Disappointment Can Turn to Happiness

Went to Quilt Emporium in Woodland Hills this morning and LO! they had not had a Row by Row winner yet. They let me take my choice of 25 fat quarters, and gave me a jelly roll as a bonus prize for having their row in my quilt.... Love my prizes... thank you, Quilt Emporium... They kept my quilt to hang in their shop for a while, which is a first for me (my 5th row by row win, but no shop has ever asked before. I'm honored and glad to oblige).

Came home and finished appliqueing my pumpkins and sewed all the blocks into rows.  Still need to press them and then sew the rows together.  I already have a back chosen for it, just waiting for the new bolt of batting I ordered.  That will give me two quilts ready for basting, to add to my 7 quilts in the binding queue for my backlog of projects (and those don't even begin to make a dent in my total UFO count). 

I have yet to begin my 20 minutes of working on one project (for the Stashbusters 20 minute challenge).  20 minutes a day to make steady progress on a project is something I SHOULD be able to keep up with, but I missed yesterday, July 1, completely - just spaced out and forgot all about the challenge.  Spent my quilting time yesterday looking for a shop to turn in my challenge quilt at, and then working on applique for the rest of the day.  I won't make that mistake again (the mistake being spacing out on the 20 minute challenge)!

Tomorrow is my mah jongg day, but I will get my 20 minutes in after the game... I have all night because Tuesday is my husband's radio night... I have the whole evening to myself.  (I am a ham radio widow on Tuesday, lol).

Appointments and Disappointments

Well, I finished my row by row.. got it quilted, bound, labeled and embellished on Friday night.  Saturday, I went to play Pathfinder (a roleplaying game, similar to D&D) with friends... I was gone all day, so unable to take my quilt to a shop to try to win a prize.  This morning, I rushed off to one of my favorite shops, to find out they'd already had a winner on Friday!!!  So I went to another shop, and discovered that they'd had a winner on Friday, too.  My next nearest shops were both closed on Sunday, so I guess I'll find out tomorrow if they are still open to a winning quilt.  Sigh... I'm very disappointed.  I really wanted to win closer to home, especially at the first shop because they let you choose your own fat quarters instead of giving you a pack of Kona solids (which are cheaper fabrics, and ones I don't use... I rarely use solids, except black, and I don't like Kona solids, as they fray too easily imo).  We'll see what happens tomorrow, when I visit other shops.

Here's how it came out (with the final borders, though this picture doesn't show the buttons that I added):

Today I spent the day doing a little driving and shopping...  came home to start blanket-stitching some appliqued blocks I made before this challenge started.  I've got them maybe 1/3 of the way done... still plenty to stitch, but I think I'm done for the time being... time to relax a bit, recover and recharge my creative batteries.  I'm a little upset and disappointed in the events of the day, and need to remember that it's not about winning, but about doing.  I'm glad I made the quilt, even if I don't win, or have to travel far afield to find a shop that has no winner yet.  It's important to keep things in perspective. 

Tomorrow morning, my dog goes in for grooming...  I have some trepidation at the process even though I know everything will be fine (my older dog got groomed 2 weeks ago.  She always found grooming stressful, and her heart failed later that day).  My younger dog doesn't have a heart condition, and he doesn't stress over groomings, so I'm sure it will all be fine, but the wound is still raw and I miss my girl.  Here they are together, Maggie on the left, Chewiee on the right... RIP, Maggie-girl.