The Squirrel has gotten loose

A few years back I made a deal with myself. At the time I had about a bazillion UFOs (that's UnFinished Objects for the uninitiated). It was a bit out of hand. In order to get things back under control, I decided to give myself some limits. I could have no more than two projects in progress at any given time: one I worked on at home, and one that I could carry with me (mostly to work on during my ridiculously long commute). That worked great for a while. I whittled down the UFOs, then lived within my limits for, oh, at least a year. (That's pretty amazing in itself).

Things started to go sideways, though, when I had a 100 day sabbatical from a Microsoft contract (if you're a certain type of temp, Microsoft lets you work for 1 calendar year, then makes you take 100 days off to prove to you that you aren't really an employee). I figured I had limited time, so I'd just pound out a bunch of quilt tops, then complete them over time once I was working again.

That first part worked great. I made probably 15 quilt tops. A few queen size, a bunch of baby/lap quilts... I tried some new patterns and fabric combinations. Lots of fun!

The second part, though... Well, the fun part of quilting for me is the designing and piecing. Basting the things is a combination of aggravating and boring, but I don't have access to a long-arm machine so baste I must. Then I have to quilt it either by hand (I've done that a couple times - it takes for-fricken-ever!) or on my home machine. I do NOT enjoy trying to ram a queen-sized quilt through my home machine's throat at the dining room table. I've recently discovered, however, that it's the workspace that's the problem, not the quilting. You see, if I had a proper table for my sewing machine, the deck would be level with the tabletop and everything would be so much simpler. I could just.... what? Oh, sorry. There goes the squirrel again.

Anyway - I still have some of those quilt tops in a bin. I've also taken up knitting and have three pairs of fingerless gloves 98% complete - I just need to weave in the ends. If I'd done that last summer/fall when I made them I probably could have sold them on Etsy last winter. I WILL finish my nephew's cross-stitched baby quilt before he turns 5 in a few months! I think I've finished all the bead jewelry I had in progress. I need sugar before I can turn last fall's blackberry juice (currently in the freezer) into jelly. I have 3 feet by 1/4 inch of touchup to do and then the bedroom is completely painted...except for the pass-through to the kitchen that is...

It's been a long time since I've done any embroidery, though, and I have three kits waiting downstairs for me. But there's that quilt I want to get started for Jim (I really need to make a quilt for my husband since I've made one for just about everyone else in my family). And I'd like to make some gloves for the secretary at the high school who's been so great helping Ellie with her diabetes this year. Oh - but the "secret project" has to take priority over everything else, since that's on a deadline. And I've got some ideas for next year's band booster auction quilt...

Look - a squirrel!