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Archive for March, 2009
All ashore
Neptune top is done. It was smooth sailing. Guess I need to quilt it now. The Elisa’s Backporch templates were awesome!
Screeching ensues
…when Cathy points out that there is a new Kim McLean pattern available over at Glorious Color.
It’s a beautiful day
If you turn nine today, it may indeed be a beautiful day.
You may get one of these:
(which will require you to then decide what to do with the money you’ve been saving for one)
This beautiful day may lead to this:
(note: your reaction to the Talking Heads may differ, but I hope not)
Or this beautiful day may lead to this:
Or even this:
And then your excitement involves more members of the household:
An audience, as it were. (unless you’re the one in the background scratching your ear because you have an ear infection)
And then you also do this:
If you are the mother of a nine-year-old on this beautiful day, when you open your freezer, you may see this:
In which case you also wonder what to do about this since there are no additional people eating this particular ice cream cake and one of the household has given up sweets and dairy. (anyone want some cake?)
Ah, well, it is a beautiful day.
This is a test
I would like to report that things have been quiet around here. If you count all the coughing and nose blowing, things are literally not quiet around here. But I guess things have been quiet figuratively because who has any energy after all the coughing? The after-effects of this virus have been very interesting, you never know what will happen next, affecting parts of your body you didn’t expect. Keeps things exciting, I guess. Keeps the over the counter remedy companies in business. And, gosh, who knew that every eight or so years, you might want to replace your thermometer? See? Very exciting. I am happy to report that my sense of taste seems to be returning. That was a blow cuz who doesn’t enjoy a tasty meal and if you can’t taste it, where is the enjoyment??? I am going to hold off taste testing the new Starbucks instant coffee samples that arrived.
I’m still sewing Neptune curves and doing some idea/theory testing. Here is one such test:
Aha, 20 wedges but not 18 degrees. It took me a while to realize that the large ones aren’t 18 degrees and the small ones aren’t 9 degrees. More like 24 and 12. That’s why I’m not a mathematician. Well, I guess that’s just one of innumberable reasons.
Here is another test:
This is small but inspired by Denyse Schmidt’s Single Girl quilt pattern. I need to re-think that ric-rac on the inside of the circle, perhaps pulling it a little tighter as I sew next time. Or leaving it out altogether and just turning that edge under. You see, I’m trying to broaden the horizon of the ric-rac applique application. I don’t just show you final products, you get to see the realm of possibilities as they happen. Lucky, aren’t you? Hmm, possibly also it would be a little boring around here waiting for things to be finished. Or I might have to claim upper respiratory virus a lot. The reality of that is plenty, thanks, I won’t go inviting it by making it up.
Oh, I paid a small tribute to Natasha Richardson today and watched Widow’s Peak. I can’t believe I hadn’t seen it before. A very nice movie. I have enjoyed every movie I’ve seen her in. What a sad ending.
How romantic!
Arriving in the fall: SQUEAL!
Are you as excited as I am?
How many sleeps is that until it comes out??
Out to sea
Ahoy, matey. I am adrift in curved piecing with Tula Pink’s Neptune.
Mind you, the free pattern at Moda’s web site calls for machine applique. I’ve charted a different course and am piecing a variation using Elisa’s Backporch Rainbow Block template.
It’s going swimmingly. I’m not minding the curves at all. I recalled a Bernina video on curved piecing (scroll down to Perfect 1/4″ No-pins Curved Piecing) (I am using a few pins however…) and also recalled that I have a #57 patchwork foot with a little guide attached. And it was anchors aweigh! Now I can’t stop myself from making these blocks.
Me? Enjoying curved piecing? When my classic avoidance technique has always been to steer the ship toward machine applique in these situations?
I must have the bends.
It’s my turn
I have an upper respiratory virus to thank for finishing the applique on the Jump for Joy quilt:
Despite a pressing need for a good steam pressing, these bunnies make me so happy! And they’ve kept me pretty happy this week as I appliqued next to a feverish child. And now I have a bit of the virus…just enough to be uncomfortable, not enough to keep me from any of my responsibilities…which I get to carry out while uncomfortable. Does anyone have a lozenge?
Once again, this is Anne Sutton‘s design for Australian Quilters Companion. Hop on over to Anne’s Bunny Tales blog and fetch her free pattern for a punchneedle bunny.
I imagine that the bunnies are trying to jump over the ric rac fence to get to the lush vegetation on the other side:
Had to put the tallest fence on that side, don’tcha know.
You have seen Sue Spargo‘s new book, haven’t you?
Gorgeous! Gorgeous! And a new bag book is hot off the presses as well. Are there designers whose work you collect without question? In a reliable and very exciting way? Yes? I put Sue’s designs in that category. Without question. Hmm, I wonder if that’s a lot of pressure.
And something of a virtual “hot off the presses,” you’ve been to visit Sarah, right?
All right, off to find something for the throbbing in the corner of my eye.
Fixing a fracture
I am a card-carrying member of the Material Obsession dolly quilt program. I will admit that I hoarded last year’s kits. I don’t know what I was waiting for, of course. They were all lovely and I am excited about each and every one. Sometimes I have to have “the perfect time” to do something.
Trying to live more in the present, I cracked open the first kit of this year and got started. Of course, they had me at Kaffe when I saw the pretty Kirman print and delicate yellow and cream stripe. I cut, cut, cut, sewed, cut, sewed, pressed. Decided to put a few blocks together and found out: Fractured quilt ur doin’ it wrong! Blast it! Here is an example of what I got down to:
The tiny block on the right is the incorrect one. It measures in at 1 1/2″ square. Cuz I kinda ended up with skinny rectangles the first time around and then cut them down trying to see if I could salvage the situation.
The block on the left is correct and we are moving forward with another colorway of Kirman.
Here is some progress:
Oh, I get it. And this is a very fun technique. The mind is racing thinking of other possibilities. Fractured pinwheels, for instance! Thank you for another lovely kit!
I’m crediting a lovely Australian movie with getting my fractured mojo back. It’s called The Dish and is about the Parkes satellite dish (in Australia) which transmitted the video feed from the moon landing in 1969 so that we could watch in on TV–I am included in the “we” in this instance. It was a great movie, filled with quirky characters.
I will leave you with today’s weather in Michigan (having to add frenetic and perhaps overcaffeinated somewhere in there):
Yeah, I’d say that about sums it up.
All tangled up
Decided I ought to clean up my carry-along sewing bag.
Yes, I know what those little thread locks on the spools are for.
Mrs. Schmenkman Quilts 