Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Back In the Saddle Again....

I am finally back!  I've been away all Fall because I had taken an income tax preparation course in the hopes of getting work for the upcoming tax season.  I thought I'd be able to take the course (3 hours a day, three days a week) and still quilt.  But between the extra time spent after class reviewing concepts with my classmates and then the need to commit to a lot of study time, at the end of the day, I really didn't have the head space left for quilting. Then Superstorm Sandy wound up extending our course an extra week.  After I passed the course came another two week nail biting period waiting to be called for an interview.  So far, I haven't been hired so now I really want to get back to the quilting -- both to bring my life back to normal and to take my mind off the waiting.

Compounding all that was the fact that I had a couple of home dec projects I wanted to get out of the way before focusing on the quilting and I had a very long list of all the UFOs I still want to try to get done before year's end (yeah right!).  Now I am really feeling all the missed machine time.  So after knocking out two of the home dec projects earlier this week, the first quilt project is up -- finishing Floribunda!


The quilt stitching is my kryptonite -- it's the one part of the process that I'm most unsure of and usually procrastinate on. Which is funny since I set out to be a machine quilter from the time I started quilting and have always quilted my own quilts (over 40 to date).  Actually now, it's not so much the actual stitching that I fear but choosing a good stitch design and finding the balance between enhancing the quilt and what I am capable of executing at my current skill level.

I wasn't too scared of this one:  It was only lap quilt-sized, I had already picked an all over stitch design for it, the fabric prints and block design used in the top were busy enough to hide a lot of sins and I already had my thread picked out.  So I did some practice sketching and quilt samples and then got it on the machine.

I got a little more than a quarter of it done today so figure I should be binding it by Friday at the latest!  Yippee Ki-Yay (and with work continuing, I don't need that last part)!

3 comments:

Elaine Adair said...

Good for you for taking and passing the class!!! When a call comes, you'll be ready to join the work force tax folks!

Anonymous said...

two things
1) you can always come see me or send photos for inspiration or
2) I'm teaching at Hartsdale later this month.

Teri

Andee said...

Thanks for the Florabunda Eye Candy..I have it all cut up and need to get to sewing it. :)