Why have I been so quiet lately? Simple, I have been quilting. A LOT! Ever since my room was cleaned I have been trying to spend my free time in there creating quilts. I actually have five different projects going! One is a long overdue project, and the rest are all new projects. I also have the added incentive that my guild's quilt show is coming up in March 2011. If I want quilts to hang in it I best get cracking!
After cleaning my quilt/jewelry studio, my first project was for my greyhounds. They are getting up in years at 13 and 12 years, respectively, and I wanted to get them some nice 4" thick memory foam dog beds to ease their old bones. Since they are larger sized dogs they needed really big dog beds. When I priced out four of them (two upstairs and two downstairs) plus tax and shipping I was going to have to spend about $400. GACK! They were worth it, but 
there had to be a better way. There was. Me making them! I purchased a huge piece of 4" memory foam, cut it down, and sewed the covers myself with sturdy fabric I had on hand. I made the covers intentionally a little loose because the dogs like to circle and "nest". Each pair of beds took about an hour. Total cost of me making them was $25 a bed and two hours of my time. That's pretty awesome compared to the $100 per bed I was prepared to spend.
I spent some time in late January "cleaning" my quilting and jewelry studio. I say "cleaning" because other than some vacuuming, I mostly organized the chaos. My room had gotten so over run that I had a path from the door to my sewing machine. It was so cluttered it was killing my creativity and desire to create.
I can find everything. I can move around. And best of all, I've been creating quilts like crazy ever since!
