Blocks of procrastination

Dang it! Is it really May next week ALREADY? I guess that'll put another X in the FAIL column of the Craftsy Block of the Month  I've been working on ***sigh*** there ARE still a few more days of April so I guess there might be hope...don't hold your breath though....there are lots of things in the procrastination pile ahead of April's blocks...gosh! how did that pile get so high?.....I might have to re-prioritize...pfffff...later.

In the meantime I wanted to share with you the March blocks I completed in April :)


 
I have said before that Quilting is an amazing process of tricks and shortcuts that in the end fool the eye into believing it must have taken years.

These block are definitely in that "fool the eye" category. I love this block...my favorite so far.

This was my first experience with foundation piecing. I think I may have found yet another thing to love about quilting.


Isn't it amazing how you can begin with a couple of lines on a foundation piece of fabric....

 Sew multiple strips onto that foundation piece...any width your heart desires...mix it up...don't be afraid!





Keep adding strips....






and adding strips....














Before long you have what looks like a mess...but the seams are all so perfectly straight!













Trim it up.....makes me look pretty good doesn't it? Wow! That's a nice square!

Now make three more...all different...sewn without care of matching colors or strip widths......

and then when you put them all together..... they become one beautiful block! (Now I look REALLY good...shhhhh.... forget I said that quilting can "fool the eye")

I could see a whole entire quilt made from this block...bet I could get a quilt top done in one afternoon with this method....hmmmm....can you hear the "procrastination pile" screaming?  

And how I got from this.....

To this......

  is another mystery you can solve by joining in with me at the Craftsy Block of the Month..... It's NEVER too late to start, after all I'm pretty sure there's a procrastinator out there who hasn't started yet either!

Therapy and WOYWW

I wasn't going to go there today. I wasn't. But when I walked into my sewing room this morning and saw this....

and this....

I knew I needed some therapy... WOYWW therapy. So, I popped on over to Julia's and what do you know...SHE needs some therapy too, you should see her desk, it puts my mess to shame!

My excuse? I was working late last night finishing some totes that were a special request from my sis. I needed to deliver them today so...after much procrastination (because no job can be truly completed unless there is procrastination first)  I finished them on time to be delivered today but I was too tired last night to pick up...ok, so yes, those are finished FooFoo Bunnies waiting for their picture and to be listed in my store and yes, they have been sitting there since last week BUT they ARE finished! And yes, those are my  Craftsy Block of the Month pieces and parts underneath the bunnies.....I guess you might have to call all of that my "procrastination pile" ....sounds kind of permanent doesn't it? 

Seeing all of this in pictures really makes me....well...I don't know what it makes me...uh, maybe a really great  "what's on you workdesk wednesday"  therapy patient? 

I DO feel better....so, thank you Julia for that!

Swag bags are WOYWW

It's "What's on your workdesk Wednesday" and I have nothing on my desk today. I'm still recovering from the frenzy of coordinating my son's wedding. I can show you what was on my desk last week though. On Wednesday I was in the midst of embroidering and sewing the swag bags for the wedding just a couple of days away. 
I really, really should have started sooner but the procrastinating side of me came out in a big way as the wedding approached...never a good thing.
 

I love getting swag when I go to a wedding, chocolate, bubbles, Jordan almonds.....it's all part of the fun and celebration. So, I volunteered to make the swag bags. And me being me, of course they could not just be organza bags bought in stacks of a dozen for a few dollars. My creative genius would never allow something so simple as that....oh no, I had to make them special, which of course meant they would take a little time...of which I was sure I had plenty. I searched around cyberspace for a cute, special idea for my bags and found this drawstring bag pattern from In Color Order.  

 Not that a drawstring bag needs a pattern but I always find great tips and ideas in quilter's patterns  and I really love Jeni's blog. Don't you love the use of two fabrics? How cute would this be in the wedding colors? So, I purchased her fabulous bag pattern in PDF form. I did indeed find some great tips and she even included a simple formula for easily changing the size of the bag. I hate math, so I'm always happy when someone does it for me. Her formula made making a custom size bag so very easy, even for me.

 I made the first one and got approval from the bride and proceeded to gather what I needed to make 90 swag bags. That's right, 90! At this point, any shortcut is a good shortcut and quilters are great short cutters. I used the strip sewing method on this bag, it was the perfect technique for completing 6 bags at a time in a flash!.....perhaps "flash" is an exaggeration but it WAS much quicker than one at at time.





Soon enough...there I go again, thinking I had plenty of time....my sewing table was piled with swag bags in various stages and I was well on my way to completing my task.

At about bag 42,  I began to think I needed to shorten this task even more or these bags were not going to be done on time.
Enter the procrastinating genius...Hmmmm, does the bridal party REALLY need a bag? Do the children attending REALLY need a bag? Do my husband and I REALLY need a bag? Well, that just took 23 off the count....and now I only needed 25 more.......there was a light at the end of the tunnel!!  
Don't worry, the kids will not go without swag, I had already come up with a paper swag bag for them in my head, they would get theirs too.

All the bags got completed on time and filled with chocolate, bubbles and and a noise maker to which I attached a message...shhhhh, it's a surprise. We're gonna make some noise when it's "kiss the bride"time!!
It was a fun addition to a young couple's celebration....and the bags were cute too!

I hope to have something new going on next week. For now, I will head over to WOYWW  and share my mess from a crazy, frenzied week of wedding stuff!