Cascade Fishing

The kid went fishing today.
Rainbow trout. Brook trout.
A secret sweet spot in the Cascades.

I was working. He was playing.

Star Baby Quilt

This baby quilt is destined for my substitute carrier (on my mail route). She's got about 5 weeks before she pops and I wanted to make her a little quilt.

 I keep some baby ideas in my Pinterest folder and this Star quilt jumped into my head. Fortuitously, Joann's fabrics had 60% off their crappy flannel.

I was trying to pick six colored flannels with the same size motif at Joann's and that was difficult as most of the flannel was most definitely for girls (frozen princesses anyone?). They also had a zillion blues but hardly any greens or reds.
 
I went for an I-Spy type of fabrics. These squares are 9" when sewn (HST's half square trangles) as this pattern was written using a layer cake cut of fabrics.

I bought enough extra for super shrinkage. This is one of my nicer point intersections where the flannel did not stretch out of whack.


 

 

For quilting, I sewed straight lines along the star shape and then tried some free motion quilting on the middle and sides.

First up is my pretty good FMQ of random lines. I did pretty good once I figured out my machine hated the thread I already had on my machine and reducing the thread pressure helped too. There are some skipped stitches here and there but I'm pretty sure babies eyesight up close isn't good enough to spot it.


And then, I tried some circles. I even drew on the fabric good - round - circles. A little wonky. Oh well. I know certain readers will have a good laugh over my crazy circles.

 I am over halfway sewing my binding down and then it will be finished. This new boy has an older sister named Olivia which is also fortuitous because my niece is named Olivia. I still  have some cute Olivia the pig fabric leftover to make a small purse to carry.

I still need to quilt the four corner squares. No idea what yet unless I repeat the squiggly line thing again. I'm pretty sure I won't be trying circles again....

Oh and Thank you for all your kind comments on my last post. My flu ended up going into bronchitus as in cough, cough, cough. I am feeling better on the energy front and am able to do my normal too many things in one day better.

Star pattern is here.

Camouflage

I did sew today.

A customer order for  a CD Organizer that fits on a car sun visor.
She wanted Pink Camouflage. I received the fabrics Thursday and sewed two CD organizers and one Zippy pouch.

Aren't these cute?

I'm not much of a pink girl but hey - if it's in camo, it's awesome.

They are now  in my new etsy store. Part of my future business plan involves more sewing. My RunningWithNeedles etsy shop is filled with vintage sewing treasures. I felt like I was dumping my handmade items in there. This year,   I opened RunningWithHandmade, my second (*third) shop back in January, getting all my finance/organizational ducks in a row.

It's been slow going as I got seriously overwhelmed by not only my business plan, but the usual culprits of work, parents/family, and health issues all deciding to flare up as well.

So, I stalled.

 I'm pretty good with outlining the steps necessary to move forward.
Breaking down the big picture and organizing the flow.

This big picture is big.

I had to take a step back and wonder if it is too much. It has to do with retiring from work and how will I earn a paycheck big. Dealing with family issues that I will be more responsible for when I quit my current job.

I got depressed about, well, everything.
Which led me to getting sick with the worst spring flu ever this last week.
Which also led me to talk to someone, actually several someones.

It helped. having the downtime, getting feedback. I have a family history of depression and I think we all experience it at times. My older sister is hip-deep in it right now. She acknowledges she is depressed but can't seem to find her way out.

I'm working overtime the next couple of weeks so it preys on my mind. I can't help her right now.
I have to help myself first. Which is something my voodoo-hippie doc tries to imprint into my brain cells. If I over-extend myself, I get really sick.

So- what to do?

Ask for help. Put on hold things that don't need to be done today. Minimize your outside commitments. Ask for help.


I feel better in my head about my own situation. I know my on-going business plan is to my benefit. I know that we, as a family, will figure out how to help my sister.

Because of my auto-immune issues, I try to live my life as if I won't be able to do everything I want to do before my disease gets the better of me. Do the best I can. Every day. Try something new. Keep engaged.

 

***second etsy shop is RunningWithAirplanes which I never stocked as I've never had enough time in the day to do it all.