When I was little, one of my favorite places to go was the local stationery shop. I especially loved testing out new pens. To this day I constantly am tempted to pick up new pens, or swing by the supply room at work to see if there's anything different. That's the only reason I can think of to explain this...



Trying to make good on my July OPAM (yes, I know July is over, shush), I got to work cleaning out drawers.



People, this is ridiculous.



I tossed the ones that don't work anymore, got all the others in one spot, and called it a day.



The truth is, I can't make much progress on my own, since most of the junk in this room is Pete's computer stuff. Heaven forbid I suggest tossing any of the ten defunct keyboards in the closet! So much for July's OPAM. What should I do for August?

Labels: homework, OPAM

If I could play a little trumpet fanfare right now I would, that's how excited I am about this.



Many weeks past my OPAM deadline, the master quilt is actually done!!



I am so happy with how it came out - it is by no means perfect, it has so many "learning experiences"... But I love it!!



And it goes so far to helping our bedroom look "finished" instead of just tossed together. Please ignore the concrete floor - we're getting there!

52 Nights Update - Night 22 - I discovered last night that the new quilt fits in my washing machine, thank goodness. Part of my plan had been to wash it fairly often, since it will soon be covered in fur and possibly footprints (downside of having a dog door when it rains), so I was worried I'd have to drag it to the laundrymat every time! In addition to washing the quilt, I went running, did some more laundry, and picked out fabric for a new project. Great night!

Labels: 2008 Quilts, 52 nights, homework, OPAM, quilting, sewing

Are you sick of me talking about this quilt?? Well, you don't have to put up with it too much longer!



The binding is on and halfway handsewn, so I plan to finish tonight. Progress is slow and my finger keeps going numb, but now that the end is in sight I feel the push of that "must finish" motivation.



So plan on a picture here Tuesday of my new and improved master bedroom, complete with handmade quilt!

Labels: OPAM, quilting, sewing, wip

The quilt is quilted! I still have about 5,000 safety pins to remove, much to my pricked fingers' dismay, and then the binding... But it's quilted!



And the cat couldn't even wait for it to be done before sleeping on it, so it gets the fur-baby stamp of approval. Right after this picture he starting attacking a safety pin and trying to pull it out with his teeth!

Labels: OPAM, quilting, sewing, wip

This is what I'll be looking at for the next few days...



I don't know how people talk about finishing the quilting on a project in a matter of hours! Just wrangling this huge quilt through the machine is giving me a workout. But I am making good progress, and the deadline is definitely helping my motivation!

Labels: OPAM, quilting, sewing, wip

Those who can't do... Plan!


1. Use these conch beads to make some earrings and a necklace or two.

There are just never enough hours in the day to do everything I want to do. I'm sure we all wish we could get by on a little less sleep, skip (even more than I already do) the less pleasant daily chores, come home from work a little earlier...


2. Find some cute red gingham and pair it with these cherries for a new lunch bag.

But since crafting usually has to be a little lower on my list, behind, say, paying the bills, I spend a lot of time day dreaming about what I want to do next!


3. Make a wall hanging for my newly painted nook.

So I always have a lot more dream projects on my list than I will ever be able to get to.


4. Finish the nook project by cleaning and organizing all this wonderful storage space - this will be my July OPAM.

Above are a few I hope to get to get started on over the long weekend. What are some of your tricks for having time to do it all?

52 Nights Update - Night 18 - I made dinner right after work (super yummy), folded and put away about 5 loads of laundry from the weekend, and tried out the yoga class at my new gym. I haven't been to yoga in ages and man am I inflexible! I think I'll have to make that class a regular activity...

Labels: 52 nights, OPAM, wip

Sorry for the slew of home improvement posts! Hopefully you're like me and LOVE before-after pictures. With $40 of paint (why is paint so expensive???) and some motivation to finally hang things on the wall, our office nook went from this:



To this:


Ignore the concrete floor - one step at a time!





It's still a little plain and definitely needs some organizing, but I love it!

Labels: homework, OPAM

My two-color plan for the nook is half done! I realized in my before picture you can't see the bookcase wall, but it was the same off-white as the rest of the nook.



Now it's khaki! Two coats are up, and I don't think it will need a third. Tomorrow I'll tackle the other color. Off to work on pinning my quilt - I haven't touched it since last weekend!

Labels: homework, OPAM

When I started my master quilt, I did so knowing it was going to be a challenge. I'd never made a king-size quilt before, never used the true quilt sandwich method, never had to baste anything so large.


Drawing lines for quilting with a little help from Hitch.

Luckily I have an awesome mother-in-law who is always excited to help.


Our innovative smooth and pin work positions.

She borrowed a million safety pins and a cool pin-closing tool from a quilter friend and came over today to help me work.


Nifty safety pin closer thingy to save our fingers.

She's teaching me the tricks she's learned - start in the middle, don't baste the whole quilt at once so you can resmooth after doing a section of the quilting, roll tightly so it fits in your machine... I'd be struggling so much more without her help!

It is still a huge project, but just working with someone else makes it so much better!

Labels: OPAM, quilting, sewing, wip

I mentioned Sunday that my June OPAM is to fix up our office nook.



This is such a great space, it's close enough to our big back windows to get a lot of light, you can still easily talk to folks in other parts of the house, and it has a ton of space for storage.

This OPAM is purely cosmetic - paint, and some things I've been meaning to hang on the walls. Maybe for another month's project I'll tackle cleaning out all these drawers and cabinets, full of whatever we threw in there willy nilly when we moved in four years ago!

Labels: homework, OPAM

A little peek of what I worked on this weekend...



This is not my master bed quilt. Yes, it is June, so I missed my OPAM deadline. I never would have gotten as far as I did without the OPAM motivation, so thanks Tara! Hopefully I'll get back to it soon, though the quilting is still a little daunting and I discovered today I didn't get enough material for the backing. Things don't always go well on the first try!

Even though I didn't make it for May, I'm going to try again in June. For June, my OPAM project is get our office nook in order - "before" picture forthcoming when I have some daylight.

Also, I was super excited to be blog browsing this weekend and see this on whipup...



My tea towel apron, so cool! Thanks, Nicole!

Hope you're having a great weekend!

Labels: me, OPAM, quilting, sewing

I was supposed to get the batting for my master quilt delivered Friday, but through a (very frustrating) miscommunication with DHL, it's not coming until Tuesday. So instead of nothing but quilting this weekend, I'm finishing up a few other projects.



I'm a little worried that I won't make my May deadline on my master quilt, but I'm staying optimistic. I'm so anxious to see how it comes out that I'm motivated to work "long hours" on it!





This bag is a familiar design, with a few tweaks - hidden zipper rather than right up at top, and a new pocket method.



I love this bag to death, but it's a gift, so I'll have to be sending it on its way. Which enforces my desire to make myself one soon! Thank goodness for three day weekends. I'm going no tech (if I can) the rest of the day and tomorrow, so wish me luck and see you on Tuesday!

Labels: bags, OPAM, sewing

Thanks to everyone who signed up for RME with my referral! I reinvested in crafty folks by going on a little etsy spree.

Going with my new motto "finished is better than perfect" I have been trying to check a few things off my list!


Starting a very belated baby gift.


Getting the master quilt and new quilt tops finished.

And can I just share something with you guys? There are limited folks in my life that will appreciate this:





Can you see that? Angled piecing, without cutting off any corners! There's a reason I don't attempt fancy blocks, as much as I would love to try Amanda Jean's star quilt-along - I usually chop the tips off of any points I try to piece. So, yay! I'm excited!!

It feels really good to get to some long-awaited projects! Hopefully I'll actually have some finished projects to share soon rather than all these works in progress...

Labels: bags, OPAM, quilting, sewing

Last night was officially Night 11 of my 52 no tech nights, but I had an award dinner for work so I wasn't even home to be tempted. So tonight is no tech night instead, other than popping in here real quick for a master quilt update.



I've somehow squeezed in piecing of the first few strips! I hope to make a good dent in the piecing tonight and finish tomorrow or Thursday.

And did I mention that I'm being unfaithful to my dear, basic little Janome?



To tackle the king-size quilting in my near future, I am borrowing my mother-in-law's totally amazing machine. I'm getting spoiled!

Labels: 52 nights, OPAM, quilting

One of my favorite photoblogs is that of Tara Whitney. She is so creative, and everything of hers is always so colorful and cheerful.

She suggested a challenge - One Project a Month or "OPAM". I take this to mean a bigger, on your list forever, type project. And I have a long list of them.



I am going to jump on the bandwagon. We're still in the middle of the floor project, but to count that, I'd have to ignore the fact that I haven't really helped with it much. Thank goodness for my father-in-law! So my May OPAM is the quilt for our master bed. We have gorgeous bedroom furniture, and no bedspread because I keep meaning to make a quilt!


I can't believe I'm showing my messy bedroom!

I've gone around in circles and been paralyzed with all the pattern options, but one quilt has stuck in my head for months, so I'm just going to start cutting. As Fiona quoted from one of her comments, finished is better than perfect. I think I need to make that my new motto! I'm a little nervous about making this goal, since I have a sudden onslaught of handbags to make for folks, but I think I can still do it.

Feel free to join in! Leave Tara a comment so she feels the love.

Labels: OPAM, quilting, sewing