One Bite, or Two

So the title of this post has more meaning if you read my last post on my DOOW blog, but in a nutshell, when you're overwhelmed with too much to do, you eat the (elephant), one bite at a time.  I swear that elephant heals up though and it's like starting over every other day!

But setting that aside, today, I decided I'd sweep everything off my workspace - or at least make the peripheral stacks higher to make space, and turned on "Ruby".  As you know, Ruby recently went to the sewing machine hospital/spa and was rejuvenated, but I hadn't put her to work since I brought her home, and that's now almost two weeks ago.  Today was the day, and she purred  more than my kitties do!

I do so purr, Mom! and I keep you company.  Yes, yes, you do Raven!

 The project I began working on is this one, which I've written about before (somewhere) as I barely started working on it at quilt camp 2014, and then worked on it some more in July at quilt camp 2015.  I'll write more on this project at a later time.  Would someone kindly remind me of why I wanted to a project with so many triangles and bias edges again? 

Subtle Charm

 Then there is this quilt project.  This was passed on to me by my good friend who has bailed me out several times over the years.  When I broke my foot, she picked up Nick and took him to and from school for about six weeks, and in many of my absences the past 18 months, she came alongside us again on many occasions.  I owe her in so many ways.  She had purchased this quilt kit a few years ago and had planned to do it herself.  She finally decided / realized, that she really didn't enjoy quilting, so decided I should get the project to do what I wanted with it.  She had started it and had the batting, thread, etc - everything needed to finish it.  I had finished the top after a little rework back in the Spring. 

Layered and pinned.

A few days ago, my other friend, Panda, asked to come by so she could lay a quilt out to be pinned on my big tables, so she did and we had a nice little visit while pinning her quilt.  I had not yet taken the tables down, so decided it would be perfect timing to go ahead and pin this one.  And, if I'd had more pins, I'd have pinned my grandson's quilt too, but it'll have to wait for now.    I was thinking I'd just do simple diagonal lines on this in each direction.  It has nice big blocks that would look nice with some fancy stitching, but I haven't perfected my FMQ...I keep saying 'some day'...but really want to get this finished so I can give it back as a gift to my friend for all the help she gave me and don't want to wait while I practice FMQ.

Small bites, but progress.