jumping in the deep end

So.

That little stack of fabrics from last week?

I turned it into a a wallet :-)

(oh hey - don't forget to enter the drawing)

and then

I turned my attention to a new commissioned project. (yay!)

I'm still gathering fabrics,

(thanks, Love for going to the fabric shop with me!! :-)

but I had enough to get going on one little section of the quilt,

so Monday

I starched and pressed the 36 prewashed fabrics

with plans to cut into them as soon as possible.

I moved the pile to the table that evening after dinner

and just a few minutes later

I got a text from my sister in law

'just giving you a heads up,

my shower 

(a baby shower :-)

will be Feb 6th'

I sent back the huge eyeball face.

'Cause ya'll.

I thought I had more than 2 months to make my nephew a quilt.

I hadn't even decided what I was doing yet!

Tyler said, "You'll just have to give them the quilt when he's born.

You can't make a quilt in 12 days."

(These aren't just 'empty' 12 days. either.

Yesterday held 4 dentist appointments.

Today is my Gramma Joyce Day (I need to get moving!)

which is an all day affair,

and Saturday is TKD testing (which takes up the entire morning)

and then TJ and his family are finally coming for Christmas,

which means Friday will be filled with preparations for that.
I don't even know what all next week holds...)

I thought about listening to him;

I really did.

He told me at bedtime that he wasn't forbidding me,

just suggesting that I let myself off the proverbial hook.

(knowing me well enough to know there wasn't a chance of that...)

I tried to sleep.

Really.

But I couldn't,

 so I got up and searched baby boy quilts on pinterest.

But I didn't find anything that begged to be made.

I went to Moda Bake Shop.

Didn't find anything there either.

I thought about an Irish Chain.

But I wasn't really feeling it.

I kept thinking patchwork.

Simple patchwork.

In grey and blue.

When I didn't find a 'better option' after 2 hours of looking,

I decided simple patchwork it would be!

With that settled,

 I went to bed at midnight.

And still couldn't sleep.

So I got back up at 1

and since I couldn't gather fabrics

(I have fabrics tucked here and there all over the house, 

but my main fabric storage spot

 is in our bedroom...)

I decided to order backing and binding fabric.

And went back to bed a little after 2.

I gathered fabrics while kids did math.

Lily was the only one who needed help,

and it was just a smidge.

I gathered more 

while they did English.

(Jeremiah needed just a little help)

and by the time I stopped to fix them a late breakfast of rice cereal,

I had a stack of 80+ fabrics

(all from my stash!! happy dance)

While we were in town for the dentist appointments, 

(no cavities ~ yay!!)

I picked up a few more grays,

since I was heavier on the blues.

and after we got home

and got groceries put away

(I pretty much always tack on grocery shopping if we  have to go to town...)

and got the house cleaned up for Pop to come home

(and I had a second cup of coffee 

because I was dragging since I'd only gotten 4 hrs of sleep)

I brought my iron to the dining room

(but not the board, I just used the little tray table ironing board

since I would only by pressing a corner of the fabrics)

and started cutting into my (now) 90 fabrics.

I paused the cutting to throw dinner in the oven

(pork roast with potatoes, carrots, and mushrooms, and roasted cabbage)

then got right back at it.

When Tyler called on his way home,

I put the phone on speaker so I could keep working.

He commented on the noise every time I ran the rotary cutter across the cutting mat.

When he asked what I was doing,

I joked, 

"Well I am certainly not trying to make a 12 day quilt!"

;-)

I cut the final fabric

about 5 minutes after Brandon sent the 'we're heading home' text at 7:15ish.

Everyone pitched in to help get my crap mess off the table so we could eat

but I still have about 75 fabrics 

to re-fold.

After the late dinner

(dinner is always late on Tues and Thurs)

my feet and knees were killing me,

so I put my feet up while I drank a mug of hot water with red mandarin e.oil

(totally unrelated to the pain, I just like it)

and read a few chapters in my library book

then hung some batting on the wall and started laying out the quilt.

By midnight,

I had the 252 3 1/2 inch squares off the wall, 

neatly stacked,

ready to sewn into a top.

....to be continued

linking up with Lee and all the working on projects girls