Slow Progress vs. Instant Grat

This weekend I thought about all the projects I should be starting on, like my For the Love of Solids swap items or my play mat and town... Then I continued working on some slow cookers instead. I now have 19 Japanese + & x blocks done, plus a few more cut out. You can see all of them here. And now that the secret is out, I can tell you about the whole reason I became addicted to these and started this scrappy quilt. The first two I tried were for a sneaky collaborative quilt for Rachel, made by a bunch of us in the do. Good Stitches charity bee. What's funny is that she saw my first post about these blocks back in December and she loved them and was inspired to start the scrap-attack quilt along going on over on her blog. My first thought was that I had potentially ruined our secret gift quilt idea, because if you follow Rachel, you know she moves FAST. I was positive she would just whip up her own + & x before we could get ours together. Luckily, she went with her awesome scrappy triangle design instead, and of course she loved the gift quilt. And I guess it would not be horrible to have two + & x quilts? Anyway, I just thought it was really funny that her inspiration for the Scrap Attack was actually inspired by her. So meta...

I also completed a second Swoon last week! It's a little daunting that I still have 7 of these to make. (and they certainly take me more than 2 hours, more like 4!) But man, each one you finish is really satisfying in itself. 

And I just love the middle square on this one. So fun.

 As much as I love chipping away at my big quilty projects, today I needed to make something super quick. Something that I could see put to use immediately. So I grabbed a couple scraps and made headbands for our friend Lily who was over to play. There, my sewing put to good use right away. That's better!

Also, this one decided to take her first couple steps this weekend! I love that little baldy face!

Powerless Against the Swoon

This is going to reveal to you how ridiculous and vain I am. But I'm just gonna put it out there...



I really wanted to resist making a Swoon quilt. I've enjoyed admiring them on Flickr for a while now, but when they became so prolific, I decided I was too cool to make such a common pattern. Seriously, why would I need to make a quilt that everyone has seen a bazillion times already? Psh. I'm too cool for that. I only want to make mind-blowingly original quilts that will smack you across the face with awesomeness.

(Delusional. There is nothing new under the sun, even in "modern" quilting.)


So then the Swoon-along came about at the turn of the new year, and I couldn't stop daydreaming about a Swoon on our bed. Dammit Swoon, I thought, get out of my head! I'm above you and your tempting wiles. Freaking Delilah quilt is what it is.

(Now I'm a crazy person arguing with a hypothetical quilt.)


So I caved, which is obviously where this story is going. But I decided I would rebel by not using "pretty" fabric. You know, nothing floral or serious. The pattern itself is already so pretty that I wanted fabric that didn't take itself too seriously. Enter the Lizzy House stuff I've been collecting slowly over the last few months. Perfect. I also decided I sure as heck wasn't using white. That's so been DONE.

(Are you guys getting from this inner-dialogue what a donkey face I can be? What is wrong with me?)


So I got some Bella silver for my background. Gray is for the cool kids. I'm so cool.

(Which is obviously far from original. I mean, have you seen Jacey's blocks? Love them.)

So here's my first block, which took me ALL weekend. Not because the pattern is hard to follow, but because I wasn't paying close enough attention. I've never used my seam ripper so much, and it was just because of stupid things like sewing sections on upside down or wrong side to right side. (I'm so cool!)


Anyway, I'm happy with it and can't wait to see how the rest of my blocks turn out. I also hope someone out there feels better about their embarrassingly vain quilting neurosis because of this little tale. You're welcome. (I'm awesome!)