Sleepless night

Every now and then I have a night where I simply cannot fall asleep, even though I feel very tired. Ever happen to you?  As soon as I snuggle down under the covers to sleep, my eyes fly open and I know it's over for the night, or at least a good share of the night.  Why does that happen??? I like to read in bed for at least a half hour before I go to sleep and most nights I find myself drifting off as I try to read. Most of the time, I do fall right off to sleep when I put the book down but why do I have these nights of insomnia?  I think I'll have to consult the guy sitting on top of the mountain to get an answer to that!

Anyway, that was the way it was last night.  When I realized that sleep was going to be hard to find, I got up and spent a few hours in the sewing room.  By 2 AM I was tired enough and I'd done some extra things in the quilting area that I'd been meaning to get at.

I had made these Autumn colored strip blocks as a trial for a quilt we'll be making at the Guild retreat in October.  The quilt will be made from strips of yellow and gold and will be given to a Guild member who has a serious illness, so I knew these sample blocks weren't going into the quilt.  I think they make up a cute table runner--I just have to sandwich it and quilt it up and it'll be ready to go into the Jolly Ruby shop.

I also prepared this  Halloween panel for sandwiching and quilting--again, it will go into the shop when it's finished.

I'll use this candy corn fabric for backing and binding. Sorry the flash made it so bright.

Earlier in the evening, I completed this pieced back for the quilt top that my friend, Bonnie, and I made last January to donate to her chapter of the AAUW for their silent auction fundraiser in early November.  I have to get it quilted up and the binding machine stitched on early enough so Bonnie can hand stitch the binding and finish it up in time for the auction.

This is the finished quilt top--a spiral of flying geese made up in 30's reproduction fabrics.  I thought I had enough of the green polkadot fabric to make up the back, but no--I was about a half yard short. So yesterday afternoon I made the 50 mile drive to the quilt shop in hopes that they would have more of the fabric.  Lady Luck was on my side! They had 2 yards left, so I bought all of it.  I think I can make a couple of pillow cases out of the extra.

I decided to stitch feathers in the green sashings.  Quilting feathers is something that I have yet to conquer and I figured by the time I finish this quilt, I should be able to stitch feathers in my sleep.  So last night, I pulled out one of my machine quilting books to review how to do this. I practiced a little, and lo and behold! The feather came out "not too bad!"  I also have a Craftsy class on quilting feathers that I should take another look at before I begin stitching next week. I'm determined to master this!  Wish me luck, okay?

So, this quilt will be sandwiched tomorrow along with the table runner and Halloween banner when I go to the Leisure Center here in town to use their big tables for the pinning. Even though we now have a very nice laminate floor in the basement, (instead of a crappy, stinky old carpet!) there's no way I'm crawling on my hands and knees to pin quilts!  Working on a table is difficult enough for me--stretching to pin the center of a bed sized quilt takes enough of a toll on my lower back!

Earlier in the week, I'd played with my crumbs and made up a couple pieces of fabric to use in a zipper pouch.  The Guild always does a gift exchange for our winter holiday party and this year, we're to make a zipper pouch with a surprise of some sort tucked inside.  I was teased a lot this past year for all my crumb sewing--and many guild members brought me crumbs from their sewing throughout the year, so I decided that a crumby zipper pouch was the way to go.  We're also asked to make a second pouch that we'll use in a sale in the spring. I have so many crumbs, I think I'll just go ahead and make the second one out of crumbs as well. Or I could use some of my overflowing bag of selvages instead. Hmmm.  Decisions!

So, that's what's been happening in my sewing room lately. I'm pleased to be getting some of these projects finished and off the sewing table, but there's a whole pile of other projects just waiting for me and whispering, "Choose me!  Choose me!"