Catching Up is Hard to Do

So now that my season is over, I have 5 weeks in which to finish the amount of work I was planning to do in 2.5 weeks. This is a good thing in that I can weave in several fun days (a few last trips to use my key to Mickey's House, a trip to The Huntington with a work friend). It is a bad thing in that I have plenty of time to get everything done, and as a result will procrastinate much of it until "the end."

Meanwhile, I would like to address my most recent lump of procrastination-related shame, in letter form.

Dear Gerd (college nickname for a friend):

You called me in late 2005 to tell me you were expecting twins. Great! I thought, and ran straight out to Luella's to buy fabric for baby quilts. I pored over my favorite baby quilt books and found a pattern that I really liked (in the third book of the series).

I had the tops started before you let me know the twins were a boy and a girl.

I had them quilted with the binding machine sewn on before the 2006 softball season started last February. All that they needed at that point was labels.

Max and Melissa arrived at the start of May. I was neck-deep in softball season. "After the WCWS" I said to myself.

On my first day of freedom after the season was over, Pitt posted a job. I hopped on a rollercoaster ride that sucked the life out of me all summer, then unceremoniously dumped me right back where I started.

No labels had been made.

Toss in a volleyball season, a "how-to" class on my shiny new-to-me Viking D1 to teach me how to do embroidery with it, the start of softball season, a whirlwind trip to Virginia for another devastating roller coaster ride.

Still no labels.

Now, a normal person would have finished those stupid quilts label-free and sent them on their way, but to me that means they aren't really finished. So I didn't do that.

When the Hubster accepted a job in Pittsburgh on April 26, the pressure was really on. After my amazing quilting buddies helped me pack in early May, those stupid labels were tops on my list. So, I used one of my last Friday Nights at Bearly Stitchin' to get them done. It took about three nights to get the binding hand-sewn down on those two suckers, and they took a trip through the wash and were mailed to you.

I hope Max and Melissa love them to shreds, and I hope to see you soon, now that I'm moving closer to your neck of the woods.

Much love, DPUTiger

Max's Quilt

Melissa's Quilt

Both are the "Illinois Road" pattern from "Even More Quilts for Baby: Easy as ABC" by Ursula Reikes. The first book in this series was the second quilting book I ever bought, and the trio of books (Quilts for Baby, More Quilts for Baby and Even More) are ones that will never EVER leave the front line of my quilting library. Masterpieces, all!