Not at the Same Time

Winter is over and I am having to come to grips with the fact that my production level was less than I wanted it to be. I had a whole list of things I wanted to make for the co-op sale this September. I am not sure I will even have as much inventory as I did for last year’s sale. I really wanted to design and publish a few more quilt patterns. That didn’t happen, either. What have I been doing for the past six months?

The obvious answer to that question is that my goals are insane and I need to scale them back into the realm of possibility. And it’s not like I was sitting around. I worked on developing and teaching serger classes. I made clothing. I taught myself rulerwork. I knocked out ten million hexies. I did finish several quilts and three or four more are almost done.

It’s not as bleak as I am painting it to be inside my head. I need to stop comparing myself to quilt designers on YouTube who have large families and staff that enable them to crank out fabric lines, quilt patterns, and videos on a consistent basis. And if I were like them, I wouldn’t have chickens and pigs and a garden.

It’s like that saying, “You can have it all, just not at the same time.”

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I finished quilting another Baby Bear Paw quilt. I liked the concentric circles I did in the first one, but wanted to try something different in this quilt. I thought I might try 60-degree diamond quilting. My straight line quilting ruler even has 60-degree line markings on it. However, they are in the middle of the ruler, so using them cuts the effective length of the ruler in half. I was having trouble getting the lines established. I finally got one of my 24” cutting rulers, which also has 60-degree lines on it, and drew in the lines with a disappearing marker so I could quilt them.

I don’t know that this is the “right” quilting pattern for these large squares, but I do love the texture it gives. This one is all done and just needs to be bound.

I worked on the O’s wallhanging again yesterday—this is the one that is destined to be hung over the stairwell if I ever get it finished. Making a wallhanging for that spot was the reason I started quilting in the first place (almost 10 years ago). It is close to being done. I just need to finish quilting the borders and bind it.

Next up will be the Blue Thistle quilt. That one is going to get an allover pattern, so the quilting should go relatively quickly.

In the evenings, I’ve been working on the embroidery kit that Tera gifted me:

This is called Hummingbird Garden and it was designed by Lisa Bongean of Primitive Gatherings. There are twelve 5” squares that will be sewn together into a wallhanging. Tera did all the hard work of cutting and appliquéing the designs. I get the joy of doing the blanket stitching and other embellishments.

I find the Primitive Gatherings designs to be more approachable than Sue Spargo’s. I love Sue Spargo’s designs—I still want to do Squash Squad—but they are intricate and detailed and require that one take out a bank loan to be able to afford all the specialty threads. Lisa sticks to about a dozen different stitches and uses mostly cotton and wool threads. I have a ton of embroidery thread from my mother and would like to use that up before buying any more.

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I’ve got about a dozen flats of seeds started out in the greenhouse. Some of the plants will be for my garden and some are destined for the plant sale. The plant sale will be held May 21 at the Mountain Brook Community Center, if my Kalispell peeps want to put it on the calendar. I still have to plant the zucchini, cucumbers, and melons, but I’ve held off so they don’t get too big and rootbound. I also need to dig up some lavender seedlings from the garden and pot those up to sell. If I ever stop growing vegetables, I could start a lavender farm.

This coming weekend is the big fire department fundraising auction. I will be glad when it’s over. Being in charge of the equipment sale is a big responsibility and one I would like to have done and off my plate.