Cleaning up and catching up

Yesterday I started on a gift baby quilt for a family member. When I found out that the nursery was decorated in chevron shapes and owls in turquoise with touches of pink and purple, I knew I had just the right fabrics in my stash.

I cut up this panel to remove some of the dark brown edging, which I think makes the design too heavy. I'll sash around all the pieces with off white, and add pink and turquoise chevrons made of half square triangles along the top and bottom.

I also worked on the Pretzel Twist top a little bit, and did some design work on a Christmas quilt. But I kept having to move piles of disorganized fabric from surface to surface and this afternoon I reached my limit of tolerance for the chaos. 

I have a large bag of trimmings, tiny scraps and pieces of batting too small to use. It sits next to the cutting mat so I can toss in little bits as I sweep them off the bed. That bag has gotten quite full, so I sewed up these four pillow covers and stuffed them to make pet bedding. I make the covers out of fabrics that aren't quilt friendly. The kangaroo print is a very thick canvas, the white with maroon dots is a polyester blend, and the brown one on the bottom is a strange, slippery mystery blend of synthetics that the seller claimed was silk. (Nope.) The local no-kill animal shelter said they could use the beds, so I'm happy to donate these. I also had two ratty old bed pillows that I deconstructed and added to the fillings. One turned out to be feather-filled and it made quite a mess! Most of the bag of trimmings is now gone, and about half the cover material, so that cleared up some space in my quilt studio.

I also refolded and put away a bunch of fabric I had pulled for various projects, plus my last batch of eBay orders. Hiding at the bottom of a pile was this red and white orphaned Christmas star, so I emailed Kat and asked if she thought it would be OK for her July star blocks. Her request was for red, white and/or blue stars and I wasn't sure if this one represented the wrong holiday, but she said to send it in and someone would be surprised. I made this star in the fall of 2014, and boy howdy was my piecing bad back then! Lumpy seams, wonky squares, and uneven points. It's good to know I've made progress since then.

Now my sewing space is neat and tidy and I can return to the owl quilt. The baby is due soon, so I'm hoping to finish it within a week.