I don't like thongs.

Tonight, I'm suffering from the horrible empty feeling that comes from finishing a book you were really into, and not having another one lined up. It bummed me out so much, I cleaned out under my bed. So now I'm also feeling bummed about the fact that an hour and a half of clearing, putting stuff in tubs and binning everything else has made the room look... slightly messier. All the visible mess is still there, around the sewing machine, and of course I'm putting that off the most because that's where all the half done projects are, and if you put them away there's always a risk they will remain half done forever.

In an effort to counter this at least a little bit, the rainbow zigzag quilt is all quilted and trimmed. This was from ages ago, and I kept stalling in hopes that I and/or my machine would magically acquire the ability to stipple, and I could do some funky dense stuff all over the black bits, leaving the rainbow to pop. But it still hasn't happened (because a.) I need to take my machine in for a service and having done that b.) practice) So I just followed the seams along the zigzags -edge to edge on the black, around the inside on the coloured bits. It makes it look a bit more cohesive on the back too - random zigzagged lines interfere with a random stripey design less than defined patches of quilting.

Trimmed AND lint rolled. Still needs a heart appliqued into the bottom corner gap.

I might bind it from the back so it's wider on the front, so I don't chop off as much of the piecing.

Pink binding will be done some other day, mainly because the fabric I'm using is 285cm wide sheeting, and it's gunna take a bit of effort to iron it and cut it into strips. There'll be less joins though, but I'm not sure it's worth it. I just went for it because I like the colour.

Change of topic now. I feel like having a little rant.

I have a question. What's so great about thongs? Obviously, being Australian, I am referring to the rubber footwear that gives you nasty nasty blisters, not the skimpy underwear that gives you nasty nasty wedgies. But really, they're both pretty bad. I mean, yes, they are easy to get on. And when you're at the beach, you can shake out the sand, for all that it's pointless, because the next step you take will get more nasty gritty bits between the thong and your big toe, grinding away mercilessly at the skin. And it wasn't so bad when everyone was paying two bucks a pair from kmart, but now everyone's paying twenty bucks for a pair of havaianas, and still losing them/getting them stolen at the same rate. It seems like a waste of money for something that's nowhere near as good as a pair of real shoes. I put on a pair today, because they were at the back door, and my boots were at the front door, and I was going out to get some bark to light the fire, and the front door was too far away, and I am lazy. And then I went out to the woodshed, which is usually quite full of spiders and I found myself thinking, "well, how ridiculous is this?" I have a pair of perfect boots that are pretty much impenetrable to spiders. And while I'm relatively chill about spiders* the ones in the woodshed are usually fist sized and hairier than the muff of a 70s porn star. Not the kind of thing I want on my be-thonged feet, for all that I would find the irony of one on an underwear thong worthy of a good chuckle. And while I feel that spiders on toilet seats are perfectly good and Australian, having to suffer through something furry crawling over my toes, just because I'm wearing properly Australian footwear (except they're made in Brazil) isn't cool. As far as I can tell, the only good thing about thongs is that there's usually some at the back door, and they stop me getting splinters in the bottom of my feet.

I feel better now.

*as opposed to Meagan, who made me go into the toilet and kill a 4cm daddy long legs last night - actual body size, about 3mm.

It seems like a good idea...

Even though I said I wasn't gunna buy any more fabric till after my room was clean, I did buy some hot pink cotton sheeting today to use as a binding for the rainbow steps on black quilt, which is very nearly all quilted - it would be but the moving stuff around thing has left the machine even more, um, congested than usual.

I had originally planned to bind it in black. It has a black border and background, and well, it seems obvious, which of course seems to me to be a perfect reason not to. The quilt itself doesn't contain a hot pink in the piecing - The colours are all kona and the bright pink looked a bit faded compared to all the other colours, so it goes from the orange (I used tangerine and school bus) through to just the far side of purple (cerise). I've really struggled to find a super-bright pink in quilting fabric, but Spotlight has some 285cm wide 100% cotton sheeting that is exactly the colour I wanted. I also have to applique a heart in the corner, which will be the hard bit for me, though at least it will be quite small and in the corner. And yes, I have quilted it before appliqueing - I plan on shallowly needleturning it and then quilting through a foot's width* inside the seam just as I did with the piecing.

I have tomorrow off, so instead of cleaning like I should, I'm sure I will be finding new and exciting ways in which to procrastinate. Binding. Binding's toats fun!**


*by this I mean the width of the machine foot, which, being metric, is about .75cm. I don't mean I'm sewing a foot (12inches/30.4cm) from the edge. Obviously. That would be dumb.
**no, it's not. But it's better than cleaning out my room.

Aaaaand relax...

It's quarter to three in the morning, and I've finally finished the back for the rainbow steps quilt.

I know it's a weird-arse angle, but all of my non-blurry straight on photos had white spots.

One day I'm gunna properly write up about the effort that I go to to piece backs - it always feels like more work than doing the top. This one involved piecing long strips (ergh) and then cutting them into diagonals with scissors (bigger ergh) and then filling the gaps by putting some fabric over the top, and cutting around it (really big ergh)

The tiny white spot on the edge is outside the size of the actual quilt top, now with borders.

I'm a bit worried that you can kinda see the batting through the fabric, but I figure it will go away once it's all wrinkly.

Tomorrow I have work (another ergh) but it's only for 3 hours (so it's a short ergh) and then I have an engagement party to attend, which isn't an ergh in itself, but does mean that I wont be spending the afternoon working on free motioning some cushion covers I'm making for the practice.

I'm looking at setting some big plans in motion too, but they'll require some big research/planning.

P.S. I had planned on going around and commenting on the FTF posts tonight, but I hadn't planned on it being 3am by the time I got to my laptop, so I'll have to go against my natural instincts, and comment the day after (duh duh duuunnn)

I. Hate. Matching. Points.

I'm wondering tonight if we take printed fabrics for granted so much that they have become a crutch. That it matters less when our points are off, because they are lost in the design of the fabrics.

I'm wishing I was working with prints again. I don't care if they're a crutch. I'm in it for the math, not the having to perfectly match points.

I gave up on the purple quilt for the night. There are two many points, and not enough print to hide their badness. It's at nine patch stage, so there's technically only 8 lines of stitching remaining. But that's still far, far too many points.

Good news though; instructions still appear to be excellent. They'll just need to be accompanied by some paint diagrams instead of photos, since the cutting booboo of the other night means mine will only be as big as shown above.

I bought some more solids today at Spotlight so I could have a go at doing it again, but now I've had to do all the points I'm less sure I want to. These are broadcloth instead of homespun, but the fabric quality is nicer than that of some of Spotlight's new range quilting fabrics. Which are gorgeous, as prints, and let down horribly by the weave, which pisses me off. I'd love to use some. But I wont. As for the will I/wont I do it again in the broadcloths, I haven't decided yet. Probably.

As for something I wont be doing again, the rainbow steps quilt.

The reason I wont be doing it again? Well, I think I got it right this time. Which is jolly good, as some of the points in this were a bitch too. But it did have a big advantage over the purple quilt - only half of the points are actual, point-to-point points. And of that half, about half of that I worked out so that they had a black pairing on one side, and when those points don't match, you can't see they don't, making it way easier than the purple quilt.

As well as some broadcloths, I also bought a half metre more of black to do a 10cm border. It's still going to be fairly small - it will come out to about 110 by 130. But that's big enough for me, and I don't plan on sharing. Even if Mum thinks it would look nice hanging on the wall.

It's hanging on my curtains now. It's really pretty. I'm thinking about doing a flower instead of the heart in the corner, but I haven't decided yet. I also haven't decided how to quilt it, but considering my backlog, I've got a fair while to decide.