Long Hiatus

I've been away a long time.  Haven't felt mch like working, so I haven't done a lot. Worked on a few projects, making small amounts of progress but nothing of note.  Depression or just lack of enthusiasm?  I'm not sure which.  Does it really matter?  Either way, not much has gotten done.

I've been a little down over the slow progress on my new studio.  My husband finally painted it (sans the trim and the door which are still unpainted.)  It is a pale mint green.  It's still hard to get around in there because it's still full of boxes of my son's stuff.  He took a lot of it, but just doesn't want most of what's left.  Some of what he does want, he didn't have room for in his car when he dropped by.   So, there are still boxes and bins  piled up in there.  But we did make room for my sewing table and set up my new design wall, covering it with flannel.

Here is my new design wall - not very impressive with nothing on it yet.

My sewing table - all ready for me to make a quilt - which I did!

My son's 'stuff' - before he sorted through it - there's still a lot left, sigh.

Anyway - I actually got to get into the room and start sewing again.  It was lots of fun, though I miss having a tv in the room to keep me company while I work.  Still, do I really need the distraction?  Plus, we'd have to wire the room for cable, since there was no active cable in the room already.  

Still, I did get to work.  There was a quilt called Ryokan that was published in Quiltmania magazine a while back.  Some friends and I decided to do block exchanges using the Ryokan blocks.  We recently finished all our blocks and exchanged them so I figured now was the perfect time to sew them all together.  I got them framed and sashed, though there are no borders on the quilt yet.

"Ryokan"

There were six of us inthe exchange and each of us made 6 each of two blocks.  My blocks were the flying geese (first block in the second row) and the flying dutchman (last block in the third row).  I really like how this one came out, though I am in a quandary on how to finish it.  I will use the sashing fabric to make the first 2 1/2" border but after that, I have no clue.  Piano keys would be too busy, in fact anything pieced that I can think of would be busy and detract from the individual blocks, but just a plain border sounds so ... well.. plain.  Any ideas or suggestions would be welcome!  :)

I hope I can keep up the small amount of momentum I've got and keep sewing, but I am past the point of wanting to just sew mindlessly.  I need goals!