Just When I Feel Like I Know What I'm doing

I volunteered for layoff this year.  It's such a great deal for me, I couldn't resist.  Rich isn't a huge fan but he's living with it.  He really likes having a stay at home wife.  Old habits die hard, I suppose.

Layoff started the week of Christmas so, I didn't feel like I'd have tons of extra time to make presents this year.  That totally stressed me out last time.

Instead, I did something for myself. I made this kit while I worked at Sweet Annies' using some of my all time favorite fabrics from the shop.  It's sat in my cupboard for years.   I did the center applique earlier this year and finally finished the rest on my first week of layoff.  And, like all my well laid plans, I jacked it up royally.  Just when I feel like I know what I'm doing (quilting wise), I prove myself wrong in the worst way.  First, I mis-cut those rose colored pieces.  Naturally, I only had just enough and I'm too cheap and lazy to go search for more.  It's from Moda's Aviary and is probably 10 years old.  So, I pieced the pieces and fixed the problem  Then, when I put everything together, I cut off my corners like crazy!  Squares in squares suck!  Seriously, I did such a terrible job!  The picture doesn't give enough detail to see how bad it is.  I've never been good at them.  I followed all the tricks.  I made sure my 1/4" allowance was a scant.  Nope.  Most of my corners are gone.  Good thing this one if for me.  It's embarrassing.  But, honestly, aren't the colors pretty?  I wish I could live in a world colored like this.

Then, because it was Christmas, I started a fun Christmas project.  Again, Carol had given this to me years ago as a gift.  It's so pretty.  The pattern shows it in pinks and mauves but I chose to do blues and greens.  It's gonna be great.  But, now that the season is past, I find I'm not so motivated for this project.  Well, at least I've got a whole year before I'd use it.  And, yeah, I'm going to regret embellishing it before quilting but I just couldn't help myself.

I've also been doing some much needed organization in the basement.  It seems like we do this every year and it never sticks.  This time, I put away all the Christmas decorations in red/green bins.  Then the fall/ Halloween decorations went in purple bins.  I need one more blue bin for Easter.  Valentine's Day, St. Pat's Day and Americana already had their own bins, they just got labeled better.  Labeling the quilt boxes and sleeping bags is going to help a lot when I'm looking to change out my bed quilt.  I also found an old glass bowl that was my mother's.  I'd been afraid to have it out when the kids were young.  So, that was a nice treat to come across.  Now, if I can only get people to put things away where they belong!  The other half of the basement is still a disaster, but that's for another time.

Rich's niece, Megan is graduating this year.  I started worrying a few weeks ago that I didn't have a plan in place.  She likes Peter Pan but no one answered my request for PP fabrics from their stashes.  The only stuff out there in Etsy/ Ebay land were really childish.  So, I settled for her school colors, red and white.  The pattern is called Money Business.  I'm thinking about calling it 12 Monkeys Sitting on the Bed.  It took one day to cut.  I wanted to do only one piece of each red in my stash.  I needed 144 and I only got to 98 before I had to double up.  Dang it!  Now, I need to find the outer border for it.  The pattern suggests 2 yards but I'm having a hard time believing I need that much.  The inner border is 2" and the outer is 6.  And, not that I've been staring at the picture, I realize I put the wrong blocks on the top row, last two blocks.  Dang it!  Insert head explosion here.  I do NOT want to tear into that thing!  But, that does explain why I ran out of the right type of blocks in the end...  Again, just when I feel like I know what I'm doing.