All points bulletin for the purple in these blocks! I believe it's by Moda, and from the Cabana line of batiks. I need the dark purple one. I grossly underestimated my yardage (I am math challenged: why didn't I have someone check my figures???)

I was lucky to have Jan from A Common Thread fabrics in Portland save me their last yard of this (that's service!!), but I'm still a yard short. Sigh. I haven't actually sewn any of the other blocks for this quilt, but I have cut out 12 blocks and all the plain blocks. So I could still change my mind, but....

I'm sure there's a valuable lesson here about yardage and paper piecing and EQ 7 software, but I'm struggling to see it...

Progress?

I ordered what I hope is the final piece of fabric for my niece's quilt today. Again. Just got word this morning that the original fabric, which had been on back order, is not going to ever come in. So my weeks of vacillation and toying with the idea of replacing it are over. I found a new purple that is about the same base shade, and also has triangles, but it additionally has swirls and splashes of fuchsia. I haven't seen it before, so it must be new. I'm hoping this is serendipitous. We'll see. However if I never get on with making the first cut in Ethan's quilt, which I promised to do first, we'll never know.

OK, so we all know how socially awkward I am, right? Well, today I went to a sewing workshop that provides extra help on the very complicated quilt class I'm taking. Not only did I almost catch up, but one of the other sewers gave me an awesome tip on how to get my seams to all line up in multiple places. To top it off, the teacher is starting her own business and will need help getting set up with a website, a blog, etc. Her business is going to be long arm quilting, so I may also get a good deal on quilting my upcoming big project.

So everyone all at once: I told you so! Yes, networking is useful...

On a Roll

And I almost wish I used jelly rolls because that would be funny, but alas, I don't. Still, lots of movement on the quilting front. I finished my quilt and sent it off to a long-arm quilter, and it's gorgeous, if I do say so myself. After finishing it, I took a class on paper piecing New York Beauty blocks, which have a curved seam in them. That was fun, but it got me blocked up (no pun intended) on what to do next. Too many possibilities, no goals.

Last fall, I broke through the block. For one thing, I got Electric Quilter 6 software, and I had a blast designing stuff all summer. But in the fall I started a 6-part class for a complicated paper piecing pattern by Judy Niemeyer called Glacier Star. Part of it was wanting to know how to put Lone Star quilts together, because the center of this quilt is a lone star, but also because the patterns are so cool. Well, probably never again. For one, it's more fun getting to take credit for more the quilt not less. All I can take credit for is the fabric choice, and the actually machine quilting when I get there.

Somewhat around the same time, I realized that my son needed a twin quilt to replace his baby blanket. He's been in a big bed for years now. At the same time, I launched an ambitious and not completely thought out idea of doing quilts for my family. No duh, but we're not really the type of family to do this kind of stuff. But I am a rebel, and willing to push things on people even if they can't reciprocate (and reciprocity is not the point anyway).

Starting with my first niece (so much nicer than saying the oldest), I'm aiming for finishing this by her next birthday in the late summer. We designed it together, and it is really quite the most non-straightforward design I've done so far. It has a really cool block featured in it, Storm at Sea, that creates an illusion of curves. Really neat. Still waiting for some of the fabric (of course the main fabric is back-ordered), and have to figure out how to cut it out without messing up (since the yardage may be tight anyway). That's a math issue I may need help on.

The yardage on my son's quilt may also be at risk. I blame this on...someone else. It is acknowledged that EQ can get yardage wrong, however I may have bought fabric before the design was final... This quilt features my first pieced border. My son wanted something to do with flames. Here's the image from EQ7 (yes, I upgraded in the middle of the design, too). The design is on point, which I seem to be doing a lot of lately, and has alternating blocks of pineapples and Stars & Pinwheels. The black fabric has a really cool tattoo like dragon flame on it. I added it to the center of the pineapple in desperation really, when I realized I didn't have enough red material, but I like it there. I also bought a different red for the border because they were out of the one I bought already (thus making both projects have fabric that is sold out or discontinued...procrastination really took its toll.)

Now the question is how long will the technical details of printing the foundations and templates hold me up this time? Last year I completed 0 quilts. This year I plan on finishing 3. Am I nuts or what?!