2022. Not the best year, either

 Wow. 

Didn't realize that it's been at least six months since I sat down with this little crafting accountability blog. 

I was going to cut to the chase and eliminate this section, but someday I'm going to question what was going on, and I'm sure this will help jog my memory. I think I appropriately used a jump break?? I hope so. 

My brother ended up suddenly moving back into the house between Thanksgiving and Christmas, so I lost my sewing space. I had a hectic work schedule on top of it, so not much happened between October and May except eating, sleeping, and working. I would literally blink and it was back to work. And then in the middle of May I had a stroke? A really, really, REALLY bad migraine episode? Still not sure about that one, jury is yet deliberating, so many tests I didn't even know existed outside CT and MRIs, and I think I've given as much blood for testing in a month and a half period as I did when I was diagnosed with Lyme (17 vials at once). LSS, in June I said good-bye to my job. I couldn't maintain working 10 hours a day, five days a week, and I had been doing that for about ten months. 

Anyway, the brother move back is indeed a thing - I think he was hoping they would reconcile, but she's definitely moving on with her life. Since she's now moving out of 'their' place, he can't procrastinate anymore, he's got to get everything out. We're not the most organized of people, so I tried to do my bit and purge my wardrobe, library, other things. That's honestly a work in progress because I feel like crap 85% of the time. And I nap a lot, or even just lie down. And my face feels like it's shot full of Novacaine, just on the one side. Some days I can smile all the way, some days I can't. 

I had a laundry basket in the former sewing room of projects in progress. It is everything from soup to nuts. 

1. Granny square
   The cover project from American Patchwork and quilting. I tore it apart to eliminate printed sashing and sub in the toffee color that was already there. It looks so much better now, but I have to get the outside pieced border sewn back on... when I can locate the completed top. 
   
   
   
   Update: pattern source located. October 2010 issue American Patchwork and Quilting, which I have two copies of because I lost the original and combed through the magazines at a quilt show years later to find another copy so that I could complete the project... only to discover the other one like a week later. Isn't that how it goes?
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Asian bunnies
   I think the rabbits are Japanese. In any case, the coordinating fabrics are a mash up of Chinese and Japanese because frankly, it's what I had. It was the pandemic. Good luck getting anything shipped. 
   

   

   
   
3. Rainbow keys
   Don't even know when I put these strips together. It's been a while though; they've been chilling out in my brother's closet since before grad school 2019 edition. Side note, my genius idea through this process is to work out some kind of plan for these odds and ends pieces and then write it down. I got that ball rolling after printing out a pattern I liked and sticking it in a gallon ziplock bag with two bundles of fat quarters. All the projects are getting this treatment now. 

   
   
   
4. Jane Austen
   You remember when Riley Blake came out with this fabric line, right?? I kind of lost my mind over it because I'd been wanting to make a JA quilt since I found out Jane Austen made a quilt, after I'd been to Europe (and Bath. And wasn't a JA fan at the time, *facepalm*) and before making a repro of this object was a widespread phenomenon and repro fabric WASN'T easily obtained. I would love to know how Jane put this sucker together without a sewing room and a design wall. How did she keep track of where everything was supposed to go? I look at the chart and I get dizzy, it's like a puzzle but the picture isn't very helpful. I also am not strictly using fabric from the RB print run. Since I do historical reenactment, a number of friends from the hobby very graciously gave me left over bits of their sewing projects. There are at least four Burnley and Trowbridge prints in here plus some of their stripes, some chintzes from a Dutch printer that I had to buy on etsy, and a block print from a shop in central Ohio, which they had because of connections to India. 

   
   
   
5. Row by Row 2015
   I could never decide how to put this thing together. I think I finally settled on something manageable. It should finish out at 60x60 when it's all sewn and sashed. I had to fix the diamond panel first. 
   
   

   

   
   
   
   
6. I can't even remember what this is called. Did I post on it?  Maybe. I never finished sewing on the border. I think this was another American Patchwork Quilting special, somewhere in the neighborhood of 2011 - 2014. Update: pattern source located. This was another one that somehow, I ended up with two copies of the magazine. August 2009 American Patchwork and Quilting. It's called Rhythm and Blues. I don't think I'm finishing the border the way they have it in the pattern, I'll have to double check. 
   
   

   

    
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

   
   
7. This one is sort of not fair, it's the most in pieces and I started it (literally this summer) only because I was going through the strip bin and had the inspo picture from Pinterest.
    
   
   
8. All the pieces for this QAYG denim orange peel rag quilt are finally in order, they just need to be put that way. Denim QAYG are not my favorite.  
   
   
   

   

   
   
9. This one isn't really fair either, but it was in pieces at the beginning of the summer, another all-I-have-to-do-is-sew-the-border-on project. 
   

   
   
   
10. This was forcing me into having a tenth thing? here's a basket I made.