Out of focus

Our family will probably be moving this summer, due to job changes for my partner, and I am faced with the near-certainty of losing my sewing room (I've only had it for a year, but it's been pretty awesome). In the meantime, I have so many projects that I need or want to finish before having to pack (and probably having to do some major destashing). I feel the need to focus on priorities, so that I don't find myself making random things that I want to make, but don't necessarily need to make right now.

So, priorities:

Kindergarten quilt - will be helping the class make an appliqué quilt of house blocks, since they have been studying architecture. A friend and I will go in with lots of scrap fabric, let them pick their fabrics and help them cut them into house shapes and glue them onto their blocks, which I'll take home and sew down. If anyone has done anything like this (quilting with kids) and wants to share any hints, I will probably need all the help I can get!

Sack boys x 2 for school auction - deadline June 2

Quilts for my boys. Due to some quilts that I offered to make for a friend, which I'll blog abut soon, my boys are feeling like they are always at the bottom of the list when it comes to making stuff for them. They saw the quilts that I was making for their friends, and reminded me that I had also promised them quilts :( isn't that always the way - we're so busy helping others that the needs of our nearest get neglected (okay, it's not like they're sleeping out in the cold without blankets, but you know what I mean!). So, number two has requested a pirate quilt. Not a quilt with pirate fabrics, mind you, but a quilt with a giant pirate ship in the middle. And a big jolly roger flying above the ship. Appliqué or paper-piecing are the only options I think (he doesn't want a basic ship block, he wants a proper fancy ship. With a plank).

He's already part pirate, as you can see:

(By the way, that is what happens when you naively think your kids are being quiet because they're settling down to sleep. In actuality, they are tattooing themselves with non-washable markers, and you will be spending the next morning explaining to their teachers that no, that's actually not a black eye!)

For his quilt, I found a free paper piecing pattern for a ship, so I plan to try to enlarge it and use that. Of course I've never done any paper piecing, so a little practice may be required, and I'm loving the new patterns from sew-ichigo. Hmm, did I just add another project to my list? See my problem here?

Number one requested a day of the dead quilt, and I knew that Alexander Henry has all those great prints, some of which I already had, so we went online and picked out some more prints:

So we have plenty of fabric, but it's all pretty busy prints like these, so well need to pick a neutral (I'm thinking black, what do you think?) and come up with a design that doesn't induce vertigo. I'm so happy that he picked this - I was a little surprised, as some aspects of these prints could be perceived as feminine, but his love of skeletons superseded all that, and day of the dead is one of my all time favourite holidays, so I hope we will both be happy with the finished product.

Lower priority items include:

A second ice cream dress for the little chicken (first dress here). This is already cut out, so no big time commitment.

A camera strap - inspired by Amber's.

A Kitchen Aid mixer cover, along with matching oven mitts and hot pads.

Knitting project bag - one of those drawstring bags from Jeni's blog that everybody except me has made.

Amy Butler Barcelona skirt, Colette Iris shorts and Colette Jasmine top.

Cathedral window pin cushion. Need at least two of these!

Vintage sheet quilt with grey background - inspired by the hideaway girl

Ack, seriously, I want to run downstairs and make a vintage sheet quilt with a grey background, right now! And yes, it's at the bottom of the list. That's why I need focus, people!

Thanks for listening to me ramble on. Oh, and on the topic of the ramble, Levon Helm, the drummer from The Band, is dying of cancer, and his family posted on his Facebook page a request for people to send their love and prayers. This has turned into a wonderful living memorial that Levon and his family get to experience prior to his passing - a tradition that I think would comfort so many people in the late stages of terminal disease, and their families. I also think it is incredibly generous of Levon and his family to give people the opportunity to say goodbye while he can still hear them.

Thanks for visiting!