Playing around with Carol Ann Waugh‘s Stitch and Slash technique, I started this little block this morning on a whim. I didn’t really give too much of a thought to the fabric choices, but I definitely think its an interesting idea that I want to explore more.
Last night I was pretty determined to get some sewing in after having a couple of weeks doing absolutely nothing. This is a project for my quilting class, it’s a Disappearing 9 Patch, in Lucy’s Crab Shack. I managed to get all the rows sewn for my 9 patches, and 3 of them assembled. This round, in an attempt to get better at matching points, I pressed all the seams open ( I generally press to the dark ). As you can see, I’m still not hitting them exactly, which is pretty disappointing – I pinned these too!
Also – I made another two dozen HSTs for my back door curtain project, and tidied the studio up a bit – but just a bit. I still haven’t put my Sparkle Punch project back up on the design wall ( it fell because of the humidity when the lights were out for so long I think) , and I’m scared to move any of the pieces because it will just be harder to find the order and placement of all the units if I do. So its still in a sad pile on the floor for the moment, maybe I’ll take care of that this evening, I know its going to take forever – but its got to be done sometime. Barring natural disasters or family tragedy or work emergency or plague of locusts – I really want to wrap that one up this weekend.
So its a week later. I’m still overwhelmed by work, and my studio still looks like a hurricane plowed through it. It’s probably because of the workload, but I can’t seem to get myself behind the sewing machine. Yesterday I did press some HST’s open that were sitting on my sewing table, but that is really it.
Above is today’s fabric haul – Riley Blake, Songbird. It’s some more fabric for my quilting class, but its like two projects away – who knows when I will get around to it. It’s pretty though.
( This is only a few miles from my house – however other than the AC, we had no damage )
So it’s been a week, and I’m finally getting back to normal from Hurricane Isaac. The power was out for 4 days, and then when it came back on, we quickly realized that the AC did not. So from Friday through yesterday, I basically holed up in my bedroom, huddled up to my portable AC. August in Louisiana slows everything down; the humidity makes you feel like you are moving in slow motion.
The Lug’s cousin really stepped in and saved the day and helped us replace the condenser outside, for a reasonable price to boot. So finally I’m back in front of my laptop, starting a normal workday. Maybe I’ll even get some sewing done this evening – but I’ll probably be cleaning house.
So it’s only appropriate that I spend most of the day working on the beginnings of my Halloween Costume. I am a terrible procrastinator, and if I wait until the last minute it will never come together, so I’m starting now. So costume party on Halloween, need something to wear. Now the party I am going to is going to be attended by what one might call … mundanes. muggles. ahem. normal people. So I wanted a costume that could serve me later at nerdier functions – but I didn’t have to explain who I was to everyone. So at some point, I decided to do a steampunk Joker. Now I realize I may have to explain “steampunk” but at least with the green wig and the unmistakable makeup, everybody would know I was the Joker. And with that the costuming began.
So I bought this corset. Made by Damsel in this Dress, this is their Vixen model. I bought it because I basically thought it was versatile for all my pirate / steampunk / renfest costuming needs. And it is orange. I haven’t really decided what I’m going to wear underneath – right now what I’m leaning towards is a turquoise button down.
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I haven’t had a whole lot of time to sew or work on any quilts this week because of work stuff, but today I got my first package from a Supply Swap that I signed up for. I really need to get my flat rate boxes so I can send mine out before it’s too late. I’m pretty pleased with this one though – I love the potholder pattern, and check out that green cow fabric! I will probably use these fabrics on my curtain project.
I am not really sure what I’m going to put in my two swap boxes, I’ll probably dig through my stuff tonight and figure that out.
So I finished my charm quilt that was the first project for my Quilting Quickly class over at craftsy.com. I wound up breaking it up into nine patches because I thought it would be way too busy otherwise. There’s only one huge problem that I didn’t notice until about twenty minutes ago, and that is the fact that the middle square on the bottom row is about a quarter inch too large for some reason, and the sashing doesn’t line up. But hey, at least it’s done right? Also I opted on piecing together the longer horizontal sashing. I’m hoping that it won’t be too noticeable, but my lack of ability in cutting long straight lines made using the pieced jelly roll lengths a good idea.
After it’s all said and done, and despite that one issue, I actually think I learned some things on this very basic project, and if nothing else, it gives us a quilt to work on when we take our long arm classes.
So I had plans to get this one finished today. Got all the rows sewn together, and was excited to shelf it for something more interesting. But when I started the horizontal sashing, I found out that my rows were a half inch longer than WOF. Which means that I can’t use the jelly roll I had ready. So its going to have to wait until I can get more white because what I have in the Stash of Doom™ is not long enough either. Boo.
This little quilt was deceptively difficult, when it came to fabric arranging. There’s two spots that annoy the living bajeezus out of me – the polka dots that are touching each other in the first block of row three, and how there’s polka dots right next to each other in the second and third blocks of row four. By the time I realized it, I really didn’t feel like ripping seams anymore so I just let it fly.
I don’t have a picture for this post – mostly because I didn’t sew at all this weekend. Saturday we got hit with the tail end of Tropical Depression Helene, and the lights were going on and off, and I was in no mood to sew anyway. Since Katrina changed everything back in 2005, August usually is surrounded with a certain amount of weather anxiety for me. It’s always there in the back of my head – I’m always calculating the hurricane plan. If I can make it past Labor Day without being waterlogged – I will count this year as a success.
So right. I didn’t sew at all. I also couldn’t really work with the lights going in and out – so I didn’t make much progress there either. Mostly I just snuggled up with the pets and read. It wasn’t the worst way to spend a rainy Saturday.
This evening though, I definitely have a date with my sewing machine. I want to get all my 9 patches done for my Charm Square Quilt. I manged to assemble 3 blocks this morning, but tonight – IT WILL BE FINISHED! My mom finished hers yesterday, so now I’m the one who is behind.
Also as a sidenote – I was invited to a Halloween Party last night, so that is an upcoming project that I have to start thinking about. I’m thinking something steampunky, just because that is fun – either a steampunk Mad Hatter, or The Joker. I am leading towards the Joker because I saw an awesome cosplay of one last week. It was a whole lot girlier than I would do it – but it gave me lots of ideas. I will probably be making everything except the corset / bodice piece. I do have all the hardware to make one somewhere in my closet – but I lack the sewing expertise…serious foundation garments are WAY above my pay grade.
I blogged pretty regularly from 2000 – 2006 or so. I had a pretty good readership, active readers and commenters – certainly plenty drama to keep them coming back for more. But honestly, A LOT has changed since then. Everybody seems to want to be a blogger rock star, to make tons of money with their posts with sponsors and give-aways etc. And readers expect that too I think. It’s sort of overwhelming, for someone just starting. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want readers, but I honestly don’t know how one does that without being a blog that is a job. I don’t want my blog to be my job. I certainly am not talking about anything that I can monetize, because I’m a newbie quilter, and a mediocre photographer. What I want is my blog to mark my progress as a quilter. I would like visitors and an online community to talk about what is going on in my quilt life too though.
So can a blog be successful being a personal homegrown thing these days? Without offering free stuff, patterns or organized activities? What marks a blog’s success anyways? I don’t know, but I am pretty good at talking to myself so I guess it doesn’t matter much, really.
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