Overdue Update

Here is my looooong overdue update. Over the holidays I took an unexpected sabbatical from blogging. I was still getting some quilting done, but was busy with traveling and shopping and Christmas preparation that blogging went by the wayside. Unfortunately, this January my schedule has made it difficult for me to pick up where I left off. Starting in the New Year, I’ve added to my work schedule by doing phlebotomy during the daytime hours. To make matters worse, during my regular x-ray shifts, we’ve been working on a HUGE file room purge. Normally I get to do a lot of internet surfing (blog reading!) at work. I’ve even done some blog posts while at work, but right now, I don’t have a spare minute. I’m super behind on reading all of my favorite blogs, but the end of our file room project is in sight and I’ll be back to my old routine soon. Plus, the longer I’ve put off posting, the bigger the hurdle has become to write this return entry. Here’s a summary of what’s transpired since I’ve last been here.

While home at Christmas, I did a bit of quilting on the longarm. I had big aspirations because I had a lot of time off from work, but I’ve found that I work best under time pressure and without a deadline, my pace slooooows wayyyy downnnn. The first thing I tackled was the wallhanging my Aunt Nancy gave me for my birthday. It turned out ok, but now that it’s done, there are things I would have done differently. Every project seems to be a learning experience! The biggest take home lesson was that I put a complicated feather pattern in four big blocks, but because there was a busy floral pattern on the fabric, you can’t see the feathers at all. =( Oh well, it was good practice.

The other project I worked on was quilting Woodpile, a twin sized top that I’ve had done for a while (1 year?). It’s cool jewel tones and white and I’m keeping it for myself to use in my spare room. I bought a stencil that fit the triangular shape of the light/dark areas, but as I was quilting, I wasn’t thrilled with the way it was looking. After about 2/3 of the way through, I thought of a way that could have improved the results. Drat. Why didn’t I think of that earlier?? I didn’t finish the borders, so I left it at my parent’s house, to finish it later. Now that I’ve had some time to think about it, I realize that the quilting isn’t dense enough, so I might go back in and do some meandering around the stenciled shape. Maybe. It just needs more than what I’ve done so far.

More catching up later…