Oh, how I wish I didn't have a day job.

I'm a technical writer with the blessing of working from home. My typical day starts between 7 and 7:30 when my three-year-old comes in and wakes me up. Then it's downstairs to start work. Shortly after, my almost-two-year-old wakes up. Then it's quick breakfasts for everyone and I'm back to work. The little ones play and I work. And work. And work. I wish I could quilt instead.

My sewing/creative time lately has been full of working on Freebird Picnic. It's taking me longer to get it done than I like. I finished the free-motion quilting the other day, but it was a very frustrating experience as the tension on the back kept getting screwed up and I had to unpick it at least ten times. I still need to attach the label and then quilt the border and bind the quilt. I'm hoping to work on it tonight and tomorrow, with plenty of time to finish it by Sunday.

As I work full-time, I only get to quilt in the evenings after the kids are in bed (in between taking my three-year-old back to his room twenty times each night). If I try to sew after work while the kids are still awake, my littlest one just wants to climb on my lap. There are so many projects that I want to work on, and I often get inpatient and start new projects before the in-progress quilts are complete. My want-to-make-one-day list is WAY too long and I've struggled with the need to prioritize what gets done.

Oh, how I wish I had endless amounts of time to spend doing the things I want to do instead of the things I have to do. I know I'm dreaming, but doesn't it sound wonderful not having so many responsibilities, and instead having an unlimited amount of time to quilt?

Straight-edge whirligig block

*If anyone knows what this block is called, please let me know.*

While piecing Jessica's Freebird Picnic quilt, I played around with different layouts for the 4.5 inch squares and decided to try a version of a whirligig block with straight edges.


I used two charm packs, one Freebird and one neutral. This would be an easy block to chain piece by alternating sewing a Freebird charm to a neutral charm. Once you have a strip of charms 84 pieces long, you can cut in half of each charm, giving you your 4.5 inch squares.


I sorted my new squares by pattern and then by color. For this quilt, I wanted each whirligig block to be mostly the same color, or same two colors. I tried to vary the pattern in each block, but with the same overall color(s).


When I pieced the blocks, I made sure to align my center points and worry about trimming the blocks down to about 8 inches before piecing the top.


The quilt will consist of 30 blocks, six rows by five columns. At around 40x46 inches, it'll be a nice baby quilt. My sister-in-law just had a baby girl a couple weeks ago, so this little quilt will be perfect for Baby Clara.


I've been pretty MIA this last week. I'm trying to finish up Jessica's quilt so I can get it to her next Sunday at our family dinner. I have the free motion quilting to finish (which looks pretty sad when you see the white thread against the brown backing - there's definitely room for improvement there). I'm also going to try a different quilting pattern on the border to give it a little more personality. Then I need to make the binding and attach the label. I'll post photos of the finished product before I hand it off next weekend.

Labeling Quilts

Sorry you haven't heard much from me in the past week, guys. My back went out over the weekend and I haven't done much sewing. I had back surgery last summer to remove a piece of my L4-L5 disk that had herniated. Although the surgery got rid of the pain I was in at the time, my back still goes out every now and then.

Tonight I'm heading to my in-laws' house to take advantage of their hardwood floors to do some basting. I haven't made labels for my quilts before, but I really want to. My question though is at what point do you attach the label? Do you wait until the quilt is quilted (but before adding the binding)? Do you wait until it is 100% done? Do you add the label before basting? I thought I'd add it to the backing before I baste the quilt tonight so I can treat it like appliqué and use one of my machine's appliqué stitches. But will the label get messed up when I quilt it? I'm not that great at hand-sewing so I didn't totally want to wait and do it after I've done the quilting, but maybe that's the better way to go.

How do you apply your labels?

Quilting To Do List

A few weeks back, the mister and I took time off work to do some home improvement projects. No sewing got done that week, but I finally made a list of the quilts I wanted to make based on some of the fabric in my stash. (There's something about knowing what my fabric will be used for that makes me feel a little more in control and organized.) After making the list I realized that there are a lot of to-be quilts designated as "for me." I hope that's not as selfish as it sounds.


A few of the quilts are going to be designs that I want to try: stacked coins, Oh Fransson's New Wave, disappearing nine-patch. Not on the list yet is a half-square triangle turned zig zag quilt (which I've heard from a few in my quilt guild group can be scary) for my sister's birthday.


I was thinking last night about the advent calendar I want to make. The mister's grandma has an embroidery machine and I'm half tempted to ask her if she can help me embroider the numbers on each pocket. The idea of appliquéing all those teeny numbers makes me a little crazy. The only problem is that she lives about 2 hours away. But, then again, it could be a nice day trip for us to head up as a family and she can spend some time with her great-grandkids.

*Did you see at the bottom of the list "Arcadia - wonky blocks - Josh"? That's the mister's quilt project. I'm pleased as punch that he wanted to make a quilt by himself for himself!

Freebird Picnic Update 2

I used my four nights of sewing time this week to almost finish the Freebird Picnic quilt top. I still have to add a four-inch border in the Nest Ovals fabric, which will also be the backing.


This is probably the most time-intensive quilt that I've worked on so far, aside from my first quilt, but that was probably because I didn't have a clue what I was doing. I laid out the border fabric along the bottom edge of the quilt and that brown is going to make the rest of the quilt pop.


I've really liked how this one has come together. The design isn't quite as clear in mine as in the tutorial I used because of my fabric choice, but I think I like the subtlety.

*Image from Moda Bake Shop, Avignon Picnic Quilt

The binding will be made out of this Nest Eggs fabric from the line. Although the binding will be next to the brown backing, I think the white oval dots will give it a nice definition.