Has it already been two months...

I was looking at the calendar today at work and realized that today is May 17th.  That leaves less than 30 days until the deadline for the scrap challenge that Katie issued.  Yikes!!!!

I guess I better get moving on it.  I do have most of the pieces cut and ready to go, so I will have to buckle down this week and get another few rows of blocks cranked out.

I should know never to take on challenges that end in June, as my job gets very busy in May and June with our work deadline being the end of the fiscal year in June and quilting tends to get pushed to the back burner for a while.  Yet every year I take on at least one or two projects that I must have done in May or June.  This year I have four!  What was I thinking????

Here they are in order of deadline.  (Maybe laying them out like this will help motivate me to get moving along!)

1) Baby quilt for co-worker: 

    Due April 30th

    Status:  Done!!!!

 

2) Baby quilt for friends new baby girl.

    Due: May 16th

    Status:  Some blocks cut.  Still a long way to go!!!

    This one is going to be late.  :-)

 

3) Scrap quilt top.

    Due: June 14th

    Status: About 4 of 25 blocks.

    Might be able to pull this off.

 

4) Ugly fabric challenge.

    Due: July 1st

    Status:  What the heck am I going to do with this????

Hope you all have happy quilting weeks.  I'm going to be busy!

Animal Parade Off To The Circus...

I finally got the binding onto baby quilt number one and hand delivered it to it's new owner today at our work baby shower.  Animal Parade, as it has been officially named, is off to join the circus of a new baby.  I didn't get pictures with the new mom, but here is a picture of it before it went into the gift box.

My co-worker was so surprised.  She didn't know I had been sneaking it into work with me everyday for the last week and working on hand sewing the binding at lunch after she left for the day.  I considered this a major accomplishment considering that she sits right next to me.

I haven't gotten much other quilting done recently, but with the start of the weekend that should be changing within the next few hours.  Happy quilting!

Starting on the Scrap Quilt

Thanks everyone for all your support!  I got over my bad experience yesterday and got up this morning and did what I do best...took it out on the fabric.  Despite fighting off a cold and not feeling good, I got a lot done.  Baby quilt number one is done, it just needs binding which I need to drive over the hill to get more fabric for.  When I've got the binding on I will post a finished picture.

And then I got started on my scrap quilt.  I dug out my box of scraps and got to work.  Here is my scrap box before I started.  The goal is to shrink it down, so hopefully it is smaller when I'm all done.

Here is my first block.  It's 10" finished, so only 24 more or so to go.  I did buy the white background fabric as I didn't have enough of any neutral fabrics to do what I wanted.  I fell in love with the dragonflies on the white print.  Its been a number of years since I have paper pieced, but I think I did alright.   

It should look something like this when complete.

My first paper piecing experience was this table topper I did many years ago.  It's an old project, but I thought i would share just for fun.  I made this shortly after I started quilting and it is often used on our dinner table as a centerpiece/hot pad.

Do I really look that young?

You will have to forgive me up front. Usually I'm not very outspoken and most of the time I let things roll off and don't get worked up about things, but today (probably because I have a cold and am not feeling all that great) things have really gotten to me and I'm going on a soapbox for a moment. The question that I have to keep asking myself recently is, "Do I really look that young?"

Granted at 4'10" tall, I'm always going to fight a little bit of the stigma that I must be young, but I have had so much trouble gaining any credit in the quilting world. Next month I turn 30, but for all the good it does me I might as well be 18. I've been quilting nearly ten years and I think I know at least a little bit about what I am doing. Although, I'm the first one to admit there is still tons about quilting that I will be learning for many years to come, but for some reason the second I walk into a quilt store everyone immediately assumes I must not know anything.

Today I walked into my local quilt shop to see if the fabric yardage requirements had come in for the Mystery Quilt class I was planning to take which starts on Wednesday. They usually have the class supply list available for weeks ahead of time and require that you do most of the rotary cutting before the class starts. Gosh knows that I spend enough time and money in the shop that all the ladies that work in the store know me, but today the owner of the store was there. So, when I asked if the fabric requirements was in, she looked at me and said "don't worry sweetie, the teacher can help you when the class starts." I don't need help buying fabric, I just need to know how much I need to buy. She looked at me like I had no idea what I was doing. In any event, I don't think I will be doing the mystery class since I won't have time to buy fabric and get it cut between Monday when the pattern comes in and Wednesday when the class starts.

I've had the same experience of being treated like I don't know anything at our local quilt guild. It's been several months, but the one time I did go I was talking to the lady in charge of the quilts they sew for the local hospitals. I was wanting to get involved in helping out and the lady told me she could put some of the really easy beginner kits together for me.
Perhaps I shouldn't be so sensitive, and usually I'm not, I just sometimes feel like I loose out on some of the wonderful fellowship and learning experiences with other quilters because I'm younger than the average quilter around here. So, thank you for listening to me vent and all for all of the encouragement you give! I'm off to go quilt!