It's all about WIPs here...

I have been a lazy blogger this week. I have some excuses, though...

We started a summer project at my favourite quilt shop last week, a summery table cloth. The lovely ladies at the shop had made kits with all the fabric we needed for the top - perhaps not the ones I would have chosen, but the most important thing for me was the social aspect - to me that's one of the most important things about this hobby: like minded people getting together, stitching a little, sharing ideas, knowhow, chocolate and laughter. We spent a whole evening cutting triangles with the TriRec ruler and our homework was to stitch them together to make blocks. "Piece of cake" I thought - "I'll do that in no time at all"... Weeeell, needless to say, things didn't quite turn out that way.

I decided to finish my Café-quilt top first as I'd have plenty of time to do those triangles... Somehow that took a lot more time than I had imagined, and I found myself stitching well into the night to be ready for the next step at the quilt shop on Monday. I did manage to finish all the blocks, although those plaids were a nightmare! Never before have I used fabric that created so much lint and left loose threads flying in and around my sewing area. I actually had to stop twice to clean my sewing machine!
On Monday amid fun and laughter with the girls I managed to stitch the blocks together. We had a great time, but there was still a lot of work to be done. By then I had decided that this was not going to be a tablecloth after all - it was much to bright and colourful, even for me - a lap quilt to use on my balcony during warm(ish) summer evenings would be a better idea, and I remembered that I had a green polar fleece blanket that I might use for backing. Great, I'd just have to add the borders, spray baste the top to the blanket and machine quilt it just enough to keep the two layers together - "I'll do that tomorrow" I mumbled to myself as I drifted off to sleep that evening.

It was not to be. On Tuesday I came home from work and realized that the maid (me) had been off duty for far too long and there were piles of dishes to clean, floors to mop and all (knowing that "dust bunnies are just a sign of people having had too much fun to clean" was no consolation, something had to be done!) And boy, was I glad I did, because the moment I'd finished, the doorbell rang, and there was a friend of mine who was passing by and had impulsively decided to pay me a visit. Several cups of tea and quilting magazines later I waved goodbye to my friend and went to bed. "I'll finish that quilt tomorrow" I thought as I drifted off to sleep.

The next day we had a minor crisis at work, so I was late getting home. I had just finished dinner when the phone rang - another friend who wanted to pay a visit. Another great evening with tea and sympathy and no quilting...
Thursday was the day for our monthly quilting bee, and here I am on Friday, piles of washing up again, and no progress on the quilt. Mind you, I'm not complaining! I feel truly blessed to have so many friends who want to spend time with me, and all those evenings chatting about our lifes and plans and inspiring each other are part of what life really is about, isn't it? But tomorrow I might get some work done on that quilt - or maybe not...