Hard To Focus

Lately it's been a little hard for me to focus on things, especially design and other decision-making skills, and it's a bit disconcerting.   My work is slow and my math needs to be worked out on paper, so I can follow through on plans correctly... but it's not efficient at all and it's frustrating.  I'm fairly sure I'm suffering from fibrofog the way my whole body has been screaming at me lately. 

Needless to say this type of brain dysfunction is making it very difficult to do simple math for my quilty needs.  The quilt I'm working on now just needs some sashing... and I spent all day yesterday trying to see if my figures were correct, before cutting into fabric.  Now I'm just hoping I did it right ~ or I'll have to get more fabric! (I guess that wouldn't be all bad!)  I'm just feeling a bit on the stupid end of things lately... but it'll pass, it always does.

However... I did make some good progress on my "My Voice" quilt over the weekend, and I'm pretty happy with it so far.  I don't want to share just yet... but above is a psychedelic take on some work I did this weekend:  Enjoy!

A "Me" Quilt

So I've been thinking and thinking about the Modern Quilt Guild Challenge a lot lately... it's hard when the criteria is to make something that is uniquely "your voice".   I spent some time and came up with quite a few new block patterns that I'm excited to try.... but I'm too messy to use them in my "my voice" quilt.  I think I have to piece as I sew and just see what happens!  

I don't know if any of this will make it to my quilt... but here is what I'm looking at fabric-wise,  I want to use fabrics from some of my old clothing, so it will be an upcycled piece:

I was also playing with sewn-in circles... and thanks to Rachel, I think I have circle sewing in the bag... what do you think?

I'm pretty happy with the results!  Now... I just have to motivate myself to work on it.  It's been hard due to the fact it is beautiful in Portland right now... and I'm having a hard time sitting inside.

Contemplation

YAY!  My stargazers bloomed!!!  It's the first time it's had more than one flower and I'm stoked!

So... did you hear?  There is a new Modern Quilt Guild Challenge... and I really want to create special for it.  To do that, I need a plan... which starts with ideas.  Hence contemplation.  The theme is "find your own voice" I think it's a hard theme only because judging will become personal.  Based on that, I really want it to shine with ME... but I'm not all too shiny.  This is what makes it a challenge!

I was able to sew with some friends the other day and worked on this block idea:

The first time through, I royally messed up my pattern.  Luckily, since there were other quilters around, I got some fantastic tips.  The most important one was to make design lines on my pattern so I can  split it into sections and more easily piece it together.  You'd think I would have known that already... but I've always been the "let's just do it and see what happens" non-planning type.  This is how that turned out:

I also learned how to make a really nice pillowcase, and sew a "set-in" circle... as well as how to brown some butter.  It's all a learning curve... and  I love it!  I'm still not sure what my entry for the MQG challenge will be, but it will be new to me ~ so I'll learn even more.  

Oh... and I finished my chicken pillow ~ cute huh?  If you didn't know... I'm a BIG chicken fan, and I adore my new pillow.  I even got to use some of my special yellow chickens that I got from a good friend, so that makes it extra special :)