Quilt Guilt

-quilt guilt.

 noun; that feeling one has when one should be working on this quilt or that quilt, but instead, one buys more fabric, starts three new projects (some not due for another four months) and generally procrastinates.*

Anyone hear me on this?  Half of my family (the husband and two older kiddos) went out of town for the Fourth of July holiday, and what did I work on?  Only five different projects!

1.  First up, I finally got around to cutting my Posy stash into 2.5 inch strips for a 16-patch baby quilt.  Now, this is what I'm really supposed to be working on.  For heaven's sake, this is for a baby who is at least 4 months old now!

2.  But after I cut that, I read this sad post and wanted to help make a quilt for Aneela, the talented lady who designed the fabric above.  So I grabbed some of that Posy to make two blocks from me, and then went to the charm packs of Sherbert Pips that Anne recently gave to me (sweet friend!) and made two blocks from her.  (She just moved.  She's at the beach, but her stuff is in storage, and I have no idea where her fabric ended up!)

3.  After making these blocks, I just couldn't put that sweet fabric down!  So here is where my sewing seriously digressed.  Instead of finishing up the above-mentioned baby quilt, I sat down and sewed a disappearing nine-patch with some Kona Ash sashing for my daughter, Marian's, 2nd birthday, which, I hesitate to mention, is not until November.  

(It's a bad picture; and I've since added another border.)

4.  In the picture below, you can see some blocks to the right of the Posy basket, yes?  This was the next thing I got distracted by.  Charlotte's first oncologist, Dr. Amy, is having a baby boy soon.  When we left Arizona, I desperately wanted to give her a thoughtful gift.  But I was only sewing crayon rolls at the time, and did not think that would be very useful for ordering chemo or writing up scripts of zofran.  But now she's expecting a baby boy!  I could not be more thrilled.  So I took some leftover blocks from Matthew's quilt, have made a few extra, completed the layout and now it's ready for sashing and for completing the quilt top.

5.  I then received this bundle of gorgeous "Mirabelle" fabrics (and other goodies!) in the mail from Cyndy.  I won her giveaway - hooray!  The sweet thing about this is that I've wanted this fabric but did not have a "real" reason for buying it other than a bit of nostalgia. You see, my fourth child, Marian, was born months before this fabric was released.  And the crazy thing is, she was "Mirabelle" in the womb for at least six months!  Really: even the cake at the baby shower had "Welcome, Baby Mirabelle" on it.  But about two weeks before she was born, my husband and I both confessed that we just did not feel right about the name.  It just did not seem to go well with "Elyse, Henry, Charlotte, and... Mirabelle?"   It was not until two hours after she was born that we settled on "Marian" as her name.  Crazy, eh?  So back to my quilt guilt distraction: I've been generally dreaming about what to make with this pretty bundle.  (Thanks, Cyndy!)

6. Then there was a sale on shipping over at Sew Me a Song and wow, I'm just a sucker.  I had to get this "Itsy Bitsy Spider" fabric (by Heather Ross) for my sweet Charlotte, because she just loves that song and the poor dear did not get a quilt for her last birthday.  But after cutting everything up into charm squares, I decided that I don't want to do another disappearing nine-patch, after I got it out of my system with the one that I showed you above.  So now what to do?!  I'm really crazy about the Rocky Mountain puzzle block and am thinking of this (check out Erica's version here: I'm just a tad obsessed), but then I'd have to re-cut my fabric and there'd be quite a bit of waste.  Or there's this quilt-along.  Well, any suggestions for charm squares, some of which I definitely want to highlight the fussy-cutting?

7. Last but not least, I pulled out the lavender color way of the Briar Rose layer cake that I had left over after making this quilt.  I paired them with solids, followed this tutorial, and wow - I am loving this baby quilt!  Again, such distraction because I did not have a recipient in mind.  But after adding those solids and seeing how they definitely increase the vintage feel of this fabric, I have the perfect person in mind.  Or... her baby, rather.  :)  (And that design wall...  Where have you been all my life?  It's small, but it's sweet.  I'm so grateful to have a permanent little sewing space in our new home.)

Did I say that I got distracted and was working on "five" things?  I just counted seven, so it must have been an understatement.  Sigh...  I am happy to say, that those 2.5 inch Posy strips in the first picture have been nicely ordered and stitched into a quilt, and I'm now working on the last step: hand-stitching the binding.  And I made a list this morning of future quilts and the order in which I should work on them.  But will I stick with it?  Probably not!

Question: does this happen to you, or am I the only one who is so scatter-brained in my sewing projects?  Any remedy for sticking with the task at hand and just getting it done?  Especially baby quilts for babies nearing their six-month birthday?...

(Linking up with Lee for WiP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced, Kelly with NTT, and at Fabric Tuesday.)


*I did a little google search for "quilt guilt" and came up with nothing.  If I'm plagiarizing something or someone somewhere, do please let me know.