Spring Sampler Quilt Along

A girlfriend  recently told me that there is type of anxiety that some people feel when their space is disorderly.  Hello . . . boy does that explain me and my recent love/hate relationship with my sewing room!  After months of neglect . . . . my sewing room  is in to such a state of disarray that I can no longer stand to be in there.   Resisting the urge to throw up my hands & walk out shutting the door behind me, I  promised myself if I could just tidy up half of the room I'd  reward myself by starting a new project.  Beginning in the farthest corner of the room with my sewing, cutting, and pressing stations, I spent several hours organizing, tossing things out,  and putting things in their place.  It actually was kind of therapeutic in a way (not therapeutic enough to finish the whole room in one sitting). 

 

So with my back to the remainder of the chaos,  my reward:

 

 In perfect timing . . .  Cora's Quilts just released their  Spring Sampler Quilt Along sponsored by Connecting Threads. 

 

Looking through my stash, I ran across a line I had forgotten that I had tucked away  Vin du jour by 3 Sisters for Moda Fabrics. 

Being a relatively new quilter and a visual person, I had a hard time sorting my fabric choices into the various groups until I found the tutorial on choosing fabrics  that Cora's Quilts included with this Quilt Along. Wow, what a great help that was! 

 

 

I was surprised at how quickly I was able to completed the first block and I love the way it turned out!

 

 

I heard the instructions for the second block are posted.  I'm going to try to resist the temptation to start it until I get another part of the room in order.  Hopefully by the time I finish all of the blocks my sewing room will again be my oasis. 

 

 

 

 

 

Back Again

There hasn't been much quilting going on here the last nine months. . . but lots of good things have kept me distracted from  my sewing room: 

Probably the biggest 'thing' for me is that we went from a two family household back to  one family.  Son #1 and his family have a cute little house a few blocks away. . . After their move, it seemed like the perfect time to 'spring clean', purge and shuffle furniture around.  At the end of summer our DIL accepted a full time position which meant that Grandma went into full time grandbaby sitting.

Son #2 left for his first deployment to the middle East last summer.  I was amazed at how much time I could spend planning  themed deployment packages.  Decorating those monthly boxes, shopping and mailing them off . . . not to mention emails (sometimes daily) helped to pass the time till his return.

 Before I knew it,  the holidays were here.  We had a bad flu season this year . . . love those preschool germs!  Quarterly visits from Mom and Sis.

Then there is our never ending honey-do/remodel list . . . nothing like having a personal contractor to share coffee with each weekend morning and brainstorm about remodeling ideas.  His ideas are always much greater than mine.  We finally got that new roof put on.  And new trim and gutter covers.  Ya see what I mean?

Next was our daughter & her family's move a few blocks away . . . Now that is Trouble with a capital T.  Playtime with the grandbabies AND shopping at a quilt store all in one stop . . . just around the corner from home.  I'm in heaven.  Check it out at Cora's Quilts.

For the first time in a long long time it's back to just the two of us. How do you adjust to being empty nesters?  New Furniture seemed the perfect way to me. What started as a trip to the furniture store for a TV stand for the guest bedroom Mom sleeps in turned into the mother lode.  Well ok, not exactly the mother lode, a living room full and a media chest and chair for the guest bedroom.  For a while there every week when hubby came home from his business travels there was some new item added to the living room.  It was a fun little game to see how long it took him to notice!  All that's left are the window valances.  I'm itching to get started on those.

Now that winter is over, Son #2 is back from the middle East, and it feels like the dust is beginning to settle,  I just can't wait to get back into my sewing room! I've got several projects lined up that I'll share real soon.

In the mean time here are a few of my favorite pics from the East Coast 'homecoming':

USS Harry S. Truman pulling into the pier at the Norfolk Naval Base

 

Manning the Rails

THERE HE IS!

The Best Part of Being There.

Proud Dad

 

 

 

 

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