I could really use the Count about now ...

This Count, of course.



Anyway. I was browsing quilt blogs last night and came upon one that had a poll asking readers about how many quilts they had in progress. This spurred me to think about my own backlog of projects and, after making a list, was even surprised by the extent of my WIPs.

Here's a rundown of some of my current projects, including some that are on hold from a really, really long time ago.

- Purdue quilt
- Peanuts quilt
- Zachary's graduation quilt
- Old Red Barn Co. quilt-along v. 1
- Old Red Barn Co. quilt-along v. 2
- Christmas quilt
- Pink, black and white quilt
- Half-square triangle layer cake quilt
- Prism strip quilt
- Novelty stars
- Black and white bee blocks
- Blue and yellow stars
- Four patch quilt I started when I was a kid (my mom was nice enough to put these together into a top for me)
- Postage stamp quilt
- Batik coin quilt
- Polka dot paper-pieced circles
- Wonky log cabin
- Black, white, purple and lime green starred log cabin
- Baby circus quilt (haven't made progress on this for more than five years. Whoops.)
- Odd kids pinwheel quilt (another that is sooo old and stalled out)

To save you from having to count, that's 20. TWENTY. And that's nuts. My quilty friends and I are discussing having another stash-busting contest next year. I think that is an awesome idea, not only to save money but to get some works-in-progress moving forward again!

Do you have a lot of works in progress, or are you one of those enviable quilters that is able to finish a project before starting another one - or five?

Random

OMG, I really want this. It's from the American Girl store and it's so full of awesome.

OK, so it was more than one block

Remember my previous urge to do some hand-sewing? Well, it has turned out to be a little more lasting than I had expected.

Since the previous post, I've made two more blocks and have cut out the pieces for another one already. I've decided to use some of my novelty prints that have been sitting around for a while. I love novelty prints, but it's not always easy to work them into other quilts, unless they are for babies/kids or for someone like me that apparently never grew up. It's been fun working with the cute patterns and bright colors. It's definitely my style.

Here are the new blocks:





And the three together:



As much as I'm enjoying these, I have to put them aside for a while. One reason is that my friend's sister has asked me to make her a Purdue quilt, so it's back to black and gold fabric until I get that finished. (And started, but I've already bought some more Purdue fabric and more "gold." I have lots of black around.)

And another project I just finished was a slouchy dark gray beret that I knitted for myself, since it matches my coat and will look OK with just about any scarf I own. Of course, now that the hat is finished, the weather has turned bizarrely warm. Like 80 degrees warm. If I could guarantee the temperature would stay like this, I'd continue with the hat knitting!

Photo Friday

Did I mention I've been totally engrossed in taking pictures of the fall foliage lately?

I really hope this was on purpose ...

otherwise I'm really concerned about my neighbors' spelling skills.

Old school

Did I ever mention that the first two quilts I made - both around queen size - were done entirely by hand? My mom and I worked on the first one together, a Grandmother's Flower Garden, but the second one, a Seven Sisters pattern, was all me. It took FOREVER.

Anyway, I was a die-hard hand-piecer and hand-quilter. After a while, I finally got a sewing machine and started working with it. It was so hard to get used to! I finally did get acclimated, and now do a majority of my piecing and quilting on a sewing machine. I still have a few projects that I decide to hand quilt, but I hadn't hand pieced anything for a long time.

Until tonight. I'm not quite sure where the urge came from, but I was so in the mood to do some hand sewing. I busted out my template plastic, pencil, straight pins, needle and thread.

And here's the result:


I'm not sure if this will be a singular block (potholder, maybe?) or a small quilt or a big quilt, but it was nice to do things the old-fashioned way for a change.