Yikes.

I’ve had a crazy busy week.

Besides the holidays peeking at me right around the corner, the 44th Annual Homosassa Arts, Crafts, and Seafood Festival is November 10th and 11th.  Terry is the chairperson for the third year.  He is really good at managing the entire thing.  He has so many volunteers.  And everyone works really well together.

It’s a great event.  We get over 10,000 people into our little village.  It’s entirely volunteer run. Because we do not have to pay an event organizer, all of the proceeds go back to the community.  I love it.

I’m one of those volunteers.  I do the t-shirts. And the website.  And some of the graphic design. And the social media. And the photography.

And I love doing it all.

If I had a real job that paid real money, this would be it!

But it takes time and my concentration.

(Last year I was also the Entertainment person.  I was way over my head in that department! Thankfully, a friend that is a professional musician stepped up and took that over!)

But I was having a REALLY hard time working on my quilts.

I have three quilts that are ready to be finished. And I have made very little progress on any of them.

The “Sew Many Squares” quilt should be done.  I have the backing and the binding. I need some white batting.  Sounds simple enough. I tried to order it on Amazon but it wasn’t going to be here until the 24th.  Yes, that was last week.  I didn’t order it. I have no explanation.

I have “analysis paralysis” on the “Fall into the QAL”.  I love all the designs of the blocks and the fabric and the colors I used.  There are so many decisions.  How to quilt it.  What color of thread to use. What fabric print and color for the borders.  The backing.  The binding.

And I’m really afraid that I’m going to screw it up.  Then hate it.  Then I’ll fold it up and stick it in a trunk and after I pass away my children will find it and say “what was she thinking?  This is ugggggly!”

And then there’s the “Tell me a Story” quilt.  I have been working on this for over a year.  I’m using different methods–paper piecing, raw edge applique, turned under applique and I was just getting to the hand embroidery.  Here’s my first fairy.  (My fairies will all have pixies) I got the hair and eyes done then went for the lips.  And her face dissolved.  The fabric just fell apart.

I’m pretty sure that I stopped breathing for a few minutes.  Then I folded it up and put it into the above mentioned trunk of ugly quilts.

I know I can fix it.  Just. Not. Right. Now.

I took a day off last weekend.  Didn’t even sew. I spent the time enjoying the wonderful fall weather relaxing in the screened room and looking at blogs. All kinds. Sewing. Quilting. Dolls. Deep thoughts. Interior design. Photography.

Did some reading.  Right now I’m enjoying Anne Lamott’s “Bird by Bird”.  It’s about writing.  Interesting. Instead of trying to do it all at once, take the project “one bird at a time” (I don’t really write but I do meander and this is the third draft of this current meander.)

Just spent the day getting some inspiration, relaxation and giving my creative brain a little break.

Then I got back to my “Fall into a QAL”.  Looked at the pieces–not the whole thing.  Quilted each block.  Put them on the design wall and took a pic.

And through the miracle of Photoshop, I was able to get some ideas of how this quilt will look with different borders.

Here’s the original snap:

And with brown borders:

and yellow:

How about orange?

Here I took it a step forward with different borders around the blocks.

Haven’t decided on what I’ll do yet, but I feel better!

And I found the white batting for the Sew Many Squares quilt that I wanted on Craftsy!

Moving forward.  One bird at a time!