Cabin Fever Crafting

I put my sewing machine away the other day. I finished one project for my Etsy store and said we could have our dining room table back for awhile. But then today I couldn't help planning to put matching trim on a pair of identical 18-month sized OshKosh overalls... if I do it right, it'll lengthen the pair for Anja and roll up cutely to shorten the pair for Greta. So tomorrow I might take over the dining table again for that. And I need to put the ribbon on my wrap skirt (which is so funky and cute) and put in the lining, if I can figure out how to work with this horrible fabric I got for it. It'll look super cute if it works out, but I'm doubtful... I have a feeling this stuff is just going to snag instead of sew.

Tonight after dinner Martin started reading to me "The Education of Little Tree." A lovely little book about mountain people, it inspired me to finally start on the pinwheel quilt I've been intending to make for months. The good thing is, it's started. The bad thing is, I mis-measured (imagine that!) and so I am limited to homespuns and muslin for my fabric choices. This is fine because I have TONS of leftover squares from the quilt I made for Martin as a 2nd anniversary gift, but it's also kind of boring to be working with the same fabrics again. Oh well, they need to be used up somehow. I might just be lazy--I mean, LOVING--and make it a littler-sized quilt for Greta for her birthday. We'll see. It's nice though, to have a by-hand project going. I haven't been knitting... I got frustrated with it after my last project attempt and even though I've been checking out books from the library, I'm not ready to take it up again. I'd like to make a particular Debbie Bliss sweater for the girls.... but I love fabric oh-so-much and I have sooooo much of it, while the yarn I have to choose from is about half a skein in a variety of colors and textures and weights, etc. So until I have the money to spend on nice yarn for a specific project, I am going to spend my time on fabric crafts, such as making clothes for the girls and quilts for all of us.

I love quilting. I love it above all other crafts, even Woodland Folk Making. I love taking tiny bits and making something big out of them. With knitting, you have a definite size, a definite pattern, a definite amount of yarn you need. When I make a quilt top, I just kind of make it however I want. (Confession: I've only used a pattern a few times, and it's the measurements that make it unenjoyable for me, so I've moved on to self-made "patterns".) It's nice that way. Now, admittedly, I usually only work with arrangements of squares, but STILL. This time I am doing pinwheel blocks, so that's different. And so far they are turning out very nicely. Besides, I'm not making them to enter into the county fair.... I am just making them to keep us warm. AND BECAUSE I LOVE FABRIC.

I think I'm going to go now and see if I can figure out how to download and use Picasa. I can't find that CD for my camera stuff, and I have good pictures to share!