Thimble me this.

As it turns out, hand sewing the binding on my quilt isn't going to take as long as I had originally thought. It's a lap quilt so it's not huge but I still thought it would take longer than it is. I started on the whip stitching just after work last night followed by a little more after a dinner out and I'm nearly 3/4 of the way done. I think I'll have that sucker done tonight!

That said, mama needs a new thimble. My grandmothers would not be proud to see me hand sewing without a thimble! I found one in one of my sewing boxes but it's just too darn big. And I know I have another one that fits better somewhere in that house but I can't for the life of me find it. So, after a trip to the alterations shop after work (that's right, I can make a quilt but I don't know how to hem my own pants. Judge away.) I'll be heading to Hancock or the quilting store for another thimble that fits. And now that I'm so close to finishing this one, maybe I should start thinking about my next quilt... check in with me next year to see if it's lying around the house, half-finished with no binding. I'm sure I'll have a *very* good story as to why it's not done.

Quilt of the year.

My fingers are sore this morning from removing what felt like 90 kajillion safety pins from the quilt I'm trying to finish. I have the binding sewn to the quilt top so all that's left is to whip stitch it to the back of the quilt and, after a wash to make sure it all stays together, it will be done. It's been a year in the making.

I started a quilting class last fall at Intown Quilters here in Decatur, GA. It's one of the best, if not THE best fabric shop, I've ever been to. I'd always wanted to learn to quilt (shocker - let's just add it to the list) so I was excited when I learned they offered classes. Beginners Machine Quilting 101 here I come! There were three sessions of I think 4 hours each. We started with cutting and piecing, learning how to properly press our seams and join our pieces so that everything lined up just right. We moved on to sandwiching and the actual quilting part. Binding was the last class but I had to miss it. My stepfather Chas, who my mother had dated since I was in 5th grade, had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer in August 2007. A year and a few months later, during which time he and my mother finally married after more than 20 years, he was finally letting go. Being there for my mother was more important than learning how to finish a quilt.

That was the weekend before Thanksgiving last year. Early that Sunday morning after Thanksgiving, Chas passed away at home.

I have a goal to finish this quilt before Thanksgiving. I will stay focused on just this quilt, for once. I'll sew my fingers to the bone if I have to. For my mother more than anyone, it's been a year of "firsts" - and this month has been hitting her hard. Just like being with her was more important than learning how to bind, focusing on finishing the quilt is more important to me than flitting around from one thing to another. I can, and will willingly, put my erratic behavior aside in order to complete this one project, if only to commemorate a year of life without Chas.

It's been a hard year for all of us. Maybe this quilt will give us all a little warmth and comfort as the second year begins.

My busily varied weekend.

Just this weekend I worked on adding bails to jewelry pieces, made 30+ candles for Christmas presents, bought fabric for storage bags for a few banners and pulled out an incomplete quilt so I can finish it.



From this quick rundown I think you can tell I don’t focus on one thing for very long. Yep, you guessed it. I’m erratic when it comes to crafting.

It’s not that I don’t enjoy every single thing that I do. Quite the opposite. It’s that I enjoy doing so many different things that I can’t stick with any one thing for very long before I’m drawn back to an old favorite or I start the journey down the path of a new hobby. I even have two Etsy shops – one for sewn things and one for jewelry – and sometimes it’s a problem. I get engrossed in one or the other and the remaining shop gets neglected.

All that said, I don’t know how to fix my wandering craft eye. Maybe being an erratic crafter isn’t such a bad thing. That is unless you’re talking about storage space for all the various and a sundry tools and accoutrements required for so many different interests. If that’s the case, then yes, it’s a bad thing. I am officially out of space.