Apologies for the poor quality picture. The quilt wouldn't look any better with a high quality photo!

Ugly #3 is done. Uglies #4 and #5 are a pair and are out on the table.

What in the world am I to do with all these Ugly quilts and quiltlets when they are piled up and finished?!? I have the space to just let them lounge around my house for years, but that is not the point! Shouldn't I be looking for good homes for them? I don't like them, for the most part, they are quilt mutts, starting out as one thing and ending up another. I should open a Quilt Pound and adopt them out as sweet and loving, but somewhat ugly quilt mutts.

If any mutt catches your eye and you can provide it a good home, let me know. Be Warned that if you ask, it's probably yours even AFTER closer inspection. LOL!

Feeling Blue

Do you have color moods? I sure do! I go for months at the time, strongly attracted to one color or the other. In the quilt shop, it seems, all I can see is that color. I have been through these color moods with some strange choices. When it was orange I bought enough orange fabric to make all the kits I'll ever need for all my future bleach discharge classes, and that is a lot of orange! One time it was taupe. What a strange color to be attracted to! But, at the time I just couldn't get enough of it, I just was so drawn to it. Maybe I have CADD (Color Attention Deficit Disorder). Hmm.

This time it started with the Christmas nativity I made. I just HAD to have those blue spotlights. Then I started on the ugly box. I was able to finish the first 2 uglies without any emotional tug at all, just finish the darn thing so it can be done. Then I got to Ugly #3. It was a painted panel that was a reject from a recent quilt.

 It was too silvery in color, too contemporary for the look I was after. I pulled it out and actually got interested in some possibilities. Jessie came home and said, "Nice colors." That in teen talk means, "Wow Mom, that is awesome, you are a wonderful artist and I love what you're doing here!". Okay, maybe not. I'm kinda liking the colors and the ideas too, so it gets priority space.

Then I have to reset my enrty hall china display from Christmas to winter. Well it just happens to be white, silver and Grandma's blue glasses.

Jessie has a small part in the musical, Into The Woods, at the local theater. Her costume needed at belt, guess what color her costume is!

So, for some unknown reason, I am in a blue/grey/silvery mood. I'll try to hurry Ugly #3 along before the mood changes to some other color.

Fortunate 500 Club

My statistics page tells me that I had 503 pageviews for the month of December. This is a first for this lil blog of mine! Thank you for keeping me on your list!

What's in a name?

Ugly #2

I think I love quilting so much because of all the random thinking I do while quilting. I like the colors, the textures, the patterns, the thread, the hum (and clank) of the machine. All of these things make me think of things I would not ordinarily think.

 I have a fascination with quilt names. I think of several names for each quilt as I'm making it. Always trying out each one to see if it's the right fit. I think the name helps define the quilt, giving hints as to what the maker thinks as they are making.

Instead of Ugly #2, this one could be....

"Mushroom Chai Latte"

It's pretty psychedelic.

I couldn't help adding a little happy to it! It could be named, "Talking to myself", which I do quite frequently while quilting.

 Maybe "Jellyfish Jamboree"?

What would you name this quilt?

Anyhow...Ugly #2: DONE.

Happy New Year!

Now is the time for all good bloggers to tell what they plan on for the new year. Resolutions. resolving to do something better, different, new. Lose more, spend less, be nicer or maybe become more assertive.
Say no more. or yes. I don't think anyone resolves to say maybe more.
I don't make resolutions, but maybe because everyone is on that kick this time of year, I take stock of where I am and what I'm about, look over the last 12 months and try to evaluate if I did good. I try real hard to keep it simple. I have simplified a lot the past year. That was harder than I thought it would be, but it's done. I am serving on only one committee at church, and none at any quilt guild (for the first time in over 10 years), and I am not a member of my husband's choir, though I fill in gladly when needed.
 I have managed to NOT volunteer a lot! You wouldn't believe how hard it is to NOT raise your hand when you know 1. You could do that job, 2. You would be very good at it, and 3. No one else immediately raises their hand. If I haven't learned anything else, I have learned to at least wait and think about it more before diving in.
I have decided to take care of a nagging issue. My uglies. You know those projects you start and they don't turn out the way you want them to, so you put them away, hoping that when you pull them out again they won't seem so ugly. Well, they can be depressing if they build up in numbers. Then you dedicate a box or basket or a tub to storing them. Then when you open that tub they attack you with their ugliness. It only seems that I add to, never subtract from that tub.
I am tired of having a box of uglies weighing me down, making my happy place not so happy. I have resolved to do something about them. I am going to finish them off!
I am going to reach into that box and fearlessly grab the top ugly and finish it off! I am not proud of this behavior, but something must be done. They will not be treated with the respect that I would give a more docile project, you know the ones that behave themselves and become something beautiful. I will finish them in whatever way gets them done and out of that tub! They WILL become finished projects!
Here is Ugly #1

This is nothing at all like the original plan. Not even like anything I normally do.

 BUT IT IS FINISHED! YAY!