Back in the swing of things

So, my mom, stepdad, and stepbrother were all out here for three weeks, and it was fun. We had Disney days, shopping days, and sit around the house watching Star Trek marathon days. It was really great to have family around and to have a break from the routine, but now, alas, that is over. Which is good for the homeschooling aspect of our life. And the sewing aspect of mine. With swaps and bees and other projects hanging over my head, it's high time I start up the sewing machine again and get to it.

This month for do. Good Stitches we were asked to make gray and orange blocks using Oh, Fransson!'s "Map of the States" tutorial. So okay, I really do like the end result of this, but...the fussiness of the pattern was not fun for me. Draw this, cut that, use pencils to shade in your ideal color arrangement, iron freezer paper, trim, trim, trim...it was pretty tedious, and I only made TWO. I can't imagine making a whole quilt like this. Don't get me wrong--I'm not complaining, I'm merely giving an honest review of a pattern I'd long wanted to try. Now I know that it's not my favorite, kind of like the cathedral windows. Great result, but not so much fun to actually work on.

I've also been noodling around Flickr looking for more weird quilt inspiration, and here are my latest finds:

I think it would fun, one day, to do some weirder, more improvisational quilts. One day.

Other than charity blocks, doodling ideas for DQS10, and waiting on fabric to arrive, I haven't gotten a whole lot accomplished. Oh well. Not every day (or month) has to be packed to the brim with accomplishments, right? Sometimes I think we don't take time to enjoy today, worrying that we won't get stuff checked off the to-do list. And man, those things NEVER go away. Sometimes it's just best to ignore them. At least till tomorrow.

Time to go play cards with the kids.