So I haven’t posted in a while…

I keep meaning to be better about that and then I just don’t get around to it.

I’d love to make excuses that are ironclad, but I just don’t really have any.

What I can say for sure is that I had a rough spring, and kind of lost my interest in interacting for a while, which meant that blogging wasn’t really for me. But I feel like I’m finally coming out of that and so here I am again. Life is good and I feel like myself for the first time in over a year, and it’s a good way to feel. Depression sucks, no matter why you have it. And it’s hard to climb out. But I can see the top of the ladder now so maybe I’ll be able to climb all the way out soon.

BUT.

I have been wildly productive this spring and summer. With emotional stress comes creative productivity, for me, anyway… For Lent (February 13 – April 6) this year I gave up purchasing new fabric AND starting new projects — I had to work with what I had on hand to finish projects that were already in process. As a result, I got excited about older, “stale” projects that had stalled out when I got to a hard part. It was one of the very best Lenten disciplines I have ever done, because it was a challenge for me but it was also tremendously rewarding. I daydreamed about and doodled new projects a lot, but I didn’t purchase anything new… I didn’t count the monthly subscriptions I already had in place (block of the month programs, charm square clubs, etc.), and there was one fabric pack for a local project that I had already agreed to purchase before I came up with this idea for Lent, so I didn’t count that either although I did write the check 6 days before Easter. I didn’t open the bag until after Easter, pinky promise.

Here was my Lent:

I got caught up with my blocks for the 2012 Designer Mystery Block of the Month from Fat Quarter Shop:

Finally came up with the PERFECT border treatment for my wonky neighborhood quilt… I had been completely baffled by what to do in the border for over two years, and this border got me really excited about the quilt again finally:

I got Alice’s new bedquilt totally finished. I should do a whole post just about this quilt, actually. It was a fun process:

Figured out corner blocks for the wonky neighborhood quilt… Hindsight being what it is, I wish I had made these a little smaller because the finished quilt top is GIGANTIC and won’t really be suited for hanging, but I guess that’s OK… It’s still really cool:

(Incidentally, these corner blocks got me and Jerry to brainstorm over a hundred other buildings that could be recreated this way, and maybe I’ll explore that idea more next Lent?)

Got the whole quilt top assembled. It’s so big I can’t take a picture of the whole thing at once in my house because I can’t get far enough away from it:

Pulled this one back out so I could work on it during the trip to NYC in March…. Got a few stars done, but not a huge amount of progress on it, but I’m OK with that.

Finished this little 19″ doll quilt. Might sell it… not sure.

Finished this king-sized quilt for our bed, too. My friend Lisa Marshall quilted it for me.

I got caught up for the first six months of the Christmas Block of the Month from Fat Quarter Shop… This was a LOT of work, actually. I only had the first month done because it would require so much tracing, fusing, and blanket stitching. But I did finally do it and I’m SO glad, because I got excited about the project again.

I finally finished this scarf, which has been only about an inch from completion for a few years. It’s about 6 feet long and 4 inches wide and just perfect for the trip to NYC in March:

And I also got this Scrappy Trips made from a Figgy Pudding jelly roll assembled. I will probably sell this one also once I’ve got it quilted and bound.

In another post I’ll show what I’ve done since April 7 — it’s also quite a bit. But I’ve finished more than I’ve started (or at least moved projects very significantly forward), so I’m still feeling very good about what I learned during my Lenten discipline. I am really glad I did that, because I got a lot out of it. The best part was getting excited about old projects again.

I will try not to let it be 6 months before I post again… I’m on Instagram a lot (@messygoat) and Twitter (@epoplin) so you can find me microblogging often in those places. And of course, Facebook. I post mostly quilting photos (and pet photos) on Instagram, it seems.

Thanks for staying with me if you found this blog again. 🙂 I’ve missed you; I hope you’ve missed me too.