Set backs and moving on!

My daughter has now gone home, we have a few more days before we get back into the celebrations with New Year's Eve.  My daughter will be coming back in three days for the celebrations.  So I figured I would get some more stuff done in my quilting.  I am still trying to get as much as I can done, off my list of Works in Progress, but not stressing about it though.  

I took my time yesturday morning to putter around picking things up, sitting to have my morning cup of tea and then having a late breakfast, before heading downstairs to sew.  I had big plans to start quilting my king sized Christmas quilt......"had" being the operative word.....here is where the set backs start.....  I realized quite quickly that I wasn't prepared to do the quilting.  I didn't wash the backing yet!  Oh well, that's easy enough to fix.  Cut the backing off the bolt and stick it in the wash.  

No use stewing about it.  Yes, it was frustrating, so I decided to have another cup of tea and relax a bit.  I'm not one to just sit around doing nothing for long, so I started to pick up some stuff and prepare some bindings and sort things out to be done.

With the wash done.  I proceed to load up the backing onto the longarm.  Cut the batting and load that on..........bleep!@#$@#$#@%$........another set back.  The backing has shrunk.....a lot!  This set back is a bit more frustrating.  I didn't want to piece this backing.  But nothing to be done about it.  I just wasn't up to the task at the time.  I needed some time to work this all out and plan how I was going to piece a column to go on the back of this quilt.

To uplift my mood and take advantage of this new found free time, I decided to have some fun playing a bit and pulled out my next main project.

Do you remember these blocks?  They were gifted to me by the members of the Halton Hills Quilters' Guild, in appreciation for my roll as president.  My 2 terms (4yrs) were done and this was their gift to me.  The members made a bunch of blocks and I am now trying to make them into a cohesive whole.  I last posted about them Aug 27th, if you want to read more about them.

I pulled them back out and put them up on the design board.  Shuffled a few things around and lay on the floor, after putting those lower blocks up, to just admire the jumble of colour.  It's still not quite working for me, but I find that as I start putting the blocks together, they do start messing better.  I still need a bunch more blocks to be made and some more time to let what is done, sit and brew in my brain some more.  Playing with these blocks helped settle my mood some.

Not wanting to waste the rest of the day, I get up, unload the longarm of the backing and batting, then loaded up a different quilt.  I proceeded to quilt a total of five small quilts, before I shut that down to have dinner.  By this time my mood is much better and I am feeling more like myself.  I've figured out what the game plan will be for the backing.  

After dinner I gave it one last push to get things done and sewed binding on two of the recently quilted NICU quilts.  The day didn't start out that great with the set backs, but in the end, it was salvaged by some time playing with blocks and the feeling of accomplishment with finishing off some more quilts.

Today, I am once again, going to tackle the Christmas quilt.  Wish me luck for a smooth time of it!  I have the binding for this quilt already cut and ready to attach.  Now I need to get the quilt quilted.  Backing up first!!  We are moving on!

Take care everyone.