Design Wall Monday

Sometimes I hate it when I set deadlines/goals for myself. It never seems to fail that when I say things like "I'm going to have the scrappy 16 patch quilt ready for binding by the end of the weekend" something happens and I get distracted or the schedule gets really screwed up.

I put the pieced side borders on the scrappy 16 patch quilt and then realized that I needed to cut more 2 1/2" squares. While I was headed to the stash, the stack of fabric that I had picked out for my 10-Minute Block quilt jumped into my hands and said "Sew me!!!" Honestly, that's what happened, or at least that's the story I'm sticking to. Here is what's together so far.

While I was pressing this quilt, a friend stopped over and wanted to see my progress on the Judy Niemeyer project. She knew I had a class this past week and was sure that I had made tremendous strides on getting this project under way. (She's a non-quilter and has no real concept of the time it takes to make a quilt.) I showed her the block that I had worked on and explained that I had to leave the class early because I had to go to work, but she wasn't impressed with my explanation. Of course, pulling out the blocks distracted me again and I started working on them when she left and that left the 10-Minute Block quilt on the pressing table for "just a little bit." I started chain piecing the next 3 New York Beauty blocks and was loving them. What do you think? Once you learn the technique, which is a little different than the paper piecing I've done before, they go together fairly quickly and I just love the points!

Everything was going well until I got up from the sewing machine to check on dinner and when I took off my glasses, they broke!

Of course I tried to wear them with only one temple, but the clear plastic stuff that holds the lens in place broke and I was left with only seeing out of one eye. These glasses are very old and I knew that the chances of them being fixed were pretty slim so I've glued the lens-holder stuff back in and tried to sew like that. It worked ok, but not great so I quit sewing. I called the eye doctor this morning and I was correct. There's no fixing the glasses so I've ordered a new pair and they should be in later this week. In the mean time, I'm going to super glue the temple back on and even though it'll look nerdy, I'll be able to sew.

The morals of this long-winded post are:
1. Don't set deadlines, unless absolutely necessary when it comes to quilting.
2. Accept the fact that I am not a "single project kind of gal." I'm always going to have a wandering eye when it comes to quilting, and I just can't be tied to one project at a time. (I've heard of people who use this logic when trying to explain marital indiscretions! :-))
3. Don't plan to get anything done during daylight hours when you have a two-year old staying for the week. Then again, by the end of the day you are so tired that you can't get much done anyway.
4. It would be a really good idea to have a second pair of glasses on hand. My glued glasses will be kept just in case of emergency, and I'm sure I'll look so nerdy in them that no one will disturb me while I'm sewing.
5. Accidents (broken glasses, etc.) happen when you try to please everyone and feed them on a regular basis. Maybe they should learn to quilt so they too could get so engrossed in a project that they lose all sense of time.
6. Finally, but definitely not least, be cautious of non-quilting friends. They distract you, make you feel guilty for not completing a project which just forces you to put aside other projects just to live up to their ideals. :-)

Check out what other quilters have on their design walls today. Go to Judy's Patchwork Times.