What I Made Monday

I have a goal for this next year.  I want to create something every day.  This doesn’t mean that I finish whatever I’m working on, just that I work on it.  Realistically, with travelling I know that it probably won’t happen every day on the weekends, but I am going to try.  So, I am starting a new series on the blog.

Tuesday I worked on my quilt.  I was inspired by this quilt (and in turn this quilt) that I found on Pinterest which led me to the wonderful world that is Anna Maria Horner’s blog.  It is incredibly funny, real, and full of great sewing ideas!  I printed off the template but decided that I like the look of the horizontal zig zags more than the vertical, so I did a little bit of math and rotated the design.  I WISH I had the eye for combining all those colors, prints, stripes, and dots like she does, however, if this quilt is going in my room, you know it is going to be neutral.

Wednesday I broke down and joined Jones Design Company Monthly.  What can I say?  I’m a sucker for print goods!  I saw this idea on Pinterest and decided that that a dry erase calendar was exactly what I needed for my new desk area.  Little Man and I went to Kinkos and printed off the calendars.  Then, while we were at Wal-Mart getting Mr. Coffee, I picked up some frames for $2.50 each!

Thursday I realized I calculated the number of triangles I needed for each row wrong.  I thought I only needed 8 but alas I need 15.  This ordinarily wouldn’t be a problem, but I was working with scraps at this point, so it looked like I was going to have to make a trip to Hobby Lobby.  Darn!  (Where is that sarcasm font?)  I will say that this was a sad, sad day, because this was the day that I realized my gray and white stripy fabric was on its last leg. 

This has been my go to fabric since I bought it my Junior year of college for a Toga social.  It was a $1 a yard and I’m kicking myself for not buying the whole bolt!  While it will still made an appearance in the quilt, it will now be joined by some grayish/black and cream ticking (which I love as well, but we just don’t have the history).

the new fabrics are on the bottom

what I have so far.. 

Friday, I FINALLY finished this plaque.  Originally it was painted navy and yellow and said something about forget prince charming southern boys are better (or something like that).  I decided that I kind of hated the colors so I painted over it with gray and brown and then stamped a damask-ish design on it in off white.  And so it has sat, in that state, for over a year.  I’ve been pinning a bunch of quotes always having that plaque in the back of my mind.  There were a few that I loved very, very much so I just put them all in a hat and chose randomly.  Here were the top contenders:

“Every day may not be good, but there is something good in every day.”

‘Life begins at the end of your comfort zone”

“Make this moment count”

“You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.”

And the winner:

“She took a leap and built her wings on the way down”

When I first saw this I was like, ‘Oh, so we are celebrating being unprepared?!’ but the more I thought about it the more I liked it.  It isn’t talking about being unprepared, it’s talking about taking chances even if you don’t feel like you’re ready.  There are some things that we are never ready for—like moving to another country, leaving your family.  Like it says in Ecclesiastes 11.4: ‘If you wait for the perfect conditions, you’ll never get anything done.’  It is also a good reminder that it is okay to figure things out as I go.  When I’m stressed or in a stressful situation, I have the tendency to try and regain a bit of control by over thinking and over planning.  No one wants life to be that rigid.  I sure don’t.  While it was hard for me at the time, study abroad really helped me chill out in terms of HAVING to have a plan all the time.  I’m hoping that this au pair experience has the same effect.

Saturday, I made myself some coasters.  They’re nothing epic, but they are nice neutrals that will work with my quilt once I get it finished.