappointed in myself for not making more sewing time this week but considering I spent it with the family, it was worth it!! I really thought I would have the Seven Shirts quilt done by now, but it just didn't happen. I did get the last border on and got it all sandwiched and ready to quilt:

I am really glad I made myself put on the last border. It really adds to the whole quilt. That is probably going to be it for tonight. I just don't have it in me to start quilting it, so that will wait until tomorrow. When I was at our retreat in Connecticut, we went out to a lovely lunch. The place was so accomodating to us quilters. Look at the chairs:

The caning was friendship stars! LOL I wonder how many folks have sat on these chairs and it took our little bunch of quilters to see that. Check out the dessert that they treated us on the house:

That is a slice of key lime pie and banoffee pie. They were both amazing, but that banoffee pie is to die for...banana, toffee and chocolate!! Throw in a proprietor with the most lovely Irish accent and a penchant for telling tales and that place has it all. Btw..I think he has a crush on Marie Bostwick, the author and our hostess for the retreat..but then again, who wouldn't???

Box #1

Okay..after I had a meltdown the other day over the lack of empty boxes in my sewing cave, I decided I would start working my way through them. How to decide what to work on, though? While I obviously like all the projects or I wouldn't have started them and/or kitted them up, they apparently didn't hold my attention very long. So, I decided the only fair way was to grab a box..any box..and finish whatever was in it. And I mean FINISH it..to the end..not to a flimsy...quilt it, bind it and be DONE with it. So, I grabbed box #1 (this was kind of fun because I really had NO idea what was in it!!), opened it and found it filled with the shirts I had pulled for the 7 Shirt Quilt. The link for the tutorial is here. Saturday night I got to it and got all the shirts cut up. I got the back all pieced together:

I also have the center of the top and the first border done:

It is supposed to have piano key borders around it next. I really like the way it looks without it, though. It is small...only about 41 x 53 with only the one border on it. It is going to be donated to House of Mercy and since I just donated a small one for a girl, maybe I should leave it like this to donate for a young boy. Or maybe I should stop trying to talk myself out of the other border and just finish it up properly. That is the whole point of this exercise..no shortcuts..no "almost dones"!! Sigh..okay..off to see if I can get the last border together and on and then maybe I can even get it sandwiched tonight. Oh..the thought of getting one done that was just languishing is intoxicating!! Almost as intoxicating as having an empty box when I am done!!!!

Ruh Roh!

The immortal words of Astro from the Jetsons..ruh roh! I came up to grab a project to bring back down to work on downstairs while sitting with Patrick. Simple enough task. But then I started thinking about my "Gotta Make it NOW" project that I came up with before bed the other night. I do NOT want to start it until I get a few more finishes under my belt, but I decided I could at least pull some of the scraps for it..light yellows, light pinks and browns. (Ohhh...how easily we can let ourselves be deceived..just pull the scraps..yeah..RIGHT!). Then while I was digging through my big box of scraps waiting to get cut down to size, I thought, "why not pull some scraps just in case I decide to do Bonnie Hunter's new mystery? I am digging through the pile, anywho..might as well! (Deception #2 so far..I PROMISED myself I would not consider this now since I have too much going on!)So, now I have a box filling up for my project, 2 boxes filling up for the mystery and I need one more box for strings. What?? No more empty boxes in my sewing room! This is where the big ruh roh comes in. I have boxes...LOTS of boxes for my projects. And they are all filled. Yes, I COULD go down and get another box, but I won't. I can't. I have GOT to empty some of the boxes already here of their projects to claim the box again. This is now at crisis stage with the projects. I think I need an intervention.