Making (Slow) Progress

Anyone else feel like time is accelerating this year? I swear Christmas was only a few days ago, right? It's okay that time has been going by fast, though. I've been keeping busy! I spent most of yesterday cleaning and de-cluttering my house, which felt really good. I didn't finish, though. My bedroom is the place that needs de-cluttering the most. My boyfriend and I both have a problem with holding onto clothes a lot longer than we really need to, so my room is bursting at the seams with old clothes we haven't worn in months. It's a real problem. One that I plan to tackle this weekend.

But between the cleaning and spending time with friends who now happily live in the same town as us, I have been working a bit on my hounds tooth quilt. And by working on it, I mean cutting out all the many, many strips of fabric. Cutting is not one of my favorite parts of quilting, to be honest. I am so clumsy... I often nick my fingers with the rotary blade. I have no idea how this happens. I never notice when I actually get cut. It's only later where there is a smear of blood on my finger that I realize something is amiss. But I have gotten better at cutting. I haven't messed up a single strip (knock on wood!!). My first attempt at cutting strips was pretty disastrous. I could not keep the ruler straight and kept getting crooked, wavy strips. So frustrating! But now that I'm not so hopeless as cutting consistent strips, I can even throw on Dr. Who in the background as I cut without worrying about distractions causing super wavy strips!

Side note- does anyone else love Dr. Who? I only recently started watching it about 4 weeks ago on Netflix and have since fallen in love :) Once I catch up on the current incarnation of the show, I plan to start watching the classic episodes! 

I also got some very exciting packages in the past few days. My wonderful mother bought me a gift card to Fat Quarter Shop for Christmas and I bought this with part of it:

Les Amis by Patty Sloniger

Seriously LOVE this collection! Little animals make me happy. And I especially love owls, turtles, and foxes so this collection is PERFECT. I know I want to make myself a quilt with it. I'm thinking of using Elizabeth Hartman's Kitchen Window pattern from The Practical Guide to Patchwork. I bought this fabulous book in November but all the holiday madness kept me from trying anything out. This might just be the perfect project to start :)

I picked this up from the post office today:

Grecian Waters bundle of Kona Cottons

Isn't it pretty? This is what I'm going to use for my Skill Builder BOM quilt! I sort of wanted to pick out all my fabrics individually... but it was taking SO MUCH time. I was having such trouble making any color decisions and I was just getting frustrated. So I picked out a bundle instead and called it good. I'm super excited for the first block lesson! :D 

I have also been working on some crocheting... but I really prefer to take pictures when there aren't a thousand strings of yarn hanging out. That's probably silly, but oh well! Pictures to come later :)

Linking up to WiP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced! Maybe next week my hounds tooth quilt with actually have some pieces put together :) Hope you're having a great week!