A little stimulating

After the trip to Pennsylvania I took a trip with the Thursday girls to Missouri Star Quilt Company. The trip was hardly necessary as there are so many quilt shops in our vicinity. However a road trip was in order so we set our sights on Missouri. I don't know what the talk is about all the shops in Hamilton but the trip was very enjoyable. For as many shops as there are in that town it's a little surprising that they don't carry everything. There were hardly any books or patterns by other designers, a big disappointment to me. And they certainly didn't have all the fabric that's produced in a year from the all the manufacturers. How could they? We knew this of course, so we made multiple stops at quilt shops enroute. I spent my fabric budget for the year but who's counting?
This of course gets one all fired up to get home and get sewing. So I did do a little bit of that but first I had to present a program for a few local guilds. They went very well. they certainly know how to apply the pressure when they introduce me and tell everybody that I'm there to inspire them. Inspire them I did. as usual I brought about 30 quilts and tops with me. I was sure to bring things they hadn't seen before. That can be a bit of a challenge sometimes because I have been to these guilds a number of times in the past.
Now that I am done traveling for the year I can focus on getting some of my sewing done. I have made a short list of the quilt tops that I would like to make next and the tops I would like to quilt as well.

I made the 10 blocks needed  so I could make the nine patch quilt a little bit bigger. And this afternoon I added the first border. I have lots of little squares cut for a pieced border so I need to decide on that next. I'll plan to work on that over at Studio three.

We will be starting a new project at Studio 3 soon so that will make it difficult to focus on finishing the other current tops in progress. That is opposed to UFOs. I differentiate between the two when I can no longer recall or have yet to decide how I want to continue with a project.
I also want to tear into my stash and reorganize.  I do enjoy my stash and perhaps looking at it with fresh eyes I can imagine a few more projects that I could start with what I have on hand.

I also want to squirrel away some of my smaller pieces for several years. I still like them but I am a little tired of them and I think that if I don't see them for 5 years or more I will enjoy them even more when I come across them at that time. Besides maybe then I'll have a limited budget and I won't afford to buy fabric when it's $14 a yard. Maybe I should bury some cash with the fabric wouldn't that be fun.