Projects Galore!

Disclaimer: If you think you might be a CMAD sufferer (see description below) you are advised to read the following craft-related blog entry with EXTREME caution. The author of the following blog entry will not be held responsible for creating craft-related hysteria or spread of CMAD through blog transmission. Proceed with caution and keep all credit cards out of reach during potential CMAD exposure.

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I feel like I'm on a manic quest to find and start as many projects as is humanly possible at the moment. I don't know why I've accumulated so many in the last few weeks but I've had this burst of energy directed at craft projects of late. You'd think after my most recent post where I'm feeling anxious about getting stuff done around the house and for upcoming birthdays that it would be the last thing that I would want to add to my plate right now. But, oh no. It's as if I am maniacally trying to make life even busier and packed full of obligations - self-induced or otherwise. Maybe I've developed some kind of mental illness - Craft Mania Affective Disorder (CMAD) - individuals who suffer from CMAD have the overwhelming urge to purchase various tools and materials in the textile, fiber, paper, wood, clay, paint, beading, or other associated craft media (often in more than one materials category in a very short stretch of time) and have delusional and grandious ideas of starting all crafts simultaneously and completing them in a markedly brief window of time. They are often found wandering craft stores fondling various craft-related products and in their dreamlike state they envision projects being completed perfectly and with very little effort while their mundane household and/or work responsibilities are neglected as the craft projects begin to take over their every waking moment. They are known on occasion to forgo basic needs such as bathing and eating (chocolate and other caffeine-filled foods and drinks excluded from neglected food items as it provides additional feelings of euphoria and stimulation) in order to attain some level of progress on their varied and time-consuming craft-project obssessions. They can be seen exposing their portable and semi-portable projects in public venues in a desire to complete that one extra stitch, row or other associated incremental efforts in the few minutes that they are waiting in line at a gas pump, in doctor's offices, or at an offspring's extracirricular activity. In extreme cases the craft projects might even be accompany the CMAD sufferer into the bathroom (provided craft is a wash-and-wear item).

In the last few weeks I have purchased the following craft project related items:

Yards and yards of quilting fabric
Yards and yards of apparel fabric
thread
sewing machine needles
3 skeins of sock yarn
a pattern for a knitted jacket
knitting needles - both circular (size 2) and double-pointed (sizes 1 and 2)
winter/Christmas-themed foam stamps
self-hardening clay
beads

I also came home with two freebie sock patterns (for above mentioned sock yarns) and I have been searching eBay for additional knitting needles and a pattern with which to make a "devil dress" for R to wear for Halloween.

So? Do you not see the illness inherent in that list? Judge for yourself whether I fit the profile or not.

Right now I have concurrently no less than FIVE (yes...five!) incomplete projects underway. I am working on the following:

• a skirt from some of the apparel fabric for A (it needs a zipper and waistband and then I'll be done - so that's not too bad...or am I just showing more signs of my illness to be rationalizing like that?)

• a pair of socks using some of the sock yarn and double-pointed needles (my next sock project will be to try the circular needle method of sock creation...see? I'm sick, I tell ya! I can't even stick with one method of sock production and be happy that it comes out ok. Nope. I have to try new and interesting methods that are likely to cause me to have conniption fits if I can't get it just right!)

• no less than TWO cross-stitch projects that are going to some day be given as very belated gifts. One is very labor intensive and the recipient is aware that she might be in for a very long wait for the item she has requested be made for her and the other is a much shorter project that I am hoping to have completed as a 1st wedding anniversary gift since it never got completed this past spring as the wedding gift I intended it to be.

• a quilt for A's bed - a project that is a monster project in and of itself (I truly am a glutton for punishment). I asked for some 'mad money' in the form of a gift certificate to a local quilt shop and my MIL obliged with a sizeable one (she is such an enabler - you should see the craft room she built in the basement of her new house - it is quite possible that we are constantly reinfecting each other just by being related and living in close proximity). I had to run out and spend tha mad money almost immediately because said quilt shop is actually CLOSING at the end of the year (upon hearing that news think I was suffering craft deprivation related tremors and a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach). I bought plenty of fabric to make the quilt top but will still need to go out at some future date and purchase backing fabric and quilt batting. It's never-ending, I tell ya. And speaking of enablers...I have a dear friend (yeah, you know who you are!) who got me going on my latest quilt-making frenzy with her recent post about a beautiful quilt she is making with her mom. You can get a sneak preview of that quilt by clicking here.
  

And in my defense - although I'm sure the case has been made quite clearly from the above list of projects - the last two craft items were actually purchased for the girls and not for my direct use, but their acquistion caused me to spend even more time that I don't really have browsing the aisles of Michael's salivating over stamps and card-making supplies (hence the stamps purchase) and other assorted crafts that I don't need to be looking at let alone actually buying!

And now for a little CMAD show and tell just because I can.

Here's the start of the first sock (made with this neat yarn that I learned about that is dyed to change colors specifically to make nifty stripey-patterned socks!):


And as for the quilt...well, I bought some great fabrics and tried out the first block the way I had intended to use the fabrics and came up with this:



Something didn't seem quite right so I decided to take the picture and use photoshop to create a virtual quilt by cutting and pasting this block mutiple times in a new file to see what the blocks would look like once they were pieced together. I was quite unhappy because the focal point was not what I had expected. Rick helped me play around with the placement of some of the triangles and The Man, himself, came up with the following rearrangement which I LOVE and which works exactly as I had hoped! The Man is multi-talented in ways that I was not even aware! Here's the new block configuration:



Much better! Basically the green and the dark purple triangles switched places and came up with a much more focused center to the design. I think it's going to be great when it is done! I will be using the blue butterfly fabric as my large outer border and I might even do a green or dark purple thin accent border or use one of those colors as my edge fabric. Of course, I have to make 30 of these blocks and then sew them all together before I even need to worry about the backing, edging or quilting aspects.

I wonder if there are any other CMAD sufferers out there who would care to join me in some intensive crafting therapy sessions. If we got a large enough group together maybe we could get a group rate on craft supplies therapy bills.