blog hop - making time to sew

Hello!  This month's blog hop topic with Faith and Fabric is making time to sew: how do I set aside time, when do I sew, etc. (I signed up for this blog hop a while ago, and it seems that many people have gotten busy and didn't do their post.  We can still have fun with a small hop though!)

Well, the first and most important aspect of my making time to sew is that I don't do housework after the kids are in bed for the night.  (Sometimes I'll pay a bill or do something computer related at night, but it's usually short.)  It helps that my husband is on board with this plan.  The house might be a mess, but it will get cleaned up later.  This leaves me from about 8:30-11:30 to do whatever I want.

My pretend schedule is that the first hour I play a computer game, World of Warcraft.  The second hour I quilt on the quilter.  The third hour I piece.

World of Warcraft: this is my character.  She heals people and enjoys collecting pets.  I'm not a great healer, but my husband plays too and it's fun to do things with him.

Quilting time: I haven't quilted in a while because I was trying to build up a stock of tops to quilt while my sewing machine was getting a tune-up.  But then I learned that it would take about three weeks.  I couldn't to get in the queue and bring it in closer to the time it would actually be worked on.  I'll check back later and see if the line has gotten shorter.  Anyway, all that to say that I finally put a quilt back on last night.

Piecing time: There's nothing too special to say about this.  This is when I'm at my sewing machine, which is also next to my computer.  I usually listen to audio books while quilting and piecing.

I'll freely admit that the schedule above gets changed all the time.  Some days I play a lot more computer games.  Some days I don't have anything to quilt.  Most days the quilting time is actually closer to a half hour.  However, I usually average at least an hour of sewing time a day.

Here are links to the rest of the posts:
Faith and Fabric
Faith and Felt Obsession
Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats

Miiscellaneous

Today I have a few miscellaneous things to share...they're rather random but they go together for that reason.

First is a Christmas Card that we got.  I found the picture as I was scroll through all the pictures looking for something else.  I love it!  I love the colors and how they're put together.  The equilateral triangles would make it a super easy quilt!  I'd like to do it, but since I'm not even planning on putting it on my 'to-make' list, it will probably never get done.

The other item is a game that I received for my birthday.  It is an excellent two player game, and it really doesn't matter if you're a quilter or not.  (Although the last person to have used a needle does get to go first.)  If you also like board games, I'd highly recommend it!

Ombre quilt

This quilt was finished...and gifted...last October but I haven't posted about it yet.  I've given myself some grace about it and will slowly get caught up with everything.

Anyway, the Ombre quilt.  I love this one.

It started with an ombre piece of fabric that I picked up at an AQS quilt show several years ago.  I try to not get fabric unless I have a purpose for it, but this was one piece where that didn't work.  I finally realized that if I cut a square of fabric into quarter triangles, I could use the top and bottom for one hourglass square and the sides for the other hourglass square and keep the color graduation intact.

Needless to say, I was rather sick of sewing hourglasses by the time this was done, but it was worth it.

I wanted a rather fast quilting motif, along with one that wouldn't distract from the piecing.  So I did wiggly lines down the center of each row.

As normal, the back is a minky and it is bound in sateen.

Linking up with Finish it up Friday...even if all I did was finish the blog post. :)

Status in February

I am having a hard time finding the time (or motivation) to keep up with the blog, but I've decided that it's ok.  I'll post when I post and if I don't post, that's ok too.  I've decided not to do the monthly goal setting, at least for now, because...I just don't want to.  I have some baby quilts to finish that are at the top of the list, but I think I'll just do whatever for a while.  However, the list that I've posted has helped me keep track of what's going on, and it shows some progress too...I don't just have finishes. :D

Things I've worked on recently:
1. Robot quilt.  Needs to be quilted.

2. Temperature quilt. I just finished this!  So I need to figure out what to do for the backing and quilt.  It doesn't have anyone to whom it is going, so it's kind of on the back burner.  I was very glad it got cold in the end of December as it let me use my dark purples!

3. Post pictures of Grandma's robot quilt. I should probably take a few more pictures.

4. Baby girl quilt (BHS).  I'm about half way done with the quilting.

5. Baby unknown quilt (CK).  This is going to be a modified rainbow: orange through blue.  I'll probably wait to put the binding on until the baby is born, and choose purple or blue.

Things I haven't worked on recently (or haven't started yet):

6. Meshing solid HSTs
7. Rainbow Log Cabin
8. Scrap quilt #2
9. Jeweled floors
10. Lost piece
11. Winter quilt
12. Fabric from Christmas
13. Pillow with green/purple fabric
14. Trying to fit in - left over triangles
15. Black scrap quilt.
16. Quilt Halloween quilt
17.  Scrap bee blocks.
18. Baby TBD quilt (HDD)