Buglies

Bugly is a term that stands for really ugly or "b--- ugly." Ugly fabric helps a quilt, lifting it out of the expected. I'm all for that, but I think these particular buglies would overwhelm my current quilt:

Smaller pieces than I'm showing here wouldn't be so overwhelming

but would lose their zing! I got these in an exchange with Nifty Quilts, whose blog I absolutely adore. Nifty sent me these buglies:

and in exchange all she got was bright plaid fabrics--positively boring in comparison--and labels. Anyway, I love looking at Nifty's quilts, such as this one, and this one and these ones (Heck, just go read her whole blog.) made with lots of uglies. So I want to do something big scale with the buglies she sent me, and not just use slivers...

Meanwhile, making slow progress on the hope and stars quilt, as you can see in the top pic. I've auditioned backgrounds. I thought this yellow check would work:

 

but it looks boring, especially in comparison to this:

Speaking of string stars... Years ago I started a string lone star, but bogged down after completing the big pieces. V aka Bumble Beans, who is a crazy woman and loves sewing Y-seams, took it home with her along with some fabric. She's pieced some amazing giant crumb blocks to be the star background. It looks so awesome, go check the star in progress. That link will take you over to 15 Minutes Play, a great blog with lots of fun going on - everyone is welcome to join in.

 

Sujata posted a pic of her current project there and it's amazing! Sujata, V, and Nifty--as well as several other fun quilters--post pics of their work to the Rebels! blog, which I also recommend. Great stuff out there in blogland.

Complete change of topic. This is such a great season of Project Runway. Without getting into any spoilers, I was sooo happy last week at who went home, but this week I would have gone with the other choice. Meanwhile, love Mondo and the fabric pattern he made this week totally rocks.

Cat photo time. I remember the days when I would put down fabric and instantly attract kitty attention. Now, Habibi would rather sleep:

And just because I'm afraid of rebellion (from you lot - not her) if I don't include Pokey too:

that's all for me today. take care!

Good News About Baby Pokey

You know how I mentioned that Pokey is doing really well? A happy little camper? Well the blood work came back and she has "phenomenally improved." Woohoo!

She's not 100%, but she's better. The vet actually thinks that she might have passed one or more of the kidney stones that were collected in her undersized kidneys. She has to stay on the same meds, eat the special diet and get her sub-Q fluids, but so wonderful to know that something is working.

The bad news is that the little stinker is doing an obsessive-compulsive grooming thing. She's got a bald strip on her leg that I've been putting super stinky stuff on, but not sure that's helping. Furthermore, I think she might have started a new bald patch on the other leg. Gack. Furthermore, she's now way too jittery and running anytime she thinks I might scoop her up to put the stinky stuff on. Which probably adds to her nervous state which feeds the obsessive grooming...

Slither Eek Boo will look much better longarm machine quilted by Natalie instead of my freehand fans hand quilting (which really wasn't adding anything to it), so I've started ripping all my work out. I've already put so much time into it, but still had soooo much more to do that in the end it wasn't that hard of a decision.

It's been making me cranky not having a quilt that I really wanted to hand quilt on. So I got an old unfinished top out and put a border on it. Anyone with a good memory know which quilt this is?

Ever since see Silly Boo Dilly's quilting with the Sulky Blendables 12 wt thread I have wanted to try it. This quilt is the perfect opportunity. I wanted something thicker than regular quilting thread, yet more colorful and not so thick as perle cotton size 8.

I love it. I picked Sunset which goes from yellow to orange - but isn't too high contrast. I'm using a size 8 Between needle and taking bigger stitches than I usually do. Love how it looks and the quilting goes faster that way. I'm going to try doubling the thread and see how that goes.

I spent much of yesterday hand quilting and it felt so soothing. I really needed it back in my life again.

In Which Tonya Scares Herself but All is Well in the End

I almost lost it today. I washed two quilts for the book that have a lot of white in them. White is still pretty new to me - I never used to use it much at all - I was partial to black. Anyway, I used dark color fabric for the backing on both these quilts. When I pulled them out of the washer it looked like the dark colors had bled onto the surface of the quilt (despite two boxes worth of Color Catchers which really do work well), particularly in all the quilt lines. Aaaagh. I ended up washing them a second time hoping the stray color would disappear.

They didn't look any better after the second wash, but I threw them into the dryer for 15 minutes on low to see what would happen. As it turned out, whew, the quilts just looked horrible when wet. None of that was actual bleeding.

So I am saved. I have been worrying about using the dark fabric for the backing anyway - because when I'm up close I can detect a bit of darkness in the white of the top. Do I always need to use white or offwhite on the back of quilts with lots of white? What do those of you who work with lots of white do?

No, you don't get to see any pics of cute kitties with these quilts - they are all washed and cat hair free and need to stay that way. I have the door closed to the guest bedroom - it will be interesting to see if Pokey comes out from under the other bed anytime soon.

But here is a kitty pic for you. Nine days ago I took this photo of Howler, but the hair on his belly (remember, he had surgery last month) still hasn't grown much more than this.

Cats and a Bit of Quilting Too

Gorgeous blue-eyed baby girl Pokey, always a distraction from work:

At least I'm making progress - there is more of the quilt quilted than not-quilted.


Must make time for belly rubs:

Howler has completely recovered from his vet ordeal(s) and is thoroughly enjoying the one can of cat food he now gets a day. Unfortunately a test did reveal a long-term problem, probably with his kidney. Sigh. Nothing that can be done for it though other than the special dry food which all the cats are on because of Pokey's kidney problems.

Meanwhile, Howler enjoys playing ostrich. No one can see him.

Lily isn't so easily fooled.

Uh oh:

She just whacked him one and then ran off. He stayed put for another hour or so. Not even sure he even noticed anything - he's a heavy sleeper.

Must get back to my quilting now. Take care.

New Design Wall

My sweet husband got a permanent design wall up for me for my birthday. It's a great present although I have yet to make full use of it. It's 7' x 7' and made of 3/4" styrofoam insulation panels cut down into four sections and covered with flannel. I'd have preferred gray or a khaki (something in a medium value) but couldn't find it so went with a light yellow.

This design wall is definitely constructed ala Lazy Gal. I didn't iron the flannel first and it's hardly perfect. But it's functional, does what I want it to do, and we got it done relatively quickly.

I did all the piecing on this hope quilt top before my surgery and have yet to get back to work on this. Sharon, you have another fun name for this thing? I loved Hope Strings Eternal, what would this one be?

I still haven't gotten back into the full swing of things. Slowly slowly.

I have a bunch of fun quilting links for you.

Check out new blog Fun with Barb and Mary to read about their quilting adventures. Between the two of them they see lots of quilts, not to mention show off their own - I love their interpretations of a classic here. Look at the amazing fan quilting on these antiques. yummy.

New-to-me is Ann Champion's Blog where she's been featuring some wonderful antique finds as well as her own colorful quilt in progress. In particular I love this String Star (although it seems to me there should be another name for this block, but I can't think of it) for it's use of striped fabric. And lovers of cheddar should be sure to catch this Railroad Crossing.

Speaking of striped fabric, check out this awesome mid 1800's star quilt. I love the modern look of it. Whee.

Sticking with the theme of antique quilts, what looks like an amazing exhibition is on at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, MA until November 15th. It's called Master Pieces: Haberdashery Textiles in Antique Quilts. The quilts are all made out of men's clothing. Quilters Spirit did a great write up on it here. I totally love these quilts, just wish I could see the show.

Jennifer D of Pasquali Rumpus did a really fun job free-piecing letters in this pillow. I'm lucky enough to have a couple of Jennifer's words in Cake.

In a Halloweeny mood? Check out Brown Dirt Cottage Belinda's fabulous Boo ghost blocks that she designed herself. So much fun.

Quilt as Desired's Comicbooklady went to Gwen Marston's quilt retreat and sent back some great photos. Love Gwen's work and CBL's too. I am so envious!

Laura at Cloth and Mind finished up her wonderful wonky houses and words quilt top. I love it and check out the way she did her Us and Ws. Great job.

Bumble Beans is doing a really fun Waverunner quilt-along. Very improvisational, very fun. Have to admit, it'd be scary for me not to use the rotary cutter. Eeek, I look forward to seeing all the amazing quilts that come out of this.

On a non-quilt related note, I gave up on Flash Forward about 15 minutes into the most recent episode. I didn't like any of these people and didn't care what happened to any of them.

I'm almost finished watching the first season of Fringe and then I can get caught up on the new ones. I'm really enjoying it. Not a perfect show but I love the characters, especially the Bishops. Now if they could just stop using LSD to solve crime it would be that much better.

A Chorus Line of Sorts

I told you the other day that I was thinking of a skeleton chorus line for Boo? This is how I doodled the idea. In pen. The leg in the air just looks goofy to me.

Hmm, how about with a bent knee? Don't really like this either. [I was pondering eyes and claws instead of the skellies - that's what was going on elsewhere in the page.]

Okay, straight leg. This isn't a real chorus line kick, but it is kinda fun.

I sketched the design first in chalk for the rough placement and then used my new Sewline mechanical pencil to mark it for real. So far I am really liking that tool. I found it a bit difficult to erase, but I suspect that's because it's puffy with all three layers (rather than just erasing marking from the top only). I'll let you know how well it comes out when I'm done. 

Anyway, this is where I'm at so far:

I'm doing the quilting with purple perle cotton size 8. The skellies don't look like a chorus line, but they do have their own groove going. Lily is so not impressed.

For more examples on my quilting in this style with the perle cotton, check out my threads tutorial. The "trick" is to practice your doodling. Doodle, doodle, doodle. And don't try to get too detailed - you'll notice these skeletons are anatomically challenged...

I just finished Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers. It is excellent, as are his previous two. Anyway, I bring that up because he discusses the 10,000 hour rule. Which is, that 10,000 hours of practice "is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert--in anything..."

I'm not saying I'm a master hand quilter. But I find this idea interesting. I wish I knew how much I've actually hand quilted over the years. I think I might actually be nearish that 10,000 hrs figure. Ten hours a week for over 20 years.... Sure every week I didn't actually quilt that much, but I quilted more others...

And you know I've doodled a LOT. I took notes but when things got a bit dull at school, university, meetings at work.... doodle doodle doodle.

Okay more now about the Hope is a Four-Letter Word quilt. hmm, that one probably needs a new name. The quilt will be for me to use as a teaching tool in classes and hopefully in a book. Fingers crossed. I'm keeping it, it's not for charity.

This is who I've got so far. 

care       Mary C

free        Jen D

glee       Cherie

grin        Julie

grow      Lynne

joy         Nancy   (I love that she's rebelling and doing a 3-letter word instead)

love       Kim

play       John

play       Magpie Sue

sing       Sara H.

soar       AnnieO

warm    Laura

wish      Kathy

Just One More Sara and Chris Daly want to play too, just haven't chosen a word. Rachael is mulling it over.

Diana, you came up as no-reply so send me an email. You are considering doing glee or folk. Either would be great. yes, we already have one glee, but that doesn't matter - people are allowed to have the same favorite word. Have you free-pieced letters before? K is a bit trickier than some of the other letters, so folk would be a bit harder.

For a beginner, hope is a great word - those are all easy letters.

So happy you guys are playing with me. Later!

Boo

My husband questioned whether the photos I took last week of Pokey on the flag quilt were staged. Nope, that's hardly ever needed. Case in point, on Sunday I pieced a little quilt. 

Got the word done, how much background does it need around it?

Now with the border fabric

This is a good indication that I'm not as worried about Pokey as I was a short time ago. Last week as soon as she gave me the signal for belly I'd have dropped the camera to give her some loving.

Now I'm letting her do the Belly Love Wiggle while I take photos. Not to worry, she gots lots of loving not soon after.

As you can see I was thinking about centering Boo in the middle of the quilt...

In the end I decided I liked the boo off-center. 

I bet you can't tell that I'm having a real longing already for Halloween. There's definitely a reason (okay, more than one) that I love the JaMPatch in Stuart - they love Halloween too and already have some fun fabric rolling in. That's where I got the great spider web fabric. I was thinking about using it for the letters but went with this option instead.

I think I've decided how I'm going to quilt it, but am not sure. There's a big part of me that wants to do spider webs and spiders, but maybe that's too expected. I keep going back and forth on options. Don't think the skeleton chorus line is going to work... I did start quilting the letters in red quilting thread but it wasn't bold enough - I need to use perle.

I've got a new blog for ya'all to check out. Laura's Cloth and Mind. She just free-pieced her very first word and it's fabulous AND she's been making wonky houses that are amazing. She's really gotten into the multi-stories and complicated roofs. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Please give her some encouragement and a welcome to blogland.

That first word that Laura made? It was rattle (plus a surprise) for the Halloween Noises quilt. That's not so much the name of the quilt as the description. I'm already thinking of it as Slither Eek Boo. Anyway, here's what we've got so far. If you don't see your name here send me an email. Any additions, corrections, adjustments?

argh                                   big leaning                                                        Cher

bang                                  BIG                                                                     honeybee
boo                                    maybe big and skinny                                     Patti
boo                                                                                                                Brenda
clank                                                                                                             Sarah
eek                                     wide/narrow maybe getting smaller           Marge
groan                               short and fat                                                    Siobhan
grr                                      tall, skinny, leaning                                        ChrisQuilts
gurgle                                rounded and flat                                              Lynda
hiss                                    snake-like SS                                                    Tracey in CT

hiss                                    fat, uppercase                                                   Natima

hoot                                   rounded                                                             Valerie
howl                                  thin and growing                                              Dionne
moan                                 mix of big and small                                        Beena

mu ha ha ha                                                                                                  Mimi

mwa ha ha ha                                                                                               Kim

rattle        Laura
screeeech                          spiky                                                                  Clare
slither                                low and wide                                                    Lynne
slither                                possibly leaning                                               Rondi
snarl                                   straight up and down                                      ForestJane
slurp                                   rounded and curvy                                           Rachael
squeeeak                                                                                                        Kathy
thump                                wide/narrow letters                                        Cheri
trick or treat                     overlapped                                                        Katie
wooooo                                                                                                          Sharon

I'm not much of a planner when I'm making words. I have a tendency to just chop and go. To see a completely different way to work, check out Lynne's planning for slither. Lynne plots, plans, and does a lot of work with paper. She's on the opposite of the spectrum. Both ways work, you just have to play around until you find what works best for you.

Clare meanwhile has plotted and schemed and hatched an idea making spiky letters for screeech.

If you aren't sure how you'd like to do your word or would like suggestions, just ask. As far as fonts goes, hmmm, looks like we could do with something angular.

We now have a SHRIEK up for grabs if anyone would like to take it. Which is not to say we can't have dupes... Cuz we can, just let me know.

Halloween Noises so Far

Right after I published that last post a thought occurred to me.  You know, this Halloween Noises quilt is going to be a blast to hand quilt. There are so many really cool things I can do with it. If you guys use some solids or mostly solids - and leave the backgrounds large for me to cut down as needed - I'll have some great places for quilting. These are details from my Dear Mummy quilt to give you an idea of what I'm talking about. This quilting wouldn't have worked on top of novelty prints.

The background doesn't have to be light colored - I have a large array of colors to choose from in the perle cotton and embroidery floss. I hope you guys can come up with quilting ideas too, so I don't just do my usual spiderwebs...

This is what I have so far. Let me know changes or additions.

argh big leaning Cher

bang  BIG Honeybee

boo maybe big and skinny Patti

boo Brenda

clank extra angular Carol E.

eek wide/narrow maybe getting smaller Marge

groan short and fat Siobhan

grr tall, skinny, leaning ChrisQuilts

gurgle rounded and flat Lynda

hiss snake-like SS Tracey in CT

howl thin and growing Dionne

moan mix of big and small Beena

screeeech Clare

shriek really tall and skinny Lynne

slither low and wide Lynne

slither possibly leaning Rondi

snarl straight up and down ForestJane

slurp rounded and curvy Rachael

squeeeak Kathy

thump wide/narrow letters Cheri

trick or treat overlapped Katie

wooooo Sharon

The deadline to make the blocks is end of May. In the mail on 1 June, right?

Honeybee, I wasn't sure from your comment (and you're no-reply) if you just wanted to do bang or also wanted grunt rattle and howl. which would be really fun. All depends on how ambitious you're feeling. Send me an email if you want to chat about it, otherwise responding in the comments here works too.

I am so enjoying reading about the thinking that is going into some of these words, forming the letters by how they sound or by what creature it is that makes them. So very cool. Ya'all are wonderful.

I am happy to have more people play along, believe me. It might be one large quilt or a pair, who knows, I don't. It's just fun to play and explore.  It's so marvelous to see ideas that I never would have come up with on my own.

Anyone want to be the evil mastermind plotting to take over the world and do a mwa ha ha ha? Or an alternate spelling thereof. 

If you're new to making the letters please don't think that you have to make it complicated. Those O's don't have to be rounded (unless that's the font you've chosen). And every letter or word, no matter how misshappen you think it might be, can find a home in one of my quilts. Seriously. Maybe not quickly, because I am sloooow, but eventually.

One thing I forgot to mention in the last post is that I rarely use the graph paper to make an exact copy of what I've drawn. In fact, I don't think I've ever done that. But I use it as a guidepost. Cut fabric strips this wide, this bit will need to be at least this much long...

Okay, gotta run. Ya'all take care.

Hera Marker

I have actual quilting content in this post - about time you might say. That will be followed by a section on Pokey and the third act will be tv viewing, so you can skip around as you like.

First off, look at the wonderful blocks that Kimberly M sent me. They are all marvelous.

Next, I wanted to show you how I'm quilting the Margarita Quilt. I'm going in straight lines. Well, sorta straight - the lines go from one corner diagonally across the patch and then I skip to the next patch since a lot of them aren't lined up.

After hearing Bonnie rave about her Hera marker I decided to give it a try. I love it. You just press down and that makes the mark - there is no ink or chalk on the quilt. 

A close-up of an area that's been quilted. No, none of my lines are truly straight, not even in the patches, and that's okay with me. Actually, they don't look that bad in the photo - it's when I'm close up and working on them that I really notice it.

So on Monday and Tuesday I taught a class on Wonky Houses and free-pieced letters. My students were great and put up with me even though I was rather rough. I threw them into the deep end and they made some great blocks. I was so focused on "what have I forgotten to tell them" that I didn't take any photos. I'd think of it, but then say, I'll do that later. D'oh.

Okay, no pics of my student's houses, but here are a couple of really fun quilts that Sarah made, including houses.

I did make some friends though - that's the best part of all. Yesterday I actually had a quilting play date - woohoo.

A gratuitous picture of my baby Pokey (and Habibi in the cat tree).

The only way you'd know all the trauma she's been through is by her punk rock hairdo. I've had a mental checklist of her normal activities that I've checked off as she's done them: begging for treats, sitting in a box, chewing on a box, chewing on random paper, scaling the tall cat tree, hunting socks... The only thing I haven't seen her do is jump way high onto a countertop.

The best thing is that she and Lily are being sweet again. A week before Pokey got sick, they had just started sitting together and mutually grooming after the trauma of the move from Paris. 

So all is right with Pokey's world except for the enormous capsules I shove down her throat twice a day. She runs and hides now from me in the morning - heartbreaking. I tried the Pill Pockets, but they were so large that Pokey couldn't even eat a whole one without the pill in it.

On to tv viewing. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but my favorite show on tv right now is Hell's Kitchen. I've thought for a couple of weeks now that the winner is either going to be Danny or Paula - they are the most consistent chefs. No meltdowns, no time outs for Chef to yell at them... I'm rooting for Paula, but Danny deserves it to.

I finished the too short Lost season 4. Loving the flash forwards and looking forward to season 5 getting to DVD. I'm actually waiting for lots of shows to come out on DVD so that I can finally be caught up and watch them live next year. I'm just hoping that will include Chuck (please, NBC, please renew it) and Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles although I'm afraid that one is a goner.

Dollhouse has significantly improved. This last episode where the dead woman got to come back - that actually made real sense to me of why the Dollhouse would exist - rich people regaining youth and vigor. I don't love this show like I've loved Joss' other series. It's a B. I won't cry if it doesn't get renewed.

Man, Pokey just came over and nipped at me for attention - it's been ages since that happened. I am outta here - gotta go play with my baby.

Bad Batting, Bad

I had a hard time choosing what kind of quilting pattern to do for Joy. My initial thought was to mimic all the plaid lines and do some kind of straight lines on the quilt. You can see the problems I ran into trying to mark lines. Pokey, Pokey, Pokey.

I quilted a partial line and realized that no, that just wasn't going to work - too many straight lines. Maybe a crosshatch would be better, but since I want to minimize crossing seams that wasn't going to help much. So then I tried my old standby of freehand fans. Quickly realized that wasn't doing anything since most of the fans would disappear amidst all the busy fabric.

In the purple border I decided to do a fun spirally pattern that I learned from Gwen Marston. I've never seen it in one of her books, but she used it on the adorable purple Christmas Tree quilt in Ladies' Circle Patchwork and Quilting sometime in the early '90s. There are spirals growing out of a center vine - I like how it looks. This is 3 strands of embroidery floss and a honking big needle:

Now one thing complicating matters is that I bought a quilting batt that I'd never used before. My LQS had run out of Quilter's Dream Request so I thought, could the Quilter's Dream Select be all that different? It's a 70% cotton blend rather than pure cotton but shouldn't that make it even easier to quilt through? HA!

For hand quilting, the Select is horrific. Never, ever will I do this again. It hurts to pull the needle through and I'm too stubborn to just stab stitch. I was having such a hard time pulling the needle through that I bought balloons to help grab onto the needle. I just cut one in half and stuck the top end on my thumb. Homemade finger cot. 

It's actually very hard to take a photo one-handed esp when using your non-dominant hand. 

Anyway, you can also use a whole balloon as a needle grabber. Putting it on my thumb just saves effort. I'm also wearing one of my beloved Handeze gloves, which work great at reducing wrist fatigue. You can get them at JoAnn's and Michaels over with the embroidery floss.

I'm going to tack the rest of the quilt, haven't decided exactly how yet. 

Pokey and Bibi were both making me nuts this morning while I was trying to quilt. It's hard to be a single catmom.

Switching over to geekiness. Did ya'all watch the 4th episode of Dollhouse? I thought it was a big improvement and the series has gotten much more interesting. Though of course there are those niggling questions. Why would you ever get a Doll to be a midwife? Unless there was some kind of unmentioned skullduggery, it seems rather pointless not to mention overly expensive. So I'd rather that episode a B. Maybe with a minus. Really looking forward to the next couple of episodes.

I really need to stop reading TV By the Numbers. It depresses the hell out of me. Dollhouse may make it through one season but is doubtful for pickup next year, Terminator: Sarah Connor is doing terribly in the ratings and is likely to be cancelled. And why is it that Chuck is even in danger of not getting renewed? That is such a fun show, why would the network cancel it?

So speaking of tv, I am going to give Castle a try tonight. It sounds completely unoriginal, but hey, I do love mysteries and Nathan Fillion (Firefly's Capt Mal Reynolds) is a hoot, so what the heck. Here's a review of the first episode by Televisionary.

Album Quilts of Ohio's Miami Valley

I have a book to recommend to you: Album Quilts of Ohio's Miami Valley by Sue C. Cummings. "From 1888 to 1918, a community of Miami Valley farm families who were neighbors and relatives made album presentation quilts to celebrate life passages. Their sharing of designs and construction techniques led to the development of a distinctive regional quilt style that has never been duplicated in any other region of the state or country." 

This is one of the liveliest, most wonderful quilts I've ever seen pictured here on the cover. It's the Jesse Arnett Quilt, dated February 4, 1912.

The blocks were made in different sizes. To put them together, blocks were either cut down (look in the bottom left corner - the Pineapple block and whatever that one is beneath it were just whacked off - no splitting it in half or trying to make it look symmetrical) or spacer bars were added when needed.

Can you imagine how hard that would be to do without the rotary cutter and ruler? Now it's relatively easy...

Admittedly, not all the quilts featured in the book were made exactly like that, but my favorites definitely were. If you go to the publisher's website and look at the image gallery here, you can see more examples.

When Gwen Marston says that Liberated Quiltmaking is nothing new - she gets so many ideas from antique quilts - she's not kidding. Inaccurate wonky piecing is just ANOTHER way to make quilts.

The book is told as a detective story as Sue Cummings finds her first quilt with the Miami Eagle and then begins to track down more of them. There's admittedly more genealogy than I needed, but I can certainly see its value to historians.

There are loads of wonderful quilts pictured and the photos are fabulous. The publisher got a grant from Robert and Ardis James to help cover the cost. So the price is actually very slim for all that you get in the book. 

There are other bloggers out there who love this book, check out reviews by: Craft Lust, and Inspired by Antique Quilts.

One other thing you may discover in this book is how horrible polyester batting is. Truly. Compare the barely quilted quilts that have the dreaded poly with the heavily quilted beauties from years earlier. They're just sad - the poly quilts. Oh, that's another thing to recommend this book - the beautiful hand quilting. In many of the quilts it was done block by block so there's a fun variety of motifs.

So get the book, it's fabulous.

Double 9-Patch Margarita Quilt?

I have a few Lazy 9-Patches for making another Margarita Quilt. And bunches more strips cut too so I can make more whenever I'm in the mood. From the very beginning I was thinking I'd like to make a Double 9-Patch. [Don't know what a Double 9-Patch is? Look here.] I got excited to play with the blocks when I found this gorgeous floral fabric which I could use as a border. Here's a potential layout:

The blocks look good with the border:

But is it just me or is this awfully white? White, white, white. I do want it to have some zing.

Hmm, but zing could be a bad thing too...

I'm not in any hurry to put this together, just wanted to have some fun playing. I took some shots of kitties modeling the floral fabric, but those will have to wait for their own post. Meanwhile here's a sleepy Pokey to tide you over.

I haven't sat at the sewing machine in days. Instead I've been firmly planted on the sofa watching old episodes of The Office. I'm now finished with Season 4 and all I want to do is keep going. 

Netflix now has a great feature where you can get all sorts of tv shows and movies sent directly to your tv without having to wait for DVDs (so long as you have the proper device).  Wheee, does that make it easy to marathon. Rather dangerous too. I watched the second episode of McMillan and Wife and just laughed my way through it.  Wife just kept shrieking "Mac" throughout the episode and all I could think of was my friend Siobhan calling for her Scottish Terrier.

Back on the subject of fabric: Laurie Ann is offering up a gallon-sized freezer bag full of Christmas strips. If you like them, you can send her a brights fat quarter in return. If you're interested send me an email and I'll forward it on to her. [the strips have found a home, thanks. no need to mail me.]

Today I'm finally going to be good and get some packages in the mail myself. I hate doing chores. At least I get to go to the library too!