In The Beginning...

Welcome to my plain little sewing area...

In December of 2009, I set myself to the task of clearing out as much of my stash and UFO's as possible before the end of 2010. I straightened up my office/sewing room, and decided the first thing to do was to tackle that pre-cut fleece quilt block kit my sister had gifted to my daughter (oh, about five or six years previously.)  Pretty sure the idea was that my daughter would complete the quilt, but she has little to no interest in sewing, so it was up to me to make it happen.

If I remember correctly, there were about 100 12" squares to be sewn together. Not a big deal, right? Each square had been "fringed", and had to be fairly carefully pinned so that the fringe didn't end up on the wrong side of the quilt.  I don't care for the feel of fleece, reminds me of cheap velvet, scratchy and dry, but the colors helped me get over that.
 

Pins, pins, and more pins... 

Never ending pile of squares...

I find it difficult to work on projects I really don't like. This goes waaay back to my childhood. I always liked drawing the maps for reports, but not actually doing the report. The saving grace for me with this project was that I liked the colors and I knew my daughter would totally make use of it.

Proof that Julia uses her quilt can be seen via her messy bed.

In the end, it was good practice for me as I hadn't done any real kind of sewing for many, many years (thanks to my old uncooperative sewing machine I kept struggling with.) I felt like I had finally accomplished something, and I could hopefully keep the momentum going.

As usual, life doesn't always want to cooperate, especially when it comes to my being able to be creative in any way.  It wasn't until after my mother-in-laws passing in March of this year that I really put my all into being more creative and trying to sew on a regular basis.  Joining the local quilt guild helped with that immensely.  Meeting up with other women who share my interests, seeing all of their beautiful projects, really spurs me on.