Holy Crap! Where have I been?

So I wandered into my sewing room the other day and then tried to remember when the last time was that I sat down and actually made/made progress on something was.  Uh....couldn't remember.  My sewing room was CLEAN.  Not gonna lie, that freaked me out a little.  Then, when I checked here, I realized I was over 20 days.  Yikes.  Time to dust off the old machine and start cranking some stuff out.  I have gigantic sewing plans this summer!  I'm already behind!

Anyhoo, one of the first things I feel like I need to do on my agenda is catch up on both the Sugar Block and Lucky Stars Blocks-of-the-Month.  There is really NO excuse for not finding the time to get one or two blocks done in a month, right!?!  My friend Anita gets homework of ten blocks a month for her Dear Jane quilt so I really have ZERO leg to stand on. 

So I dug out the files to start looking at where I was - Lucky Stars is up first.  I have to make May and June....and now July.  K, I found May and then realized why I had put it off.  Talk about daunting!  

In order to even PLAN this block I required multiple forms of media, writing utensils and a self-made map.  Ugh!  There were 16 templates for this one.  I was getting confused.

But once I had made the plan and selected the fabrics and cut out the pieces, I was all-in.  I even came up with the BRILLIANT idea of trying to fussy cut (and fussy lay - given the angles) the centres of the block so you can see the frog from Tula's Prince Charming collection.  

Fussy-cutting mixed with paper piecing makes me want to stab myself in the eye with a  flower-head pin.

Trying to get them all to come out in some semblance of similarity really tested my patience.  And given that I've been doing this 90-day eat clean challenge (no alcohol, limited caffeine, no sugar or salt), I have no patience to start with.  Trying to do this nearly drove me to drink.  I got so pissed I walked away from it for four hours to do something else.  The only thing that brought me back was the fact that this was Tula Pink's fabric (she retweeted and replied to me when I sent her this ya know!!!). 

So I persevered and finished it.  The frogs don't line up perfectly but damned close enough for me given how hard it was to get them to even come out in the same-ish spot on each piece of the template.  And you know what?  It's really pretty so the finished product seems totally worth it.  

Finished block for May!

Then, because I needed to do something to restore my mood, I found this on pinterest....it made me happy: