Bead Shopping in the Khan

I went on a bead shopping excursion into the Khan al Khalili today. We were only there for 3 hours, but I am exhausted. What a sissy girl I am. It was about 90 degrees out today, but the sun is blocked out in so many areas of the Khan by roofing or buildings that it just didn't feel that hot. Plus there weren't many tourists, so it wasn't packed.

I didn't think it was crowded anyway. I've seen much worse. A couple of the women in our group are just visiting here and they thought differently. Nope, this is definitely off-season. Or almost off. It was interesting to see their reactions - not knowing which way to look, so much going on and so many people shouting or talking to you. And you really have to watch where you are going because the streets are narrow and basically rubble so tripping is always a possibility.

Blogger will absolutely not allow me to post one of my pics, but I still have a pretty good selection for you. This is a huge bowl of beads, bought by the gram. I sifted through here for awhile and found a few cool scarabs.

Turquoise, both natural and dyed, is readily available. Have to admit I have no idea what the red beads are.

This is a glass shop next door. Of particular note are the hanging "grape" lanterns in the middle of the pic. Remember the red and green "christmas tree" lampshades that I got? This is one of the ways these can be used. I also like the giant egg-shaped lights made with mosaic'ed glass tiles - they look like something to put beside your lava lamp.

A table full of very typical souvenirs. Those are scarabs on the bottom shelf.

Cat House

Whee, I'm making progress today. I've got the binding 3/4 of the way done on Space 4 Rent. And just in case you've missed seeing the houses, here's yet one more:

This is from part of the quilt where the house blocks are most definitely not square. Square can be just so square... And this is the Cat House because of the cats on the roof - it's not a bordello. This isn't the old West.

Rather than piece on a quilt, I've decided to make several gift bags for my sweetie's upcoming birthday. He's going to be getting an eclectic mix of Wallace and Gromit, Ayn Rand, and Sherlock Holmes.

I watched "The Wedding Crashers" this morning. I started out enjoying it, but got really frustrated by the passive female lead and all the rest of the absolute idiots. At least it made me laugh. That's more than can be said for that stupid "Invasion Earth" which I did finish watching despite growing more and more annoyed and bored. If you're going to be cheesy sci-fi you'd better be funny. This one took itself way too seriously. Bleck. I can't believe a friend of a friend actually purchased the DVD voluntarily.

Two Finishes

A quilt shop I used to go to had a theory that each quilt had three finishes: 1) finished top 2) finished quilting 3) finished quilt. Going by that theory I've done two finishes. Last night I finished the quilting on Space 4 Rent and today I sewed and sewed and finished the top for Terms of Endearment.

There are a couple of spots that stand out a bit much, but they'll be toned down by the quilting - undoubtedly gonna be fans. I'm thrilled that the border looks as good as it does. I managed to cut one of the border strips a 1/2" too short and another one was wonky as well. But I made it thru by the skin of my teeth. Now I just wish I had several more yards of this fabric to make something else with.

I had a little "help" today:


It's almost 6pm and I haven't made dinner yet. Gotta go and be good. Later.

Giza II

Giza II - The Revenge of My Non-Existent Muscles. I can't believe how much I ache...

Here's one more shot for ya'all. This shows all three pyramids at the plateau, as well as the Sphinx, which is actually kind of small, and lots and lots of tourists. Sorry, Sharon, I have no idea what the scaffolding is for, but I suspect some kind of conservation work.
I was going to add all of this upcoming babble to my previous post, but it was easier to just do two posts and throw in the pic. I'm feeling chatty today.

I can't believe how much the muscles in the front of my thighs still hurt, and my calves, after that horrendous cramped climb up the pyramid. I want to squeal with pain every time I stand up.

Lily, tell your Dad he didn't miss a thing by not making it to the burial chamber. It was kind of an adventure and a fun story to tell, and yes it gave me that much better of an understanding about how the pyramid was built, but I wouldn't do it over again.

Dawn, definitely wouldn't be the thing for you. I have a touch of claustrophobia myself.

Luckily there's electric lighting now (and the guide gave me a flashlight just in case it went out) but can you just imagine what it would have been like in torchlight 4,500 some years ago? At least now you know that the pyramid is incredibly well constructed and has survived several earthquakes and isn't likely to come down on your head, but they wouldn't have known that then... No, not good.

I am happy to report that my knee didn't act up at all. I was expecting all sorts of swelling, but there's been nothing. Woohoo.

Almost There

I love the process of how quilts are made. All the little decisions made along the way, some good some not, but all having an effect.That whole process thing. I'm not just interested in my own, but in other quilters' as well. So this isn't just me trying to bore you, but to give you a feel for making the quilt in case you're interested in the process as well. If it bores you silly, feel free to skip towards the end.

I just started sewing the piano keys together, no definitive size, no idea of their placement. Then when I had workable pieces, I moved them around here and there. The essence of liberated, improvisational piecing: just sew it on and whack off any extra. (When you're working with pieces with lots of seams, it's best to just unpick the seam if you would have a quarter inch or less left on a piece.)

I sewed on those piano keys and then straightened up the bottom of the block. I decided to add a strip to the Pooh unit, since it was 3/4" shorter than the Peetie unit, which I liked just the way it was. I cut a light purple strip 1/4" bigger than I thought I would need - I've discovered it's easier to trim than just get it that much too small. This is after I've sewn the two units together and before I've straightened across the top:

In the next pic I've sewn those two units together, as well as the two right above them. The Abominables row is all together. Those two pinky purple rectangles of fabric at the end came off my Fruit Punch quilt borders. They're oversized right now, cuz I'm not sure if I want to center the word on the line or shift it to one side.

Up in the top left I've added some yellow to the left and top of Booboo, as well as piano keys on the bottom and side. I don't want the word unit to go smack into the inner border, so that was what I chose to move it in some. You'll notice some larger bits of fabric that I'm auditioning here and there. I had had a strong dark pink in the lower right corner, but itwas too overwhelming.

Oh, and one other thing to note. At this stage I still wasn't sure about the border. There was a strong possibility of a piano key border, so I didn't want big chunks of keys on the outer edge of this.

Okay, that Spot spot was too strong. I cut down the piano keys and ended up moving a section of them down to Pumpkin Pie. There are a few changes in fabric chunks here and there. I've decided a stronger orange is required in the bottom left. Oh, and here's that infamous border fabric from Fruit Punch yet again. It didn't work there, but I'm feeling pretty confident about it this time.

You know, I just realized I haven't actually thought about if there's enough of it or not. This center bit is bigger than FP was. D'oh. But I'm planning on making it much narrower. Think it'll work. I'm sure Dawn will be happy that I'm using this gorgeous fabric at last.

And this is how it looks as of right now, after an hour of sewing this morning. That yellow and orange spotty fabric in the top was too overwhelming. And I love that fabric that was on the right of Spot, but it's obnoxious as well.

It's the area around Spot that is still problematic for me. I like that bit of red I'm auditioning right above it, but not sure about the orange to the left. I'm thinking I need more of that good strong red there or maybe purple, so that it will be darker than the pink around Sweet Pea. And the bottom row is still a bit short.

This is one of my favorite methods to look at a quilt in progress. The black and white effect in Picasa. I've already sewn it on, but that bit of piano key to the left of Stinker isn't thrilling me. At this point it would be easy enough to replace. Something more to think about.

Kind of embarassing to admit, but I probably spent more than two hours just staring at this quilt while listening to the tv and occasionally petting a cat. At times like that, when I can't quite figure out what to do next, I can see the advantage of working with patterns.

Hey, I've found "Charmed" again. Don't know how long it will last, but I'm enjoying it.