Best Laid Plans

     I have always tried to be organized and I also make plans and have all the intentions in the world to follow through with said plans. However, I am easily distracted by life and health, I don't have a large family however, the family I do have is important to me. And I have been attending school and I am a great student, I study hard, turn in all my assignments, and tests terrify me, I probably have the worst test anxiety that anyone can have. These things have always been a part of my life and over the years I have learned how to deal or live with these character defects as I call them. I love to work with my hands and my mind just goes away as I work with needle and thread, it really doesn't matter to me if it is a sewing needle or a crochet needle. I have pretty much taught myself whether it is embroidery, crochet, or sewing I find that if there is enough practice anyone can become adequate in whatever they are trying to do. All to often though in the process of practicing people give up because it doesn't turn out the way the picture looked or how the sample looked. I often hear comments like I use to do that a long time ago but I can't do it anymore. What are you suppose to say to someone who says that, I haven't quite figured that out yet.

    I have been working on my nephews wedding quilt it is well past due lol. However, it is my own design and I needed to have all the pieces flow together in my mind before I started it. It has several pieces that I have never attempted to do, I created the film like sashing around the pictures to match the size of the printed photos. I then had too much white space in the blocks between so I looked through the patterns that I had and came up with doing their initials I got the designs for their initials from this wonderful site Bdieges and then the top design was from this site Collection Inédith . For some reason the idea to hand stitch these design parts seemed like the right thing to do lol. And so I have been hand stitching them down and I should finish them today. And this is my progress so far.

Prepping

I have been doing a lot of prepping this week for some hand sewing projects. A part of me thinks I should save them for when I go back to classes, however, I have been doing a lot of appointments as well. One of the projects that I have been working on is called the Splendid Sampler, which are 6 1/2 inch blocks a little over a hundred of them each one different it involves paper piecing, applique, embroidery, and regular piecing. I love applique, embroidery, and piecing is nice too, however paper piecing is something that I have not really done so well at, and I know in order to get better at it I must first practice it. Paper piecing intimidates me to no end though.

So the Splendid Sampler information can be found here at this link Splendid Sampler there is also a Facebook page which can be found here: Facebook Page for Splendid Sampler. These are the blocks I have finished prepping this week. We shall see how many I actually save or finish this weekend.

No Matter What

Sometimes I have some really good intentions and yet, those intentions never turn into action. Ideas for projects go through my head at about 100 mph. Sometimes I get a firm grip on one and I hold on until I can pull the project from my mind into reality. Other times, I see the project fairly clear and I do just the part that is clear and wait for the finished idea to zoom through my head. Then there are those times where the idea is so clear but my skill level is not where it should be, those are the hardest projects to get started. I really dislike caving into fear or trepidation, those were two emotions that held me back for the longest time. I recently had a birthday, it was a nice birthday, I didn't look at what wasn't in my life, I did crave things that will never be. My daughter came over and made little tags for my thread cabinet that my husband built for my studio. I went and picked up my feather weight from being serviced and got to go and eat some Chinese food, it was a bit sweeter then I like but it was nice. I heard from all the ones who love me and wish for me to be in their lives. But most of all I was able to work on some of my projects and watch my best friend and partner work on a project that he has wanted to do for a while. It is really nice when you find that person who compliments your life in every way. With each passing day I am still learning that term "No Matter What".

So here is some eye candy of the projects I have been working on and my new thread cabinet.

 This is my thread cabinet, it has 13 drawers, with a nice natural finish on it, it was designed by my husband and built over time as he does have a full-time job that he does as well as build fun new toys for me.

This is a quilt I finished up this year it is Pat Sloan's Secret Garden  which can be found here: My Secret Garden

And finally a picnic quilt my daughter started several years ago that I finished up this summer as well.