I Feel Like Rip Van Winkle

If you read my other blog, you already know why my blog snoozed for a year. It wasn't just my blog; I didn't sew a single stitch on a single quilt. I thought I didn't sew a single stitch on anything, but looking back at the blog this week showed me that I made the big mouse toy for Smokey before our lives turned upside down. After that day, I didn't set foot in my sewing space for a year.

When I finally ventured up there this week, it was like one of those sci-fi movies where someone walks into a dust covered abandoned house. There were cobwebs hanging from the lights, some patterns and fabrics laid out on my cutting table, and a package of new cutting blades laying beside it. I discovered that I had also started a smaller mouse toy for Smokey and it just needed to have one more piece sewed on to be finished. I was probably going to come up the next day, put filler in the mouse, and finish it. I never would have left my sewing machine uncovered for a year if I had thought about it at all. But I wasn't thinking about sewing, at least not for the first six months. After that, it just wasn't a priority.

I cleaned my tables and knocked the dust off the cloth pieces that seemed to be in progress. And then I held my breath and turned on my sewing machine. It didn't hold the dust against me and ran like the trooper it is. I finished the mouse and tried to find out where the other pieces came from. I didn't find a pattern or any larger pieces of fabric, so set them aside.

Then I tried to decide if I wanted to continue sewing or just shut it all down. On the shut it down side of the list, a strong argument was turning the space into a bedroom for the grandsons when they visit. A second was not having the constant mess of projects and thread on the floor. So I surprised myself by deciding to keep plugging away at the UFO list. But I need some new quilt projects from time to time to keep the motivation going.

Today, I started a new quilt, a 3 yard quilt called Sugar Pie.  Here's a teaser of the progress.  It's going together pretty fast, which is just the motivation I need.

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