Time Flies!

Ok, so it's been awhile since I posted.  Oh, is that an understatement?  LOL

So here's what has been going on in my little world....I've been keeping super busy.  I have a daughter who's expecting her first (and maybe only) child.  I've been shopping (bargains at Ross) and I've been fabric hunting (for things like flannel, cottons, etc), and I've been trying to fit in sewing in between it all.  I've also worked a little on my pinwheels.  They are going very well!  I'm excited to get the rest of them done (squaring up right now) and then, decide on how I want to put them together.....

I also joined a swap on the quilting board forum.  Now, I'm having a really difficult time getting things together for my swap buddy - I have till the 25th, but was hoping to get something out sooner than that.....it's very frustrating because there is a $10 limit - and I thought, well, that'll be easy enough.  NOT!  :-(  It's very difficult to find a lot of little things and have it only add  up to $10.  I can use stash, but I don't really have THAT much stash....so I'm trying to figure out what I CAN (read want to) give up.  I have a couple of patterns someone else sent me that I won't use - but is it fair to send those onto someone else?  Then, I thought, I'll make her something.  So now I have to figure out WHAT to make her that I think she'll like.  Sigh.  I should never have entered this thing - it's too much for me right now with everything else I have going on in my head.  I did get one thing bought - something that I also needed so I bought 2!  I finally found a little expandable tape measure to carry with me in my purse.  I used to have one, have no idea where it went, so I found another that was inexpensive.  Yay! So that's a $2.00 part of the gift that I can send.  Hopefully, she doesn't already have one of those.....

So for my pinwheels.  This is what I have so far:

I used 2 charm packs - 2 different charm packs that is.  One had more lights in it, the other more darks, so I just blended them. I know that I usually see pinwheels with a color, and a solid light background.  I didn't feel like cutting that many squares (why should I when I have them already cut?) and I didn't want to order the Moda charms online - I wanted to use what I either could find in the LQS or use what I had.

Here is where I learned how to make these fast and easy pinwheels!

Now, I have another 2 charm packs left - same fabrics.  Debating - do I want to make it a larger quilt, do I want to use them as plain blocks mixed in, or do I want to save them for a separate quilt?  Hmmmm, decisions decisions.  LOL  I have to listen to what the fabric and the quilt are telling me and there hasn't been enough communication yet.  So, no decision for now.  The other option is that I have some strips of dark fabric that would match this very well....its something I got from Missouri Star Quilt Co on one of there daily specials......and I really love the colors.  So I could use those as sashing, or borders, and just make this a lap quilt.

The squares are coming out to 5.5 inches and they are 8 rows across and 5 down, 40 squares.  That makes it about lap size.  It would be a good size for the back of the couch during winter....or, a great size to make the dogs a little quilt or even a bed.  I just wanted to try these pinwheels, the method I learned from Missouri Star Quilt Co, and I want to have a chance to keep practicing my FMQ.  So this is just for fun, and again, I'll let it speak to me, as to what it will be used for.  I'm learning that if I listen carefully, I will make the right deicsions.  It just takes a bit longer than I'd like it to for the decisions to come across!

That's about all I can post about for today.  I'm busy busy again - going downtown to get a few things I need at the store, hit the thrift shop (never know when something good will come along) and going to 145 Art & Design Studio, to see if I can find anything good to send my secret pal.  If not, I'll come home and get busy and make her a chicken or something!  Everyone needs a chicken in their sewing room to keep 'em company, right?