Week In Review. Ish.

Bits and pieces of what I’m doing this week:

I’ve been planning an all-yellow Scrappy Trip-Along since I was about…oh, I don’t know…three blocks into my first Scrappy Trip-Along.  And it has begun!  I’m doing as little editing as my controlling brain will permit, and am hoping for a lovely outcome.  It’s hard for me to not think about what fabric will touch what other fabric and then pick and choose, but I’m doing my summertime darndest.  The yellow itself–all the shades that will appear in the finished quilt–is so lemony delicious, and makes me want to be outside with cool breezes.  We just ordered a yellow umbrella for the back deck, to go over the picnic table and protect my skin and the skin of my pasty children; I’m hoping that I’ll be able to use this out there and have the two complement one another in a very Martha way.  It’ll be like a sunny explosion on warm evenings when we’re waiting for the fireflies to come out.

I’ve been planning drapes for the master bedroom, on the other hand, since before we moved into this house, which if you’re keeping track is about 19 months now.  And my poor husband all but begged me to bump them up the list and make them sooner, as the lack of privacy (despite the fact that our bedroom windows face out onto a private yard surrounded by tall bushes and trees and can be visible to absolutely no one other than Google and the government) was really harshing his mellow.  I had a PLAN, y’all.  I knew just what I wanted them to be.  And so, just in time for his birthday, I did the only thing a loving wife could possibly do: I went to Ikea and bought them.  Yes, I did.  Not because I don’t want the drapes to be just what I envisioned, but because sometimes the greater act of love is knowing when to say, “Enough already, I’d rather you be happy than I be right.”  Happy birthday, honey.

I spent an absurd amount of time this week–read: close to two full days–doing nothing but culling my fabric shelves and organizing the dining-room-now-studio where I’m working these days.  Part of that meant pulling fat quarter and half yard bundles off these shelves that have been waiting their turn too long and packing them in a box to head downstairs.  I think the sheer volume of fabric was making me feel overwhelmed, and so I wasn’t sewing ANYTHING because there were just too many things that were waiting to be sewn.  I’m thinking, if I work through what’s on the shelves right now, whatever I haven’t gotten to in a year can probably be sold or donated.  Who knows?  Maybe some of it will skyrocket in value like old Heather Ross prints on eBay.  For now, I’ve made a basket of yardage destined to be garments this summer and given them eye-level placement on the shelf nearest my sewing machine, to encourage me to think of them and work my way to the bottom of the basket.  (If I’d been smart, I would have hidden a $50 bill down there and gone to get shoes when I finish–or a hot massage.)

As I was sewing samples for my Summer Dresses e-course, I made this one from Robert Kaufman chambray in a maxi version.  It is very possibly my favorite dress to wear that I have ever made.  I know this because I have worn it no fewer than seven times in the two weeks since I put the hem in place.  Right this very second, it is waiting to be washed and pressed (yes, I will press it! because love means pressing!) and then worn yet again with the sandals I bought at Target the day before I made this and to which I purposely matched the fabric for the drawstring casing.  Hello, summer.  You’re a dress.

Wow.  I can’t wait to see what next week brings, y’all.