Some mindless sewing

 Added NOTE - now that it's light outside I can see it's snowing hard.  Last night it was snowing as we drove home from the Jackrabbit game.  The drive home was a bit slower, but not slippery.  This morning I'm betting the roads are slick.  Snow day means more sew day time, right?

Some days I begin working on something, and then just need to take a break and give it more thought before continuing.  That was the case yesterday with the Better Together project I started quilting.

Outlining the love birds in the middle was the first task.  I think the bird bodies need a heart quilted into the middle.  Now I'm outline stitching along the bottoms of the heart border.  And I'm considering random hearts in between the border and the birds.  I'm not good at stippling which was my first plan in between, so I'm thinking hearts will work. 

The kit for Better Together contained a layer cake of these beautiful valentine prints in reds and pinks, and after sewing the mini together I wondered what to do with all the leftover layer cake squares and parts and pieces.  Then I saw the pattern (Villa Rosa) for a table runner, and sewed this up quickly on Tuesday afternoon.  It didn't use up everything, but it's a start, right?  I think I'm going to add a narrow border of the black dot to make this slightly wider, and because it looks unfinished. 

That brings me to the mindless sewing . . . it's a good way to reboot my brain.

When I got out the bin holding most of my Valentine prints, there were all kinds of leftover charms and strips.  And here I was adding more leftovers to the bin.  So I pulled out a couple of pieces and sewed small versions of the the Split Hearts.  Same size as the Small Heart blocks in that recent crib quilt, so I can make these in my sleep.  Two mug rugs were born.  Leftover binding got used too.

And then I worked on a doll quilt from a small bin full of 4-patches made as Leaders/Enders over a long time period.  Sewing those white strips on to separate them was definitely mindless.  And I'm liking how this is coming together. 

There have been way too many ideas floating around in my head lately.  Lack of focus is attacking me daily.  I need to refocus and get that quilting DONE on Better Together.