Even During Summer Break in a Pandemic, There Is Never Enough Time

Even though I'm technically off this summer, I'm kinda not. Because of the pandemic. And I hadn't really been sewing for the past two years (thanks to an extramarital affair and a midlife crisis). Now that I'm back into sewing, I resent work that takes me away from my hobby even though I need said job to do my hobby. What's weird is that when the sheltering in place began, I was too anxious to sew or create like I used to and enter into flow.  All I could do was run, hike, walk and cook. And be anxious. Worry. Yesterday I finally finished what I'm calling the Michaela Quilt after its recipient. I looked at all my lines of stitches to fill in if need be. 

I repaired gaps like this binding which didn't get stitched down and so I zig zag stitched it close. And sewed on my label.

And climbed up a ladder to take a pic because I didn't have time or motivation enough to hang it on a fence and take a pic of it outside over the weekend. This pic is how it will look in my Pinterest as a log of all my handcrafting.

So cool, I get to start another project and pulled out this quilt kit which I've had for years and years. I read the directions over the weekend, but was unsure of the dimensions of the block. It contained two layer cakes and fabric for the binding and the letters.

I saw directions on the layer cake contents on how to cut each 10" square, and so I cut into charm blocks. And started arranging and sewing according to the color chart the bottom half of the quilt.

As I was looking at what blocks I had leftover, I thought wow, this is a lot....I could make like three more of these quilts....Doh!!?@*$#...I can make more of these quilts from these two packs of layer cake because a block in the quilt is supposed to be cake block of 10" x 10", not a charm square of 5" x 5", meaning I wasn't supposed to cut up the layer cake blocks. Well shit. But then I got philosophical about it. My condo can't fit a wall quilt that's some 60" x 68" big, and more suited for a mini quilt. A maquette or 30" x 34" quilt will fit on the wall next to the flat screen. And shoot why not make three more of these for any of the family members and their mates? And so that's the plan. Maybe one of them can even be some craftivism, with the messaging of #BlackLivesMatter. Gotta figure that one out.

I do like the concept of this quilt, and I don't want yet another blanket to add to my stack. I had two work meetings and one training yesterday and yay no more meetings this week. I do, however, have to peer review a colleague's lesson plan and be at a different work site next week--told my assistant principal, yeah I'll be bringing my sewing machine with me to that library. One big quilt down, four mini quilts to go.