Saturday, March 30, 2013

Well, That Was Random

Well, I survived my first week of Prom Season.  It almost killed me but, here I am.  Wasting my one and only day off sewing and blogging.  Earlier I was watching NCIS in my pjs (at around 11am) when Rich came into our room with a drill.  I sneezed and said "See, I'm so allergic to manual labor that I sneeze when I'm even in the same room with tools."  He agreed with that little gem a little too eagerly for his own health... It worked, I started feeling guilty, took a shower and went upstairs to sew.  In my defense, I did do some laundry and they're also expecting me to prepare dinner.
 

Any who, over the last couple of weeks, I finished the last of the rows of Bee In My Bonnet's Row Along.  I messed up the tulips, they're supposed to be 'dancing' with one up, one down but I didn't follow directions very well.  I know, you're shocked.  So, no dancing tulips on the great quilt of randomness.


I decided I would start with spring and end with winter and throw the homey stuff though out to try to make sense of the whole thing.  I started sewing the rows together from the bottom up.  Mainly because the bottom was more in my way while sewing than the top was.  Then, I had to stop and go back several days later and forgot that little detail and started sewing my mittens to spring.  My life almost fell apart.  Unsewing sucks. 
And, I lost my favorite seam ripper.  Isn't that just the way?!  As soon as I had declared my love for it, it vanished.  Ugh.

Here's a look at the quilt before borders.  I think the black on thimbles is fine.  I was afraid it would be too much black.
Then, with borders.  The outer border is supposed to be a pieced 6" border but by the time I got to it, there was no way I wanted to take that much more time on the quilt!  Not to mention, I didn't have enough of the orange gingham to do it.  I went with the old rule that how ever much is left of the fabric is how large your borders should be:)  I apparently, had quite a bit less than the designer lady.

The gingham reminds me of my Aunt Azaya.  When I was in high school, I lived with her for awhile.  And, the room that was mine was covered in green gingham.  I didn't appreciate it when I was a snotty teenager.  But, I love it now and I want to use it for everything!  Every time I do, I think of Azaya.  Actually, she was Nancy back then but that is a whole different story.



Last but not least, I finished Sew Tweets.  It's quilted and bound and ready for my quilt guild's President's challenge in May.  Me likey, me likey a lot.

I've also been working on my state flower embroidery quilt blocks.  I'm past the half way point but I don't have pictures because it stays at work, far away from my camera.  I keep coming up with different ideas about how to finish that quilt.  I'm really curious what it's going to end up like.

Then, I tried to start a new applique project but my scanner is apparently broken and I have to enlarge the pattern 200%.  Considering the snow outside, I think I'll wait to get that done another day.

Oh, and I think I figured out why no one is able to leave a comment.  I had it set up as a pop-up.  If you are running a pop-up blocker, it probably won't work.  So, I changed that and have gotten my first spam.  See if you can comment now.  Don't forget, I speak fluent smart-ass.  Just don't be a meany:)

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Sleep In Your Bed Retreat


I tried to get caught up, really I did.  We had a sleep in your own bed retreat again.  It was, once again, lots of fun.  However, I kept screwing up.  I cut the pieces before I left in the morning so that I wouldn't have to take my whole stash with me.  First, I sewed the star point onto the wrong side.  Then I had one of my baskets cut wrong.  I also have my spools cut but those pieces are wrong, too.  Grrr.  I'm thinking I may change the color of my spools, now that I have to re-do them anyway.  Currently, they're black/ rainbow polka dots.  I think it might be better if I use the red gingham I used for all the butterfly bodies.  Then, I've got houses to build and after I fix whatever I screw up with those, the last row is tulips.  I think it's a really cute quilt but I feel weird about the variety of items on it.  I've got everything from butterflies, to fall leaves, to mittens, spools and houses.  Is it the seasons, or homey stuff or is it just random stuff?  I don't get it.  And, that bothers me...

What I do get, is that my Chocolate Bunny table topper is super cute!  I got the pattern from the Pattern Basket.  Love it! My original plan was to cut a bite out of one bunny's ear and the other's butt.  Then we could sit around the table and say, "My butt hurts."  "What?".  That's my favorite Easter joke.

I'm having serious issues getting these stupid pictures to follow instructions.  The cupcakes are a skinny recipe that sucks.  It's cake batter with Sprite Zero.  The frosting is Cool Whip and fat free pudding.  In theory it should have been good.  I did have some people say they liked them but I don't believe them.  Now the Whoopie Pies were good.  I've never had one or even seen one in person.  So, I didn't know what size they were supposed to be.  First I used the large scoop but it made them the size of hamburgers.  Rich said I should offer a quarter to anyone who could finish it in one sitting.  Then, I used the little scoop and they were really little.  Finally, I found the medium scoop.  And, they were jjuuuuust right.  But, I was out of batter.  So, next time I'll know.  The frosting was awesome.  It was supposed to be cream cheese mint but I was out of mint.  So, I used orange.  So good!  I had extra and put it in the fridge for another project.  Then Hunter came home and thought it was mashed potatoes.  Yep.  He came into my room last night with the bowl and a spoon, concerned that he'd ruined his potatoes because they were so runny.... At least I've got the recipe for another day.

I changed my comment settings to see if more people can comment.  I've gotten 3 spam comments so far, I guess it works...

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Apparently, This is What Progress Looks Like

I'm several weeks behind, but this is my latest row-along.  Mittens.  They turned out really cute.  I'm three rows behind.  I've got twinkle stars, houses and baskets to catch up on.  If I've been paying attention, and that is never a given, I think there should only be one or two more rows to do.  I hope to catch up during my retreat this weekend.

I finally finished your quilt show ribbons.  They're going to look fabulous hanging from your quilts in June!  Personally, I want to win second place because I love all the red ones.  Maybe I could win one of each?

Best of Show and Mayor's Choice...  gonna be great.  Ignore the bad lighting.  My house is old and my sewing room walls are bright yellow.  The background color is the same in both of these photos, just different ends of the room.  Weird, right?  The actual color is somewhere between the two.
You can't tell yet, but these are tree parts.  I'm making 18 tree blocks.  This is the center of the leaves.
 This is the leaves on the right side?  Maybe?

This is the pile of half square triangles that I have left over.  I may have made a few too many.  Good thing I tortured myself into making the whole package!  I'm thinking I can get another project done out of Edyta's book.  We watched one of her videos in TAS last week and it was quite motivating.  I'd love a table topper.





Did I mention that I made my triangles too large?  Yeah.  I could have sworn I had the papers for 2.5", apparently I had 3".  This little pile is a very small portion of my trimmings.  Yep.  Having to trim EVERY SINGLE ONE of these babies.  Didn't make me want to cry when I figured that out, at all.