A Few Steps Forward

Progress is progress, and I'll take it!

Here’s another roundup of some more things I’ve been working on. Sometimes, I feel like I’m working in slow motion, but every stitch counts, and eventually, they add up to something finished!

While working on the last Studio Organizing Challenge, I’ve been tackling some of my towering piles. The trouble with that is . . . I often find something to work on in the pile, and off I go.

While that’s not a bad thing, it does slow down the pile elimination quite a bit. (A while back, I decided to clean off my cutting table by working my way through the piles on it. That did not work.)

And while progress has been slow, a few things are moving along.

I found all these little circle appliqué blocks in one of my piles, and I only needed to make 5 more. WHY do I stop when I’m so close to the finish line? So I quickly appliquéd the last 5 circles, and cut out the sashing and got this cute little baby quilt set together.

If the circles look like they’re not centered, you’d be correct. I meant for them to all be randomly placed within their squares. Not sure it was the best idea, but it made the appliqué less fussy, and it’s still cute!

With a blank spot on the design wall, I decided to put up these pink pinwheel blocks of my sister’s. These turned into another cute little baby quilt real quick.

And I finished up the last few appliqué pieces that my sister had not gotten around to on this Edison Elephant baby quilt. She even had the patchwork part finished, so as soon as I completed the appliqué, I sewed the sides on, and it’s another top ready to quilt.

This is the boy version of the Elephant quilt that I showed a couple posts back in the girl version, Esmeralda Elephant. Pattern is available on Etsy if you search.

Progress on my own projects has been so slow because I’ve mainly been spending what available time I have running the longarm. I finally finished Valerie’s “Paradise in Blooms” quilt.

This quilt was an absolute joy to work on because the colors are soooo gorgeous. Just look at the color!!

I wasn’t trying to dawdle, but this quilt was on the frame for just over 3 weeks, which is highly unlike me. It wasn’t the quilt’s fault, it’s just that I was having trouble finding real work time. So now I’m behind schedule and trying to catch up, so I’ll still be mostly running the longarm for the foreseeable future, as well. But I have some gorgeous quilts in my queue, so I’m not sad about it.

When I need a sit-down break from the longarm, maybe I can feed a few pieces through the sewing machine, and move some random projects a little closer to the finish line.

How about you? What have you been finding time to work on?