Quilting for Sanity!

Now I know that it has been 2 months since I last posted and I must say I feel bad, but I have been keeping busy. I have gotten a variety of projects completed, my craft stash is in the process of being organized and I am currently looking for a part-time job while chasing a very active toddler!

Recently, my husband was deployed and I decided it was time to get some projects organized and on the road to completion. Here is one of my favorites:

I fell in love with this burgandy paisley fabric and a complementing striped one in JoAnn's a few years ago. Originally it was to be for the dining room but when we inherited my husband's family furniture the dining room was complete! So just before he left on this last deployment I decided to make a simple 9-inch square quilt ... and maybe pillow case with any extra fabric. After doing the math, I realized I could make a nearly 5-foot square quilt ... with blocks on both sides ... if I was efficient and ...well, I'm a military wife, I sleep efficiently!

So I went to JoAnn's to find some additiona fabric (conviently located across the street from my gym- talk about incentive). There I found 2 complementing fabrics, a brown and a green, that didn't compete with the busy paisley and striped ones.

I came home and cut down the fabric one night after the baby went to bed. The deployment (thankfully) was only a few weeks this time and there was a lot of unplanned things, like the baby getting sick, family coming to visit, mutant mosquitoes attacking the baby causing his face to swell ... well you get the idea. So I didn't get to start sewing on it until the week hubby returned. Luckily, the large blocks and easy "patterns" allowed me to finish it over 3 days- a total of 9 hours. Each side has the same blocks, but in a different pattern.

"Front"

"Back"

When I completed the front and back measured 54-inches ... and you know me, I need even numbers, so I decided to add 6-inches of border. True to my luck they only had the brown fabric left, the green was gone, so I decided to get a tan that I had originally looked at but felt that a brown and tan might make the quilt a little too "dark". My luck didn't return when I get to the register and realized I was one coupon short of the items I had. Not too bad since the price was good already, but I realized when I was working out before going to the store that so far all of the fabric had either been on sale, on clearance or purchased with a coupon. Darn! So close to a "half-price" quilt!

Well, I still have to add the border and find someone to quilt it for a price that won't leave me short on diapers or milk, but I'm kind of excited! I'll post photos when I get it completed ... hopefully soon.

(BTW, I'm well aware of the irony of making a quilt in the middle of summer ... in South Florida!)

Well, off to work on another quilt!