Playing with Lily

Thank you, Lynda, for the colorful name block. I love your a in particular. Thank you, Kristin, for your name and the fun orphan blocks. woohoo.

I made this little video so that my husband could see Lily in action. Lily and I often play together this way - I jab my finger at her and she attacks. I think my husband is convinced I'm going to poke her eye out one of these days - he worries too much.

I've got a couple of quilting blogs for you to check out. 

First, I love all the bright color and liberation going on over at Bebe's Boutique. Whee, and now she's making letters too.

Rachael Adele at Park Avenue Sweatshop is making wonderful scrap quilts that have a bright, fresh sensibility. 

On a complete change of topic... So not happy with how Top Chef turned out. Haven't watched the finale of Season 5 yet? Stop reading. I'll talk about Hell's Kitchen first (spoilers there too), and then back to Top Chef.

The right person definitely got sent home this week. Good riddance to Seth. eeuw, same towel to rub your face and the pan. Lacey did so much better this week (or at the very least she wasn't constantly getting yelled at).  I hope she gets a fresh start on the Blue Team. But was that Robert making a rude remark about Lacey's weight? Hello, Kettle, this is Pot calling. Jerk, he lost any sympathy I had for him.

Oh, Carla. This was supposed to be the best meal you ever turned out. YOU, not your sous chef. Sigh. Oh yes, I'll try this new technique I'm unfamiliar with. Gah! What a disappointment. And Hosea wins? Did he win a single challenge? I can't remember one. He always seemed just good enough to get by, never really terrible. Have to say, I'd prefer to see the judges pick a winning meal BUT choose the Top Chef by their work throughout the competition. I'd even graciously see Stefan win that. But Hosea? Bleck.

Tropical

I figure, why have a picture of just fabric, when I could instead have a picture of fabric AND cats. Back when I had kittens in the house, it wasn't optional. Fabric? Camera? Inevitably Lily or Pokey would arrive and get in the way. Now they're not doing it so much anymore so I have to work harder. I figured the cat tree would make a great display spot for this potential border fabric. It's Tropical by Phillip Jacobs for Rowan. Bibi isn't very interested.

I admit it, I went and grabbed Lily and put her on top of the fabric.


Yes, her eyes really are this green.

I have to take lots of cat photos for my husband, who's far away right now. It took a lot of work to get a photo of Howler when he's a) awake and b) not fleeing. Howler looks so funny all smudgy like this - my husband just thinks I'm mean for laughing at the poor creature.

I tried using a new kitty litter made out of corn. It's turned into a powder and just gets all over Howler. Maybe the other kitties too, but you can't see it on them. At least it's a food product, but I will not be buying this litter again.

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! 

More Names

More names for my future Name Sampler arrived yesterday - woohoo. Thank you, Katie and Nichi! I love how much diversity in colors and styles this quilt is going to have.

While I had the camera out, managed to catch Pokey and Habibi enjoying life in the cat tree. I have no idea what caught their attention - but they were both looking at something.

I watched the second episode of Dollhouse. What a relief - that was much better. Okay the main storyline wasn't that exciting, but I loved seeing the relationship between Echo and her handler; not to mention Alpha, and the creepy head of security (who definitely needs to get his ass kicked), and Echo remembering things she probably shouldn't. Woohoo, here we go.

Who else is watching Top Chef? I was so excited to be rid of Leah, who seemingly advanced way beyond her talents. But Fabio? Say it isn't so. He was a hoot, I would much rather have lost Stefan. I'm definitely pulling for Carla - hootie hoo!!!

Hell's Kitchen is amusing, but definitely not as good as Top Chef. What precisely was the point of making the chefs eat raw organ meat? Sorry, I can understand a lot of the other abuse goes a long way to getting these guys to pull together as a team and follow orders precisely and quickly, but that? Unnecessary and not entertaining.

Tula Pink and Hulu's Evil Plot

Whee, new fabric from the Fabric Square Shop! These are some of the fabrics from Nest by Tula Pink. My absolutest favoritest fabric is the one in the top right. I love the colors, the design, the flow of it all. And yes, it has brown in it.

Violette Severin did a fun interview with Tula here. And you can read the TulaPink blog too. I'm fascinated by the whole fabric design process, so it's fun to get glimpses of how it works - for instance, the colorways that didn't get chosen.

This next one is another Tula Pink called New Moon Forest.  I wouldn't have thought it (sounds too sweet) but I love the bunny in damask.

These are from another Moda packet, this one called Soiree. Wheeeee, the colors are so bright and happy.

And now for something completely different, a few from City Traditions. These ones are going to work well with the repro sampler I'm working on right now.

Look at how they go together. Obviously I need a few more dark darks in here:

It's definitely been good mail around here. I got this wonderful name and letter blocks from Jude. So wonderful to actually get to hold something from Jude and see the unusual fabrics she uses - they aren't the quilting cottons that cram my drawers, except for that one black with bright pindots...

I'm continuing to hand quilt Raspberry Rumspringa. I'm finally done with the border and am working on my second block. But I'm just not sure how much quilting is too much, and should certain areas be left empty...  I'll keep going. I figure I'll err on the side of too much.

Last night I watched the black and white version of The Mist which was based on a Stephen King novella of the same name. I really enjoyed reading the story but always thought the ending was lame. Well it was a heck of a lot better than the horrible nasty vile ending the movie used. awful. and it really changed the way I felt about the movie which had been really well done up to that point. Lots of suspense, not too gory and the humans could be as monstrous as the creatures outside.

On the much lighter side, I'm watching American version of The Office. I tried watching the British version as well, but as much as I adore Ricky Gervais I couldn't stand the show without Rainn Wilson. So I'm on the second season and loving it. Not as great as Arrested Development, but what could be?

Watched the second season of 30 Rock and loved it as much as the first. If only the season hadn't been cut short. I'm really tempted to get one of those Sabor de Soledad t-shirts... hee hee hee

I also just finished rewatching the first season of The Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles. I really enjoyed it again - it's a show for me. I was hoping that I'd be able to go to the Fox website or Hulu.com and get all caught up with the current season, but no such luck. They'd already removed the first couple of episodes. Guess I'm going to have to wait for the DVD to come out.

Speaking of Hulu.com have you seen the wonderful ad with Alec Baldwin about the evil plot to take over the world? I LOVE this:

If all commercials were this entertaining it would be a lot easier to watch live tv and not just DVDs.