working up wips

 i was going to show off how the wip pile on the living room floor is shrinking, but it's currently rolled up because the piano teacher (and her toddler) is here for wednesday morning lessons. this drives me a bit batty since the reason i have these items laid out flat is . . . i want them that way. however, the teacher comes first thing in the morning and i don't always make it downstairs in time to move the pile to another area. so she rolls it out of the way so her son won't walk all over it or spill his milk on it. really, it's my fault for having the pile there in the first place! and i ought to remember to move it out of the way myself.

the point here being that this wip stack, that is currently a heap, has gotten smaller! after my naughtiness of new project shopping last week, i have put my blinders on and forced myself to do quilting chores. which have, in fact, been far more pleasant than i anticipated. once the excitement of putting together a top is done, the rest can feel like . . . just a chore. but small quilting chores equal big quilt finishes, so says i.

 first up - i got the backing on "rain or shine", quilted it, and squared it off so it's ready for binding. i'll admit that as much as i want to get this to the baby (born in october!) it's made for, i am going to miss seeing it's happy colors and pretty fabrics laying on my piano room floor.

 i also squared off this hot little mess of a strip quilt. looking at the awful, supposed-to-be straight lines, i'm thinking this fella needs some intentional organic lines to round it out and improve the appearance/lessen the damage. if it looks intentional, all is well. it was so distorted from the quilting that i couldn't tell how to square it properly. for the two longer edges, i just flipped it over, folded it in half, and made straight cuts. however, i can see that upper left corner is needing more trimming because the fabric doesn't cover the batting. i sure hope baby weston is less trouble to his parents than this seemingly simple quilt was for me! can't it just be done already?

 ah, here is my good news/bad news lady - "paris daydreams". golly, i love these fabrics! they satisfy the romantic/vintage french/ shabby chic side of my aesthetic nature. getting this done will mean i can snuggle the baby and the prettiness together. i finally braved the straight line quilting on my spray basted quilt. the good & bad news is: it went quick as a wink and worked perfectly.

this is good because, well, it was great! i completed half the quilt in the hour before dinnertime.

this is bad because i hated spray basting and never wanted to do it again. however, it appears that if i want to straight line with my juki, i'll need to spray baste first. the thought of doing that again makes me want to . . . um, say things i don't normally say.

i quilted on either side of each horizontal seam over the entire quilt. it was so good that i started thinking maybe i should add in some vertical lines as well, for more interest. (nope. keeping it simple, getting it complete.)

see how much one can get done if one stops looking for new things to do and just finishes up the old brilliant projects? it amazes me. before too long I'm going to have a pile of completed quilts instead of a pile of wips.