Piecing Away

12.26.10, originally uploaded by RamonaX.

I've been trying to make time for many things these days, but I keep coming back to sewing more hexagons to my squid quilt. I have 5 more rows to being at halfway point, so I think I'm making good progress!

It's been hard to focus on this during the holidays when I thought or heard of so many fun projects to make. I am going to take a break from this quilt to work on a surprise birthday present for a friend... I'm hoping this is a small break and that I can get right back on track afterward. My goal right now is to have this quilt finished by March. Fingers crossed!

Merry Xmas

This time of year is always a little strange for me.  Since I was raised a Jehovah's Witness, my family didn't celebrate Christmas... or any other holiday for that matter.  Memories of holidays make me think of school, and how I had to sit outside the classroom when others had fun inside.  I guess I was always an "outsider".  At least at the Christmas times, the Jewish boy had to sit in the hallway with me, so I had some company.  Growing up this way was hard, and when I left home, I immediately started celebrating all holidays including my birthday.

That said, I was also very poor and was living on the streets or squatting in abandoned buildings after leaving home, so I never had the money to really celebrate anything.  The money I did manage to get went directly to getting drunk so I could sleep at night.  So it wasn't until after my daughter was born and we were living in a real apartment before I got my first Christmas tree.  It was a funny one too ~ all fake, so we spray painted it neon green and hung it upside-down and then hung baby-doll heads as ornaments.  Not really a typical holiday set-up, but we enjoyed it.  

I guess I could never truly get into the "holiday spirit" because I've always seen it as a consumeristic holiday... and I've never had much in the way of money.  It seems to be all about the presents, and the stress of it all has driven a few of my friends into serious depression.  I also get a little jealous that others have their families to celebrate with and my family won't even speak to me.  So this time of year is always a little hard and in past years I've been a bit of a scrooge and have hated much about it. 

When I met my Jewish hubby 14 years ago, we decided to let my daughter pick which holiday she wanted to celebrate this time of year... and she picked Hanukkah.  So we have a very sweet family tradition of lighting candles and saying prayers for those 8 nights... and that's about it.  I also have my own celebration for Winter Solstice... because it makes sense to me to celebrate the sun being out longer on such short days!!  (especially here in Oregon where it's so grey all the time anyway)

This year I'm trying something a little different, and instead of finding faults and hating this holiday... I'm trying to find all the goodness that people create because of it.  I don't have to hate my family for being who they are... I can love them for who I've become. 

**Note the photo... JW's used to celebrate Christmas, although they've gone through great lengths to cover up this fact from their modern-day followers.  It's one reason I love technology ~ you just can't keep those kind of secrets from the masses anymore.

Chilly Days Cozy Nights

I love this time of year when there is some sort of gathering almost every night, and everyone is looking forward to some time off work and with family.  Everything sort of changes and people are just a little warmer... if they are not too stressed out, that is!  This year I'm planning on enjoying any free time by doing some more sewing.  My daughter kindly assisted me for the above photo a few days ago... and here is one I just took today:

I'm so excited by how it's turning out, I'm becoming a little obsessive with it and taking it everywhere with me so I can work on it.  I'm keeping all the paper pieces inside the hexies, because I find I can bend them and manipulate the fabric without losing the points.  Amazing how quick this part seems to be going ~ and now once these are sewn... the top part is done!!

Last week I was able to get to the "Sew-cial" at Modern Domestic and got to practice some free-motion quilting.  It's a lot harder than it looks, and I know I'm going to need quite a bit more practice before I quilt my squid!   Christina at A Few Scraps has many great tutorials and help with inspiration ~ so I know how I want to do the quilting... now I just need the practice.

Speaking of Christina, new officers were chosen to serve the PMQG for 2011 and she will be taking over Jennifer's role as president.  The PMQG is fairly new ~ just started in 2010, so I think it's already off to a fantastic start, and I'm sure it will continue to grow.  Last week I went to the last meeting of the year and it was really fun!  It was a potluck and there was a fun gift swap where everyone brought fabric to the last meeting swapped it and made a gift for the original fabric owner from their stash.  There are some amazingly creative people in that group ~ check out this blog to see all the things that were made ~ wow!!  Of course, I brought my squid quilt to work on, and I got great feedback from a lot of people about it and so that ends up being fuel for my obsessive sewing fire!  My goal is to have this quilt top done by my birthday in Jan... and hopefully have it quilted by the end of Feb.  I guess we'll just have to see how much my fingers and joints can handle!

Getting It Together

upper corner , originally uploaded by RamonaX.

I just started putting the squid quilt together ~ this is the upper right corner. Super happy with how it's coming out too!

I have all the rows made and now I'm making and adding on the extra cream and grey hexies then sewing the whole row onto the existing piece. With each row I get happier and happier with how it's looking! Even though it's all laid out on the table, it looks so much better when it's actually stitched together!

I'm actually starting to get a callous on my fingertip, which is actually kind of cool! It helps by allowing me to sew for longer stretches. My joints tend to hurt much more in the winter than any other season, and all this sewing is taking it's toll on my hands and finger joints. I can only sew for about 2 hours a day (spread out during the day) so this quilt may take even longer than anticipated, and my hands have been starting to hurt quite a bit. *sigh*

Wait! I should be happy I HAVE 2 hours a day to sew and stop this complaining - right? right! Also, if I curb some of my eating habits back to pre-Thanksgiving I know that can beneficially affect my joints and make them feel a little better. Avoiding dairy and sugar helps the most for me.

Here's a pic with a few more rows I have finished up... and an up close shot.

Next Step

I'm finally finished with my piecing of the diagonal "strips" of my squid quilt!  YAY!  I got myself some cream and grey fabrics for the border... and so I need to make another 288 hexagons.  144 grey and 144 cream, and then I'll add them onto the strips and sew them all together. 

This is becoming more and more a practice of patience and of following through... and I'm doing it!