dcmqgbee

Sewing, Planning, and Running

I opted to skip the Freshly Pieced link-up this week.  I’ve been fairly horrible about taking pictures and not sharing them on instagram, so I didn’t see the point in re-documenting it here.

It’s been a kind of terrible week.  We got some news last weekend that I’m still trying to digest, and I’m definitely not okay with it.  But it seems that there’s nothing we can do.  It’s been killing me, and I took a day or so to sit around and feel sorry for myself, and I’ve been trying to turn the rest of the horrible feelings into sewjo, which has worked kind of well.  Usually, when bad things happen, I run.  I run out the anger and the frustration and the sadness and I get to go home without the ability to feel anything else.  Running usually helps give me some power back when I feel like everything is out of my control, but this is the one time it’s not going to work.  Everything that’s happened has honestly brought into focus the fact that we/I have no control, that we can do everything right and it still won’t matter, and there’s nothing that we can do to change it.  I want to run, I want to fight, but I feel so defeated.  And that will be the end of the vague-blogging.

That said, I decided to take the week off of running and just let myself exist and sew, which seems to be what I need.  It’s been unusually satisfying to create this week, and it seems that my soul is crying out to make beautiful things from little pieces.  Because I don’t have enough projects on my plate, I think I’m going to start working on a postage-stamp scrap vomit quilt.  We’ll see when that gets started, since I have a ton of other stuff that HAS to be done first.  You can see my WIPs on the WIP page by clicking on the pink menu button.

In the past week, I’ve finished the second handmade item for my SPD Fairy Tale Swap partner, made fantastic progress on the mini quilt for that, finished the Alison Glass Angel Mini and thread catcher, accomplished my June DCMQG Bee block, and added about 15 projects to my plate.  I need to do individual posts for the Alison Glass packages I sent, as well as for DCMQG, so those are coming.

I’m also on the hunt for my next planner.  For the past 6 months, I’ve been working out of a Kate Spade agenda (large, gold dots.)  I love it.  I love how it’s organized, I love the font, I love all the extra space for notes to keep track of my swaps, I love the paper, and I especially love that it’s spiral bound, but with a hard cover over the spiral.  Each month is color coded with the important stuff.  Last minute stuff tends to get tossed in in regular black ink when I’m sitting at my desk at work, but theoretically, each month is a different color.  What I don’t love about it is how the hard cover has worn.  My dots are faded, it looks dirty, and it’s not.  So, for the past few weeks, I’ve been researching hard.  And I’ve come to a few conclusions.  Some of these conclusions might insult some of you, and I’m sorry, but this is where I am.

1. I do not understand people who need 7 leatherbound planners.  If you need this many planners for your life, you are doing it wrong.

2. I do not understand the purpose of spending $60-75 on a planner and then using it as a scrapbook.  If you really want to scrapbook your life, there are gorgeous albums for that.

3. Why, why, WHY is it so hard to find a planner with a covered spiral at roughly the same size as the Kate Spade?

4. WHY does KS not make vinyl covers for her planners?  I mean, yeah, it’s $36 for the large one and that’s not breaking the bank, but I HATE that in 3 months I don’t want to show off my gorgeous KS planner because the dots have started to rub off.

5. WHY ARE DISPOSABLE PLANNERS SO EXPENSIVE?!

6. There are not enough real-people review blog posts about planners out there.  I actually also feel this way about fashion, but that’s another blog post entirely.

I’m honestly down to one of two options.  I’m either going to re-order a KS planner, although I’m incredibly sad that the fun quotes each month are gone for 2016, and then cover it with clear contact paper to prevent some of that wear and tear.  OR, I’m going to suck it the fuck up and order an Emily Ley Simplified Planner in Pineapple when they are available in September.  I’m not super okay with either option, but I feel like there’s not much choice.  Thanks, universe.

And, finally, I’m in the process of trying really hard to reorganize my sewing space.  I’ve been using these fantastic drawers for my fabric, but I’m having a hard time keeping everything folded when I’m constantly rifling through them to find what I need.  And my blue and neutral drawers are about to explode.  They are stuffed full.  In addition, my notions are a disaster and I can’t ever find anything, and I don’t have a good storage option for my UFQs/WiPs.  I’m getting really frustrated with the mess, and I don’t know how to make it better.  I’m also really tired of having to cut on the floor or move my sewing machine off to the side of my table, which usually involves moving eight million other things in order to get enough space to move my machine and cut.  Basically, my space is a mess and I can’t function anymore.  I need some serious help.  Suggestions would be much appreciated.  We don’t have a ton of space here – M and I share a small bedroom as his office/my sewing space.  So, adding a table in the middle of the room isn’t an option (although I feel like that’s where I might be.)  Help.  Someone help me.

It’s Wednesday?

Oops.  I swear, you guys, I actually had planned on posting on Friday, and then work is insane and this weekend was insane and then it was today and I don’t know where the past week has gone.  I’m sorry.

So, three posts in one?  Here we go!

Last week’s running was kind of intense.  I did 3.23 miles on Monday, and then 3.89 on Thursday.  Monday’s run was our basic 3-ish miler, and we did our normal P&Q route.  Thursday was track, which was ROUGH.  You guys, it was hot.  It was awful.  But I pushed through.  I did drop the last 200m sprint off my workout, but I’m blaming it on having not done track in forever and then it being so hot.  No weekend runs yet.  I’m planning on adding in the long-er easy run this weekend, and then by the middle of next month, I’ll be running Saturdays and Sundays.  I missed Tuesday’s run last week due to a work dinner, but don’t worry.  I’ll be back on track.

I don’t really have much to report as far as my normal rambly Monday post, so we’ll just dive right on in to the WiP Wednesday fun!

This week, I shipped out my Alison Glass Mini Swap, and it’s actually out for delivery right now!  I seriously can’t wait for my partner to get it.  I went a little crazy, but I refuse to feel bad about it.  🙂

That’s the big project that’s been eating my life for a while, so I’m getting prepped to move onto other things.  The next big ship date I have is the SPD Fairy Tale Mini on July 6.  I’ve been playing with part of the pattern, and I’m really not loving how it’s working, so I’m going to have to run back to the drawing board with it.  It makes me sad, but I don’t know what else to do.  I had planned on doing a two-sided mini for that one, so I may just make it one-sided with your standard backing, but we’ll see.  If I do that, I probably need to get a better fabric option for it.  Maybe something from Heather Ross’ “Far Far Away.”

Other ship dates that are looming? The DCMQG Bee block for June still needs to be started.  It’s a challenging pattern, so I’ll be super honest and admit that I haven’t had the courage to even decide on fabric yet.  And, I’m also planning on submitting two blocks for #FloodTexasWithLove.  One from me, and one for one of my very good quilty friends.  She’s actually from Houston, and she really wanted to submit one, but she’s so swamped with work that I’m going to make hers.

That’s where we are this week.  I’ve also been sketching/doodling ideas for my Michael Miller Fabric Challenge Quilt entry.  I made the horrible mistake of looking through previous winners, and I’m kind of super freaked out about putting together a good design.  Since the challenge is focused on the “Celebration Glitz” line, I’ve been trying to really focus on the “celebration” aspect.  I’ve thrown around the idea of a memorial quilt for my grandmother, but I’m not completely on board with it yet.  I’ve also played a little bit with the whole “runner with a fabric problem” concept, and I’m kind of loving that direction, but it has the potential to get really busy if I’m not super careful.

I did also finish cutting out 118 hexie paper pieces, which are for a surprise selfish sewing project.  I want to dig in HARD to it, but I’m trying to exercise some restraint.  You know, because I have eight million other things to do.  Points to anyone who can guess why I need exactly 118 hexies.  It’s going to be epic.

And, since I need an actual picture of something that’s a work in progress in order to participate in the official link-up over at Freshly Pieced, here’s a new bag pattern I’m working on.  This had been planned as an extra for my Alison Glass MQS, but it just did not work as it is.  I don’t love the execution, but I do love the concept and I am definitely going to be continuing to play with it as I have time.  Eventually, it’ll work and I’ll write a tutorial or a pattern.  I couldn’t find either when the concept popped into my brain, and I think the world needs this.

Bag!

 

I want it to work so badly!

So, as long as we’re all here, just a reminder that you can access my running calendar and my swap calendar by clicking on the coral menu button at the top of the page.  In addition, I’m going to be adding my WiPs either on a new page up there, or in the sidebar. Look for it!

DCMQG Bee – May!

I’m loving being part of the DC Modern Quilt Guild.  It was kind of a big thing for me to join – I spent several months thinking about it, and then another few months debating with an out of town friend who had loved her guild before she moved, and she convinced me to just do it.  And I am SO GLAD I did.  I haven’t been able to attend quite as many events as I would like, and I’ve missed every meeting since the first one I went to, but I’m participating in other places.  Like the test group for the Bee!

Lynne asked for a wonky star block from this tutorial in aqua or purple, with a low volume background.  This was my very first time making a wonky block on purpose, and I really loved playing with it.  I opted to do the aqua version (shocking!), and I kept the scrappy to the star, rather than scrappy-ing up the background too.

Wonky Star Block

 

Thanks, Lynne, for a great first round!  I’m looking forward to next month’s block from Anna!