Status Check

I'm not much of a goal-setter. First, because it takes time to compile and write one's goals when I could be working on the to-do and getting more done! Second, I'm not good at accepting failure. If I say I'm gonna do something and don't do it, I don't need the weight of guilt to make me feel bad.

So, instead of committing myself to accomplish X, Y, and Z, I'm taking a status check of my projects. During the next week, I'll touch each of them. And on Monday I'll go to Brandon, Florida to give a "Domestic Machine Quilting" program to members of Piecemakers Quilt Guild of Brandon.

Free motion quilting needs my attention because I have three quilts to quilt. This one has been waiting the longest. It's my adaptation of Amanda Jean Nyberg's "Ring Me" quilt, a pattern in her book No Scrap Left Behind. Though I pieced blocks with solid scraps and white solid, just as she did, I changed the block arrangement, and set them on point.  

My go-to formula for choosing a quilting design is contrast. For a quilt design with angular piecing, I like to quilt curves, and visa versa. So, to contrast with all the points and angles, I chose circles. I'm quilting concentric circles around each centered one-inch square.

I'm using my 12" nested set of Quilter's Rule quarter-inch thick rulers to draw circles with a disappearing ink pen. Circles are one inch apart, ending with a 12" ring. This is gonna take quite a while, but it will be worth it. 

Saturday is Central Florida MQG's Sew-In, and I plan to go with handwork. It's so much more transportable than a sewing machine. These are the last of the English paper pieced blocks for my LindaNova (actually "TulaNova") quilt. Everything's numbered and labeled for adding to the medallion that's almost finished.

The medallion is about 55" across now. I'll appliqué it by hand to a backing fabric. But gosh, I don't know what fabric to choose for the background! White seems too obvious, and impractical. Maybe linen? If you'd like to weigh-in, I'd value your thoughts. Thanks!

My next pet bed, for donation, is nearly full of fabric and thread snippets. Making drunkard's path blocks for my temperature quilt creates lots of scraps. 

I'm following-through on my plan to turn my smaller, traditional quilts into pet beds. This bed uses two quilts made in the 1990s. Quilters, this is what happens when you've been quiltmaking for 43 years, it doesn't suit your decor, and no one wants it. 

I'm expressing a little sadness here.. I made a point of looking at Blogger's list of people who read my last blog post. Thus far, 75 of you read my June 5 blog post. Three people commented. As a blog-writer, it makes me question how I'm using (wasting?) my time - whether the topics and photographs are of interest to anyone. I'm assessing whether to continue blogging.

Today is National Donut Day, and I wish I was in Kansas City to help my grandsons celebrate! Krispy Kreme in Overland Park is the only donut shop I ever visit, so when I was there last week, I was enthused about getting to visit twice! I even had the chance to try their key lime donut which was off-the-charts good. Though give me a warm, freshly-glazed donut any day! Or three.

Krispy Kreme is giving a free donut to each person who stops in today. I'm feeling sorry for myself because our nearest Krispy Kreme is 42 miles away! Waah.

I'm linking-up with my friend Wendy's blog - WendysQuiltsnMore. Wendy lives in New Zealand and invites bloggers to share a post every Friday. She calls it a Peacock Party. Wanna strut your stuff too? Go here. Linda