The quilts so far...

I just went through and re-tagged a heap of posts, since I stopped putting quilt numbers at around #6.

#1 is the big rainbow quilt.

#2 is Maddy's quilt.

#3 is Levi's (friend from work's baby) quilt.

#4 will be Mama Jan's quilt, which got a number when it was in planning stages - that's how long it's been on the gunna list.

#5 is the retro quilt

#6 is the BlueGreen quilt

#7 is the purple quilt (not yet completed)

#8 is Esther's quilt

#9 is Dad's quilt cover (quilted, but not assembled)

#10 is my wonky Mingle mini quilt.

#11 is what came to be known as the Bubble and Squeak mini quilt (which has also gone to live with Esther, not that it will ever get used because I tied a bow around it in matching fabric and Helen thinks it's too pretty to unwrap)

#12 is the Honeycomb quilt I finished today.

Now I need a way to put that somewhere I can remember it - on the sidewall or something.

A blog from on the bed (actually, about 95% of them are)

Having discussed with Helen my tendency to peruse the internet while enjoying the comforting solitude of the loo, it seemed only appropriate that I read her lovely comment while sitting in the bog at work, while hiding from co-workers trying to tell me about how much alcohol they plan on consuming tonight, or how their mum wont let them sleep in the same bed as their boyfriend, because "she was having sex at 15, and I'm 16, so I should totally be allowed..."

No, you're still a kid sweetheart. You should think boys have cooties, and be sleeping with a stuffed toy, not a fella.

Anyway, it's nice that someone else thinks that the things I make are as nice as I think they are. I've probably become a bit up myself about it, because I love some of them so much, but I do still wory that some people wont like them as much as I do. I look at the wonky quilt, in spite of the fact that some points are more than 5mm off, and in spite of the fact that it's too small for me to really use for anything, and I think, shit, I made that. Me. Noone helped, or showed me how to do it, or did the design for me. I came up with it all by myself, and that makes me awesome. And now, or more specifically later, when the nagging doubt creeps in, that my fondness for the wavy stitch and my unwillingness to put in the effort of in-the-ditch makes me a lazy sewer, that my inability to free-motion means I'm not a real quilter, or that the occasional bad tension coming from my sewing machine for no apparent reason means I'm unfit to show anyone anything I've made, I can read that comment, and feel good.

Actually I've been pretty lucky to have come from a family that gets the effort that goes into this sort of stuff. Both Nans knit, Nanna Joy at a much more prolific rate, but Nanny Ella has spread herself out over a whole lot of other crafts: I imagine its much harder to knit a new toy every 3 days when you're also trying to complete a couple of tapestries, or pulling little holes in bits of fabric. Truth be told, I don't really have the patience for any of that stuff. But they all make things, and they know that we are our own harshest critics, and they humour me by letting me go on and on about all the faults in an item, but without really listening. Sometimes, when it takes me a few minutes to find the mistake I've been going on about, they laugh at me. This is of course the correct response.

Anyway, now that I've blathered on for a bit, photos.

It came up nice after the wash. I was a bit worried, having not pre-washed the fabrics, but they were all the same range, so I figured they would be fine, and they were.

First of course is the standard "front of quilt" shot.

Next, and also standard, "back of quilt" shot.

Next up we move into exciting territory. Me, having ago at "quilt blog style" shots. I'm not that good at them - since the Sony T20 debacle I'm back with my trusty old Kodak, in my bedroom, at night. The lighting isn't great, and I cant be arsed photoshopping.

It's all very nice, but I'm worried that having the blue-green quilt as a base makes the photo too busy and is therefore breaking some kind of blog-photo violation. But I lucked out on folding it up in such a way that you only see nice neat seams. That was good of me. Next time I might get up off my arse,* go down to the kitchen and take it on the nice hardwood table, though I think that rustic driftwood would be better, and make me look like I live somewhere much more exotic than I do.

This seems to be a little more like some of the ones on the proper blogs, the ones that have sponsors and giveaways (not gunna, cause I cant help but think they're just a cry for comments.)

Nevermind. Photos arent the be all and end all, though I do feel a bit bad about the fact that people actually sit down and read my drivel. That said, they're showing Princess Diaries 2 on TV tonight for the 43 billionth time, so it's not like there's anything better for y'all to be doing. You could go wash your hair like Babycat is doing. You could blog like me...

On that note, Helen, you should totally blog. I'd read it.

*earlier, spellcheck was fine with arsed but now, without the d on the end, it's no longer acceptable. Silly spellcheck**

**spellcheck: also not an accepted word.

Is that the time already?

Got called in to work today which kinda ruined it for me - they wanted me to do 10-6 but I told them I could only do 10-3 because I had Spotlight's Christmas quilt night to go to, only for me to show up at 6 and find out that, as with last time I was planning for one of these things, it's next week. Still, the spend-$100-save-$40 voucher I got in the mail was useable, so I bought enough fabrics, batting, and cotton to do another 4 baby quilts, as well as a heap of other random stuff. Then, because I was cross at myself for being so shit with knowing what the hell is going on, who am I, where am I etc etc, I wandered around town scowling at people and buying more shit I didn't need.

Helen, I have a heap of hairclips for you. They were on chuckout for a dollar a pack at the reject shop and they're plain goldtone snapclips. They don't have a hole though, so they might take more gluing than normal.

As well as hairclips, I bought a copy of Portal, because one day I might get around to playing it, and also because it made the guy behind the counter come up and flirt with me (I scowled at him) and an mp3 player, despite the fact that I got one for $10 on eBay last night, and this one was $30. I was feeling bummed, and cant be held responsible for any purchases made. I held back from going into Cotton On, because 75% of the stuff (all the clothes and shoes and accessories) in that shop make me scowl even on the best of days, but I simply cannot resist the fact that they have notebooks for $2, especially as I have bookmarked a tutorial for a really cute quilted cover, which has already led to me purchasing 12 of the damn things for one day when I get around to it. So I went to the plaza instead, and I wandered around Kmart, scowling at people, then I went to KFC, where I was going through drivethrough, so there wasn't too much human interaction. Which was nice. 

But I did learn something interesting tonight - if you push the tip of your tounge on the back of your top teeth, you cant really smile. It's not so much a scowl as a "you are too unimportant for me to bother with any expression at all" face, and it's good for walking past the mobs of teenyboppers at the plaza. Also, being better than them in every single way helps too. See, even when I'm feeling bummed I manage to still feel awesome. That kind of multitasking can only be achieved by someone who both quilts and owns a small kitten.

However, before all my self loathing/moral superiority kicked in, I decided that what I really needed to do tonight was make another baby quilt. I picked some stash (I know, Oh my god, Are you okay, etc etc) and started chopping 10 squares at 21.5cm of one fabric and 20 each of two fabrics at 11.5cm. I think it's called a disappearing 4 patch or something but basically every second one is a 4 patch. Final squares are 20cm so its 80cm by 100cm big.

I didn't really think through which blocks go where - there's not the hugest amount of contrast between the two fabrics in the 4 patch and the big stripe blocks unfortunately have become a bit wonky during quilting - I did either side of the seam on the 4 patch but I had no actual line to follow when it hot to the wrong way of the stripe, and the pins I put in to help with the guesswork have made it bunch up a bit. Still, I got it designed, cut, pieced, basted and quilted in about 6 hours, but I cant really be bothered binding it tonight. Instead of watching stuff on the laptop as I was working I had the new mp3 player on, and due to the absence of a clock on it, I didn't realise it was 1am already, so that can be done tomorrow.

This is the back and I really like the diagonal line. I would have done it straight but then I would have had to try line it up with the other lines - now I've found out I actually prefer the effect created by having it on the angle. I think next one I might try something even more along these lines - a kindof freeform assembly of the blocks instead of right angles in a grid. Wasn't that the point of these little ones? To try shit out?