Plod, Plod, Plodding Along

Peck, peck, peck.  That's me working on quilting this week.  So far I have 10 rows sewn together out of 24.  I work for an hour or two and it feels like it takes fooooorrrreeeevvvverrrrr to sew anything together.

The first ten rows

My little tote of organized-by-the-row-baskets sits on the counter and taunt me.  'Hello? We're just sitting here gathering dust!'  I haven't even taken the plastic off of the new American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine because I just feel so guilty about not NOT PROPERLY PRODUCING.

The rows carefully organized and ready to sew

On a good note, I did get my basket handles all figured out!  I ended up with six different basket handles in all, although the pics only show three versions?  (Sorry, poor planning.)  As I played around with the blocks, it became apparent that there would be no real matchiness involved in the basket and handle fabrics.

Prep work for my Vertical Baskets quilt

Some quilts have a mind of their own and that's okay by me.  I'm really enjoying the scrappiness factor in these blocks so far.  Of course, it makes me question the somewhat formal lay-out I have planned, but I'll address that on another day.

Different basket handles

I do have a lot of applique going on right now, so I'm not really sure when I'll get started on the hand work for these particular blocks.  The thing is, getting the prep work all done and out of the way virtually guarantees that when the window of opportunity strikes, I'll definitely be more likely to take advantage.  

And more basket handles

The day will come when I'll be hand quilting along and decide, okay.  Enough of this already!  Where's a quick and easy applique project I can work on and feel like I'm actually accomplishing something!  You know it's the truth.  There are days to plod and days to produce.  I'm sure I'll get a handle on it all someday.  No pun intended.*wink