Stalled

I had hoped that with the kids starting school, I'd be able to get more sewing in, but alas, that hasn't happened so far.  I sometimes feel like I haven't stopped moving since the bus pulled up.  Some of it I'm not complaining about - a visit home from Marc, and trip to the Ozarks with my sister, for example.  But I keep saying I hope we get into a routine, and it just seems hard! 

This is Stardust.  I started in a quilt-along, and suffice to say the rest of the group is finished and I'm still here.  I joined in for a couple of reasons, even though I figured I'd end up way behind.  It's a paper pieced pattern (Tula Pink!) and I love paper piecing, and haven't done any in ages.  It's fat quarter friendly, and I have tons of batik fat quarters that I have been saying need to be used up.  But one of the primary reasons is that I figured it would push me out of my comfort zone, and boy, was I right.

This pattern is ALL ABOUT the color placement.  And for those that know me, they know that this is not my strong suit.  I'm still learning about how to play with the colors, the values, and am not very comfortable with the artistic, as opposed to the mechanic, side of quilting.  So I did this to make myself work, and it's working.  I play with the fabrics, move things in and out, lay out different options for each piece.  I went from working in rows (with the quilt-along) to working from the center out, to help me figure out where things go. 

I'm spending a lot of time on my knees (paper backed pieces don't stick to the design wall very well!) folding up scraps of fabric.  I think I'm going to like how it eventually turns out, but progress has been very slow. 

In the mean time I'm also working on finishing up some garment sewing.  I've been purging my wardrobe of things I don't like, so I could use a few new pieces, and I need to use up my stash!