{WiP} Wednesday

It's already Wednesday? Ugh.

I totally forgot until I read Randi's post for {WiP} Wednesday.

I pretty much have nothing done, all the same Ws in P are still Ws in P.

Mostly because of this.

THIS is the work I've been progressing for 15 weeks now.

And, man, has my body taken a beating. Whew. Pretty much the last half of August, and the entire month of September and the first half of October were spent barely surviving each moment of each day. Somehow I barely managed  (and still somehow barely manage!) to feed my family, make sure we all had clean enough clothes, and that the girls had clean underbottoms. That was my expectation and high standard for each day. Exhaustion was at an ALL TIME HIGH!

Sewing? Not so much.

I did a few things, like quilt the quilts for the homeless family at the long arm. When I was doing the first two, the tension was off, I was SUPER sick, and I just felt HORRIBLE horrible horrible horrible. I actually laid down on the floor in the fabric shop and cried. It wasn't terribly humiliating because the long arm is in a back room, but still. I wanted to be in bed, not at the long arm!

But I survived!!

Here's a picture of me quilting the two boys' quilts. I'm not sure if this saved much time, but I sewed the two tops and the two backs together so it was like quilting one big quilt on the long arm. Then I had to spend time un-sewing them, but that's okay. All that's left is the binding.

Sorry the lighting is so harsh, I used my phone, and couldn't make that light go away. Anyway, that's it for me.

Those are my Ws in P. I think I completed a few bee blocks, too, but can't remember. Mommy brain...

I'm linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for her weekly {WiP} Wednesday post.

Snow Over Sew

I'm not sewing because I spent all my energy oustide playing and building a snow man with my oldest. It is the first snow of the season, and she wanted to get out there first thing! I held her off till about noon. Till I mustered the courage to go into the cold.

I'll sew again soon. These first moments are too precious to miss. :)

One Swoon Block.

No lie. I think this is the only thing I've sewn in a month.



Well, I've done some other things, too, but this has taken a LOT out of me!

It's a Swoon block, designed by Camille Roskelley of Bonnie and Camille/Bliss fame.  There are 81 pieces, 65 of which are triangles (HSTs or Flying Geese). It finishes to 24 1/2".  Can you believe it? One block? 2 feet square? Some of you have kitchen floor tiles as large as that!

I made it for the {Faith} Circle of the do.Good Stitches bee. As usual, the story behind this quilt, and the family it is going to is just heart-breaking.  And as much work as this was, as challenging as it was for me, I tried really hard to have a good attitude while I was working on it, knowing that the family who gets this quilt is going through WAY worse than the 8 hours I spent working on it. The biggest challenge for me, besides finding the right colors, was just the precision with which I had to sew it. It's a very specific pattern that required a very exact 'scant 1/4" seam'. And since there were so many points coming together, Ramona suggested I press the seams open. (She just made an entire Swoon quilt in like, a day, or something ridiculous like that. She is a machine!)  I think I spent as much time at the iron as I did at the sewing machine! :)

But seriously, folks. One of the things I LOVE LOVE LOVE about modern quilting is the ability to create something beautiful without that kind of precision. Yes, I believe in accuracy and quality craftsmanship, but being a recovering perfectionist, precision is not my best friend. :)

And I'm pretty sure the only swooning I did was after midnight one night when I had already spent 4+ hours on it and I was nowhere near finished.