Been busy!

I haven't posted in a few weeks.  I have been super busy!  In that time, I have knitted my son a balaclava (which came out AWESOME), knit myself a slouchy hat, cooked a turkey dinner with all the fixings and have almost completed the second quilt for my friend.  And the most exciting thing about all of this is...I TAUGHT MYSELF HOW TO FREE MOTION QUILT!!!  (Using Oh Fransson's tutorial).  Whoot!  Go me!!  I had read the tutorial about 20 times before, but finally decided to use some scrap material and made a quilt sandwich and tried it.  I don't know why I was so intimidated by this method of quilting!!  It is fun and I find it easier than the "X" quilting and definitely easier and neater than straight line quilting.  I like it soooo much that I am planning to do the unthinkable this weekend.  I plan to rip out the binding and all of the (not so) "straight line" quilting that I did in the "Shock the Monkey" quilt.  The more I look at the back of that quilt the more I see my errors.  I did a pieced back on the monkey quilt and it somehow shifted when I was quilting and the "straight" lines show off just how crooked everything is...(to me anyway).  I am learning lots of things...1.) that I am a bit of a perfectionist, more so than I ever thought. 2.) sometimes you just need to jump in with both feet and try something new and scary!.  3.) Sometime less is more....this is a rule I follow with lots of things in my life, but with quilting I seem to go overboard and want to show off all of my skills and fabrics.

Re: #3  As I said I did a pieced back for the monkey quilt.  Now on the current quilt, I used a $4.00 solid color sheet from Walmart.  And I think it looks fab.  Nice and clean!  I have seen pieced backs that other people have done and they look stunning.  When I try it - it just looks wonky and cluttered.  From now on I will stick with my new rule of less is more when it comes to backing.      

What else???... Oh I have been on a never ending mission to purchase some attractive, solid color, stackable recycle bins that will not put me in the poor-er house.  I thought I hit the jackpot and ordered a set of three frosted white stackable recycle bins on Amazon.  They were delivered today and they were all cracked and shattered.  These obviously will not work for me and my family.  We are...how should I say?.... not delicate!  And if these could not stand up to being shipped in a box then they definitely will not endure being kicked and dragged up and down stairs and thrown on the side walk by our not so delicate trash collectors.  So needless to say they are back in the box, and awaiting the UPS pickup that Amazon has set up for their return.  In the meantime, we will continue to use our ugly, bulky, non matching non stacking (but we make them stack) pine green and bright orange Sterlite containers in our modern newly redecorated and tiled kitchen, UGH!  Who'd a thunk it would be so difficult to find some space saving, durable yet somewhat attractive bins so we can be green in style.  The search continues...