Hawaiian Punch

The hand-sewing of the center medallion is done. Quilting has begun. As soon as I finish the corners, which I'm thinking of doing in hearts, Hawaiian style, I will be able to sew the already-finished sides on, and this baby will be done!!!

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Flying in Circles

I couldn't sleep Sunday night (possibly because Lizard couldn't sleep and was pacing the kitchen and dining room with his cane because he couldn't sleep either), and I was SO tempted to get up and make something for me. Not a quilt. Something I could wear for my short time in the office on Tuesday. I have four dresses and a pair of scrappy shorts cut out and ready to sew. But I keep telling myself I need to finish a quilt first.

So I did the next best thing. I'd bought more big plastic storage tubs at the home improvement store when I had to buy a toilet repair kit. The toilet got done... THANK HEAVENS!!! (That took me HOURS. I'd NEVER done any kind of plumbing before in my life.) I used the early morning hours to begin organizing the projects stashed beneath the longarm. Because there is room there that needs to be empty space once again.

Meanwhile, draped over the bar of the longarm are the five segments of Hawaiian Punch and the 3/4 done circular flying geese ring. Yes, I deserve a new dress for my birthday last week and for fixing the toilet so we didn't have to pee into a jar... But Hawaiian Punch is SO close to finish. Lots of handwork, I'm sure. But it is SO close. Wouldn't it be a better birthday present to get it ready so I can do the handwork (if that's what I decide to do vs. domestic sewing machine) this weekend???

I decided the handwork (if I decide to do it that way) would be more rewarding, so I remorsefully packed away all Lizard's quilt projects. I hope he will one day want to work on them again, but they are not something he wants to work on right now, and stuffed in cardboard boxes beneath the longarm is not the best place for them. Now they are in a clear bin in the basement. I'll be able to find them easily when (not if!!!) he is ready for them.

Lizard's coloring books and colored pencils are neatly stacked in another clear plastic bin, now in the basement, as opposed to just stacked on the floor beneath the longarm, gathering dust. I will have to clear a new space for Lizard to be able to use them; coloring is one of his favorite ways to combat Parkinson's tremors. His accessible laptop comandeered the space he'd been using for coloring so he can participate in weekly and monthly Parkinson's therapeutic Zoom calls (and the only social activity he gets these days). I will try to set up a desk for him to use for coloring before this weekend. If I set a goal, it's more likely to get done.

My cardmaking supplies are in another clear bin, also now in the basement. I'd brought my supplies home from work in March of 2020, back when we thought it would be only two weeks... I thought I'd have more time during those two weeks to make a few cards for my Etsy shop than I'd had during my non-existent lunch hours at work. I think I've made four handmade cards now in darn near three years... I will get to them one day, and it will be fun. And I will be able to find everything easily because they are in a clear bin, as opposed to cardboard boxes, file folders and handled, brown paper grocery bags (PIGS... the infamous projects in grocery sacks).

In with the cardmaking supplies were all my decorative hole punches and brightly colored typing paper. I'd pulled everything I own together back in April of 2020 to make kits (which got mailed because we were all being good and staying apart) for all my grands back when they began getting bored with the extended "two weeks". That was an incredibly fun project for me to put together and for them to receive (and for their moms to get a breather), but all are back in school now and active in sports and snowy ranch games (such as being pulled on sleds across acreage by a tractor) with no time for tiny, colorful paper hearts, animals and stars. The cardmaking supplies bin had room, so all the paper punches got stashed. Fun memories, though. Really fun memories.

Holy moly! Wouldn't those moose make a great Hawaiian appliqué project?!? More glorious memories came flooding into my heart!!!

The Dancing Lizards quilt I made for my Lizard so many years ago!!! Last October, I converted that beloved quilt into a jacket for me because the years had taken very sad toll on the quilt. I'm still proudly wearing that jacket when I go to the office one day a week or to the grocery store, and my new coat is always such a conversation starter.

But, time to put the past back into the past for now and move forward into the future of what will hopefully soon be another finished WIP.

Linking up with Alycia Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

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Smiling

Outrageous work deadlines kept me from finishing my circle of flying geese this week, but I finished enough to make me smile.

I *could" have snuck in perhaps an hour of sewing last night, but it snowed.

And I took pictures.

Then spent an hour processing photos.

I'd say it was a worthy endeavor!

Linking up with Alycia Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

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WIP or Will

While I was looking in my stash for potential table topper backings, I found my long-lost 12th Hawaiian Punch block!!! For the last four or five years, I thought perhaps all I had was 11. Turns out I had taken that 12th block on a road trip back in about 2016, and upon return, the missing block did not return to the rest of its family.

The turquoise block snuck out of my project bag with its needle (still attached) and spool of blue Sulky thread to hide behind my gradiant batik stash, along with fat quarter remnants (and the white yardage I'd used for the Hawaiian motifs and QAYG backing!) from which this naughty child and its cousins were initially carved -- neatly folded fabric stacks I have not touched or even looked at in many a moon.

Now all 12 blocks and the mariner's compass I plan to use as a quilt centerpiece are reunited under one roof (the spare bedroom) and ready to slowly but steadily make their way into final placement. This is kind of what I envisioned back in 2012, before I had cut out all the Hawaiian motifs.

Ten of my Hawaiian Punch QAYG blocks have been finished for at least one and quite possibly two decades. I saved the final two blocks for last because they were my favorite colors in the entire project. You'd think that might have motivated me to get them finished faster!

When the turquoise block became lost, I couldn't even find a photo of it to prove it had even existed. I had several photos of 10 finished blocks and two photos of 11 blocks, one unfinished. But no photos of all 12 blocks.

Whoever heard of a fat quarter bundle with just 11 colors? I knew I had to be losing my mind. I was so sure I'd cut 12 Hawaiian motifs, but it was so long ago, before my blog and before I realized the importance of documenting my quilt progress along the way. Perhaps there had been only 11; perhaps that's why the project got put aside so long ago.

I thought I'd have to find a coordinating fabric in a new color and (hand) cut a new Hawaiian motif. I even considered designing my own motif, inspired by the many snowflakes I've designed since 2009. When that didn't get done in a timely manner, I dug out one of my four Hawaiian motif booklets and began searching for just the right hand-paint to complement the existing nine blocks. Thankfully, I never got around to selecting a new 12th block.

My 12th block and I kissed and made up upon its rediscovery. In fact, the reunion was so joyous and so earth-moving (for me, at least), I'm surprised it didn't make the evening news!!! My wayward block was SO close to being finished, how could I not just finish the darned thing on the spot??? No matter what else I had on my plate to occupy the waning hours of 2022!

As much as I wanted to, I did not finish my prodigal block that day. But I finished it in about two hours earlier this week. One down, one to go!

The final block went with me to my mother-in-law's last year, but ended up using that week to work on (and finish!!!)my snowflake skirt. I did get a bit done on the purple block, but too much hand-quilting remains to finish in one evening earlier this week.

But I'm making progress! I have some self-imposed deadlines for myself this year, including the Home on the Range quilt I cut out to teach my mother-in-law to quilt two years ago now, which she has confessed she does not want to make. She loves the fabric, but she says she is too old a dog to teach a new trick. (Her words, not mine.) I wanted to finish it for her for Christmas, and now I'm hoping to finish either by Mother's Day or her next birthday. Or next Christmas. This year, for sure. Perhaps the WIP challenge will help motivate me to finish all the rest of the WIPs on my list this year. Stop laughing! It can be done! I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...

Here is my WIP list for the Ravelry Winter Quarter:

1. Hawaiian Punch

2. Tickled Pink, the Sequel

3. Goodbye Hollyhock Road

4. Snowflake Strip Bar

5. Green Floral Batik Postage Stamps

6. Giant Dahlia

7. Showcase

8. Moda Blockheads

9. Tiny Triangle Leftovers

10. Scrappy I Spy Neighborhood

11. Take Me to the Other Side

12. MIL Quilt

Linking up with Alycia Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

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Satisfaction

Both moms loved their table toppers! My mom said she wants to hang the one I made for her on the wall, and my mother-in-law wants another, smaller, to put on a serving table also in her dining room. Words don't even describe how happy my heart is this week!

I've been diligently working on the hand-sewing of my Green Batik Leftovers Quilt-As-You-Go project. I guess I really need a better name for this quilt!

It may be difficult for those who visit weekly to see the progress, but I've finished and attached three of four borders, then finished up the hand-sewing on the back by hand.

This weekend, I hope to finish the fourth border, then bind the quilt. Then I will have met my goal for one finish for each of the first two months of the Ravelry Spring Quarter Challenge! I'll have six weeks left to finish a project for June! If I can keep this up (and not start any more new projects, except my mother-in-law's mini table topper), my official WIP list will be down to single digits for the first time by the end of the Summer quarter!

Linking up with Alycia Quilts.

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