The Mad Scramble!

I've made some progress this past week. I have one baby quilt top complete and the second one is moving along. The lighting isn't the best in my bedroom where I hung an old curtain from my closet doors. It's a great way to have a design wall, though you need to pin to it rather than just stick them up there. I have a second curtain in my living room where my sewing machine is, so this had to do for the moment. I didn't feel like taking all those squares down just to hang this up for a moment. 

But I've come to the conclusion that I made toddler quilts, not baby quilts. This one is 42" x 53". The second one I'm working on is going to finish at 41" x 51". My justification is that they will be used much longer than a small baby quilt. They can be used for blanket forts or laying on the floor to watch TV or even laid over a toddler bed. 

I took this photo early this morning, so the lighting for photos isn't great here either, but it's bright enough to sew. The missing bottom quadrant is currently at my sewing machine. The last Oh My Stars quilt I made, I stitched it together in rows. And I remembered how much I don't like sewing long seams, so this one I'm sewing in quadrants so I only have one long seam. I'll probably have the center portion together today and work on the borders tomorrow.

There's a bit of a scramble going on for me right now. I leave for vacation in a week and a half. I want to have these two tops together before I leave. I'll switch my machine over to quilting once they're done. But that's not the true scramble right now. The true scramble is getting my EPP project ready to go. I have a seven hour flight with a two hour layover out there and an eight hour flight home with a three hour layover. I'm going to need some stitching to do! Plus, I know from past vacations, that once we get back to our room at night, I like to relax with some sewing while we talk about our plans for the next day. 

So here's my travel bag. It has enough pockets that I can keep everything organized and it's clear so hopefully I have no issues with TSA. My only concern because I've heard mixed experiences is my clover thread cutter pendant. I have a pair of nail clippers packed just in case though. It was only a few dollars, so if it doesn't make it through, I won't be heartbroken. But I'm trying to get as many pieces basted as possible, because I know that's the part I am not going to want to do on a plane. But I will be packing more fabric and papers so I can baste once we land and all that. Right now, I have enough pieces basted for eight blocks. That might last me the way out, but definitely not out and back. 

 

I know my carpet isn't the best background, but lots of people use design floors. I'm debating if I want to take the three blocks that don't have the white kites with me. I'm doing my best to sew the background to my blocks as I go so I don't have just kites to sew once all the blocks are complete. So I guess that decided for me. 

I'm still working on my Barnstar quilt. I've managed to get a little ahead of schedule, which is good, because for some reason, I decided that the four days next week before my trip was a full week and I should get six blocks done. Thankfully, I am currently eight blocks ahead of schedule to finish by Thanksgiving, so as long as I stay on track this week (while basting shapes like a mad person), even if I don't do any sewing next week, I won't be behind and need to catch up. At least that's the plan. I hope you have time to get some sewing in this week.

Happy Quilting!