The contents of my TQ#5 sewing kit

Started in February 2014.. in a few short months, this WIP will be 3 years old.  The sewing kit has been the same all along (I think?), and it has collected a few odd bits and memories.  I was noticing the other night, as I planned out the last few diamonds and edge pieces, that so much has changed in that time.  So many friends and experiences.  Their stories are in the quilt, which I'll tell again once it's done (aiming to have the top together by Feb 2017), but the kit.. I didn't realize so many memories would be held in this little plastic box too.

This is everything just kinda thrown out of the case.  Pic is from my design wall sometime last winter, before I moved the bed to the opposite wall and had to take down the batting.  (I ended up stringing lights from the command hooks I left up).  More of it has been pieced together than is shown in the pic, but I'll do a separate post for TQ#5 progress soon. 

 In order to sneak time to take all these photos, I let Jack count and arrange all the loose hexies in the kit.  Most were cut with my Fiskars 1" punch during or after our road trip to Chicago in May 2014.

 This is one of the mini flyers I made for the Saturday Stitches library program I did at the beginning of the year (these are 2016 dates, NOT 2017). On the back there are names and phone numbers of people that attended, who wanted to be added to our mailing list.  I miss my Saturday Stitches group!
The green paperclip is a German one from when I was living in Athens the spring I was working on the EPP book.  So many hours of EPP that year!  New paperclips were one way to keep my motivation up.

These spools are the threads that match the current blocks I'm working on.   I know in the book I talk about keeping small bobbins in lots of colors, but that hasn't happened in this travel quilt kit.  I'm able to get by with mostly neutrals, and then when there is a specific need, I do keep that color on a spool.  I think part of the difference is that the blocks are larger (25 hexies, compared to the 6 diamonds in TQ#2 and #3) and that I just don't have the same chunks of time to sit and sew these days.  Most of the time I'll be home again to change out thread before I need a new color.  The yellow hexies are from the backing on the quilt George and I made this year (another blog post, I promise!).  And these might just be the folding scissors that I got from Grama K..   I had a pair of these as a kid, is it possible this is the same pair??

This will be the top right corner of the patchwork.  I got the red floral fabric while I was at the Sisters Outdoor Quilt show in July 2015.  I knew when I tucked it into my bag that day that it would make it into this quilt.  Didn't know it would take over a year to get there..

And these two little trinkets may be the most special-- The bottle top pin cushion that my friend Eri gave me.  I have spend a lot of time thinking about her this year, I'm pretty sure she watches me stitch sometimes.
The black pin box came from Shannon years ago, in a big box of scraps (she used to send me some every few months.. what an enabler!).  Sometimes friendships take breaks, but this is one that has withstood the tests of time.  I should call though..

And my helper, holding my thimble.  Don't know why, but it's his favorite notion.  This is the same thimble I've used since.. 2006?  My tools are just as important as the quilts themselves.  It's all part of the process.   Do you have anything special hiding in your sewing kits?

Monday Morning Star Count 2014/33

I wanted to write another post this week, but that hasn't happened yet.  A post about my need to work with different shapes, different fabrics in my stash that weren't hexie friendly.. Let me just say that I pulled out an old UFO that I'd really like to see on my bed next winter and to clear my head a bit this week I worked on that instead of Travel Quilt #5.  It was good.  Nice to break the cycle and get out of my EPP comfort zone for a while.  I've written about it before, but does anyone else turn to EPP projects when they don't know what else to do?  EPP has been my go-to quilt project for so long that all of my other quilts have become UFOs in the meantime.  Unintentionally, most of the time too.  It's just that so many of those other projects take a bit of 'figuring out' to get started again, where as EPP has none of that.  Just open the box, find the threaded needle and thimble and go..
I see that I haven't been making time for my other quilting goals, and I really should be more intentional about that.  Maybe that lost blog post will happen this week?  Fingers crossed.

So, after last Monday's post I made absolutely no progress or decisions on the NYC Mod Guild quilt.  Still open to suggestions, but not in the mood to tackle that solution on my own this month.  If I don't post about it again before the end of September though, someone remind me.

Instead, I started on something new (please, don't throw anything at me!).  Satisfying my need for new shapes, I started working with triangles..

They are big and basting isn't effortless  yet, but I know I'll get there.  I'm going to Chicago at the end of the month and I think this is what I'll keep in my travel bag.  Never know when the kid will fall asleep and give me a few extra minutes to stitch..

Ok, your turn.  (Remember, ANYONE is welcome to join at any time!  We'd love to see what you're stitching~)

One Month

Here he is, my Prince Charming, at one month old:

We have been having the best time, and though things haven't returned to the "new normal" yet (MIL is still here and helping out A LOT), I'm sure they will fall into place as the weeks move on.

I finished Jack's baby quilt a couple weeks ago:

(Excuse the crappy postpartum mom-hair)

A take on Denyse Schmidt's "Any Way You Slice It" pattern, which I have never seen, but followed instructions for here at Blue Elephant Stitches.  It was fun and easy, and I realized I love it so much because most of the fabrics are ones I bought myself (as opposed to scraps or unwanted fabric I received from friends).  The palette is "me" but masculine, and I love that he's already been using it..

(You may have seen a similar photo on Helen's blog, she's a better blogger than I am, hehe)

We also received a gift quilt in the mail last week, all the way from Hokkaido~
(will edit to add a photo soon!)
Thank you Mrs. K!!  I miss you~~~