Lately.

Here's what I've been up to over the past few days:

Listening to records. Specifically this Sinatra one {his albums are harder to find around here, so I only have a couple. This one is by far my favorite- it includes a few of my favorite songs of his} and my latest Glenn Miller one.

And I've been lighting a fall pumpkin candle while I listen. Is it geeky that I like to smell pumpkins and listen to Sinatra while I read? :)

I think I'm hoping that if I burn my autumn candles enough, fall will decide to come. Because I'm so ready.

Planning for my Etsy shop. I've been reading articles and books, taking notes. Brainstorming. Noticing things I need to change. I haven't been doing much actual creating for my shop for the past week, but I have been planning and researching.

I've also been reading my latest craft books and practicing my knitting. I'm making a new scarf! And I'm learning to recognize my mistakes and fix them. :)

Trying to keep the cats away from my quilt-in-progress.

It's not going so great. The keeping the cats away part, I mean.

I spent the whole morning crawling on my hands and knees, making my quilt sandwich and using every last safety pin in the house to pin everything together.

There were some little issues with the quilt top being bigger than both the backing and the batting, but I'll go into that later. I haven't fixed it yet- I'm putting it off for a while, but...

Quilting! I started actually quilting it today. It's not my favorite part of the process. It's sort of boring, sewing super long straight lines. But I know if I work on it a little each day it'll come together soon enough.

I didn't do much today because I got a little frustrated...I broke a needle, the "tangled thread" error message kept coming up even though there was no tangled thread, and I was having trouble with my machine shuddering and the needle sliding out.

I do like seeing things starting to look quilted, though. :)

And...I got an amazing surprise this afternoon, in the midst of the quilting frustration. Here's a hint- it's related to sewing and vintage. :) But more on that later, when I have pictures!

Until next time,