Just what the doctor ordered...

Hi y'all and Happy August!  We're home from the beach and content as can be.  We had a great week.  Oren managed to keep his cast mostly dry and sand-free.  We all managed to wear enough sunscreen not to get burned.  And we all managed to laugh a lot, eat a lot, love a lot, and have a great time together.

We got home Saturday night and had a special surprise.  My sister and brother-in-law became parents and we got to meet their sweet new arrival.  I'll wait till I get the OK to show pictures since it's not my kid, but I have to tell y'all--I am in love with my sweet nephew!!  He is so precious!

I am working on his crib quilt and can show off a work-in-progress of it.  My sister and I talked through a rough idea of what she wants and now we're texting back and forth to get it laid out before I start sewing.  Here's where we are right now. 

The white circles will be balloons of different colors and that mess at the bottom--I'm going to embroider his name there.  But again--not my kid, not my info to give out.  

I think this is going to be really cute when I'm done and there are a lot of non-Kelli things going on with it.  Applique, thread-drawing, quilting as part of the design, negative space...

I'm kinda excited to get it done and kinda scared to get it started!  :)

And on that scared note, yesterday evening was my first downtime at home in quite awhile and I wanted to sew.  But not get out a big project and put the weight of it on my shoulders.  So often my sewing lately has been to finish something--a dress for my class, bee blocks, old WIPs, quilts that need to be finished up, etc.  I felt like I never get to just sew for fun.

So I did.  I keep a bag full of 2.5" scraps.  Some are squares. Some are strips.  And I just sewed.  After discussing with Nicole the joy in brown-paper-bag piecing, I went for it.  

I decided to piece 12.5" blocks and then decide what to do with them later.  I assume this is like Amanda Jean's slab quilting that she has become famous for, but I have yet to buy her book.  As I mentioned, I feel obligated to finish my MANY unfinished projects sometimes and I let it hold me back from enjoying some good responsibility-free creativity and inspiration.

So far I've got 7 done and wish I could do nothing else but make these!!  

I don't have a plan for these yet, so I don't know how many I'll make or how I'm going to turn this hot mess of scrappiness into a quilt, but I'm purposely not worrying about that yet.

This is supposed to be fun and I want to keep it that way.

And it's way better than school shopping or cleaning house or admitting that Chris goes back to school next week and the kids go the following week.  YIKES!!!  Where has our summer gone???

So...what do you do when you feel like you're in over your head?  Do you keep plugging along or start something new?  And what what kind of sewing sets you free?  Improv?  Following a pattern so you don't have to make decisions?  Finishing something and getting it out of your sewing room?

Inquiring minds want to know...