A tisket, a tasket

Hand applique is never going to be my "thing," but it's always good to dust off old skills once in a while, to remind them that they've not been forgotten.  I'm trying to catch up on Pat Sloan's Solstice Challenge and have been working on the center basket for block 5 tonight.  This was not helped by Squiddle cutting into the bottom section of the basket while I was working on the handle.  My own fault - I left the fabric and scissors near him, and he had his first experience with using scissors at one of his classes this week.  Fortunately I had more of the fabric, and now I know to keep my scissors out of his reach!

Challenge + Obstacles

So, finally, images!

Here we have what I am going to refer to as "the challenge":

My 7' x 7' x 2' wall of fabric and books and patterns and thread and UFOs and just basically sewing STUFF.  Plus my sewing desk and all the stuff heaped atop it.  The fabrics on the left are largely garment fabrics, with some flannels at the top.  The fabrics to the right (including behind the fabric 1976 calendar) are quilting cottons.  The fourth shelf down is all patterns.  And the two under that are my UFO tubs and my smallish vintage sewing machine collection.  I need to sew this stash down to where I can actually get everything on the shelves!  And I did a pretty massive fabric purge last year, so the stuff that's left is the good stuff I want to sew with.

And here we have what I am going to refer to as "the obstacles":

My boys!  The elder, known online as "Squiddle," is three years, four months old.  The younger, "Jazzy," is four months old.  (Their birthdays are three days apart.)  The leisurely life of a stay-at-home-mom (ahahaha!) means that they are my primary concern.

Yet at the same time I am a creative individual, and while I've accepted that my writing is likely on hold for several more years to come, I need SOME creative outlet.  And if I haven't been sewing as long as I've been writing, well, I've at least been doing it for... dear heavens.  Twenty-four years!  But, regardless, I need a creative outlet.  And it's a good deal easier to stop in the middle of a seam than in the middle of a sentence.  At least in regards to (a) knowing what the heck you were doing when you get back to it later, and (b) in maintaining momentum.  Sewing a quilt block or a pattern has a fairly comprehensible sequence of events.  Writing a story, not so much.

So, that's my inspiration and, in a different way, my other inspiration.

Argh!

I want to be sewing!  But just as my writing time disappeared with boy #1, is my sewing time disappearing in the face of boy #2?  This week it seems that way!

I know it's just Jazzy probably hitting a growth spurt and wanting nursies more often that's eating up the minutes.  And Squiddle has actually been pretty good about naptime recently.  And the fact that I've been taking advantage of good weather to tackle the backlogged housecleaning and outside gardening stuff during Squiddle's nap is where my sewing time's gone.

But god.  If I lose this creative outlet too, I will Go. Out. Of. My. Mind.

And I will take Wonderful Husband with me.

*goes to negotiate with Wonderful Husband for sewing time this weekend*

I Shall Not Over-Commit Myself

Playing catch-up with my to-do list this week.  I got the Block of the Month blocks and my sample row done in time for the guild meeting on Tuesday, so that was good.  The voting for the new slate of officers is at next month's meeting, so I got announced as candidate for Secretary.  And I closed the list for the Ugly Fabrics Nine Patch exchange at the end of the meeting.  Fourteen of us!

Since the meeting I've sewn the February sample row to the January one and decided on the March blocks (Single Irish Chain, in green and white/cream) and mailed out the information to the Nine Patch Exchange ladies.  I also submitted five classes to Costume College: Beginning Hand Embroidery; Beginning Blackwork; How To Machine Quilt; 1950s Petticoats; and Fantastic Fabric Fairy Wings.  However, I did stipulate that I will only teach three classes.  The year I taught four I really burned out.  So we'll see which, if any, they would like me to teach this year.

Things still on the crafty to-do list: mailing out December's Block Lotto blocks to their recipients.  I'm late on that this month.  Tomorrow I shall address envelopes (and a box) and hopefully hit up the post office on Monday.

And that's the grand total of my stitching this week.  I'm going to blame Squiddle's classes starting back up again.  I went back up to commitments five days a week for classes and groups for my boys, plus Wonderful Husband has classes two evenings a week now.  So it's an adjustment period, right?  But Bonnie Hunter has Quilt-cam going tomorrow morning, so I'm going to watch that and hopefully get my sewing mojo back on.

Let There Be Rain

One of the footnotes to being the mother of a three-month-old is that though he has a few times slept through the night, most nights I'm still up around four a.m. giving him nursies.  So last night, just a few moments after I'd put the baby back in his bassinet, at 3:44 am, there was this GINORMOUS booming crack of thunder right overhead.  It set off at least two car alarms that I heard!  And then a moment later the heavens opened.

I have no idea how Wonderful Husband and both little boys slept through that.  It was fantastic. ^_^

I stole a little sewing time in dribs and drabs today.  I need just a little more to finish my row sewalong for tomorrow night's meeting....

Odds and Bobs

Been absent for several days, both over here and on my LJ.  Mostly trying to play catch-up.  Wonderful Husband being off work the week between Christmas and New Year's was nice, because it halved my childcare duties and freed up time and energy... but a vacation is always only a vacation.

I've done the possibly insane thing and decided to accept the position of secretary for my guild.  I've never been secretary of anything, so I'm going to have to learn how to take minutes!  But it will teach me new skills, help me connect better to my guildmates, and when I go back to work in a few years after the boys are both in school, possibly look good on a resume.

I've made up the handouts and samples for next month's block of the month, but have my row sewalong only half done.  I need to find some stitching time tomorrow!  It's not much encouragement to others to participate if I can't get it done in time!

My mother recently unearthed a couple boxes of my late grandmother's sewing equipment in her garage and gave them to me carte blanche.  Most of it I'm keeping (especially her Swedish stitching magazines from the 1930s, OMG!) but there are a few odds and bobs that didn't interest either of us, so those along with some culls from my shelves are going on the freebie table at Tuesday's meeting.

And, lastly, I guess, Wonderful Husband and I have gone to see a couple films recently.  Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them gave me all kind of happy feels and reminded me that I have a stack of Harry Potter fabrics from when the movies started coming out that I should probably delve into at some point.  Of course, I could always leave it to "ripen" until my boys are old enough to start reading the books, and make them special quilts then....  (I should see if there's any Fantastic Beasts fabric out.)

We also saw Rogue One, which I am far more ambivalent about.  Wonderful Husband, I think, pegged it when he said that Star Wars movies work best when they remember they're fairy tales.  And this one didn't hit that vibe quite strong enough for us.  There were elements, but... not quite there.  Regardless, that also reminded me of another, far more vintage, piece in my stash: Empire Strikes Back fabric.  Which I've never yet quite decided what to do with....

New Year, New Challenges

Poking along on sewing things.  I've decided to participate in Pat Sloan's Solstice Challenge since I figure I can handle sewing one 12" block a week.  I had a bundle of fat quarters and fat eighths that I'd picked up at a thrift store, so I figured it was a good chance to use those up.  First two blocks, done!

I've also started work on the next block of the month for the Orange County Quilters Guild.  I do six samples for the board, and twelve for me for the row sewalong I'm doing each month, in addition to creating the handout.

And I've just received an email asking if I want to put my name in the hat for guild Secretary!  On one hand, I'm flattered.  On the other hand, it would be asking my husband to hustle home early and handle the boys for me two days a month instead of just one.  I've never taken minutes before, but I'm sure I could do it.  But do I want to add another commitment to my life at this point?  I need to think on it.  I kind of want to say yes, but I also kind of want to say no for right now....