I love it. But I hate it. But it's quite nice. But it's not really.

I no longer have any idea how I feel about the swag quilt.

Look at that picture, it's freaking gorgeous.

But...

I'm not sure in real life. Because the strips of drill were all cut in one direction, and assembled in whatever direction they came together in, the weave doesn't align. I can't get a photo to show what I mean, but from an angle, it looks like each fabric is two different ones. Like someone's knitted a jumper from two different dye lots. It's especially problematic on the short bits either side of the centre blocks, on the big blocks in particular, not matching the long sides.

So that's making me quite cross.

On the other hand (because I now have 3 hands) the fact that it can look so lovely and balanced without me ever having seen the fabrics laid out in their spots is amazing. Either I've fluked it or I'm just absolutely, massively gifted.

Let's go with the latter, shall we? :)

Hopefully making some progress on the quilting tomorrow before work. Also, I had an amazing revelation on how to do something that has been eluding me for a few weeks tonight while I was on the loo. So I'll be testing that too.

Swag Quilt: Progress Report.

So this is my swag quilt so far.

Columns 1 and 2 are finished, 3 is almost finished and I haven't yet started 4 or 5.

Silly me accidentally cut the missing piece of column 3 as a pink and green floral (the fabric I call handbag, because it's the fabric of my handbag) and then discovered when I went to assemble it today that I didn't have enough spare of the pink with polka dots to fill in the gap. So it was back to Spotlight for yet another small piece of fabric, which is now in the wash with a whole heap of sheetings I've bought over the last few weeks to use as backings when I can't be bothered piecing anything.

I've double checked my little ziplock bags with all my pieces for columns 4 and 5, and they all look right, so hopefully I can be all done by tomorrow night. I'm working till 8.30, but that's an early night by my standards, so I've got plenty of time after that.

Weirdly, I don't feel very connected to this quilt. I think the problem may be that at no point did I lay the fabrics out on the floor and shuffle them around before deciding where they were going to go. I just followed the computer. It's not that I'm not liking where it's going, I just feel like it's not mine. It's like I'm looking at someone else's work. I imagine this is what doing a quilt from someone else's pattern would be like - like I'm looking at an answer without seeing the workings. It went from abstract coloured squares on a computer screen to part-done quilt without the usual middle process of choosing fabrics, putting them in their right spots and being able to see it all come together. I know I seem to rush a lot of my quilts but I still follow all the right steps in the right order, usually.

Maybe it's just that I'm not assembling repeating blocks. There's none of the 'sew-press-lay on floor to check that its all coming along nicely' that I usually do.

That said, I think it's a good thing that I'm only fond of it, and not super super in love with it. It will get used, in a field, when I'm drunk, maybe once a month. It will barely be seen. It will probably get really really dirty every time I use it. As far as quilts go, it will have a much harder life than most. I don't know that I would ever put my delicately thought-out quilts through that.

It's strange beginnings will lead to a strange life. But that happens sometimes.

In completely random news, we discovered tonight at work that you would need to drink approximately 27 cans of Birell (the ultra light (0.5%) beer we can sell at Woolies) in two hours to be considered intoxicated (2 standard drinks in the first hour and 1 per hour after that should mean you are under 0.05% BAC - the legal limit in SA, so 4 in two hours should put you over.) Since this is about 10 litres, we don't think it's really do-able.

Saturday nights are quite quiet.

Isn't it nice, when things just work?

Good news, sports fans! The swag quilt is a go!

I wonder sometimes if I'm the only person who does their quilt designs in Paint? I know there's many, many better, cleverer, more specialist programs available, But I really really like it. It's like colouring in on graph paper, but you can easily change the colours, till everything's in the right spot.

Of course, I'm not doing it in solids. I'm using a variety of printed drills from Spotlight, bought a week or so ago with the shared spend-$100-save-$40 coupon.

Though I did have to go back today for another 20cm of third-from-the-right, because that's the white squares in the middle, and I needed one more strip from which to cut my three 11.5x21.5cm edge half-squares.

The black lines all over it are my assembly points, and I admit, it's probably only understandable to me. But that's okay, I'm making it.

Every square is a finished 10cm, making the total size 110x180cm, which, although it's an odd size, is exactly the size I need, and handily means I can just use some standard width fabric for the backing without needing to piece it any extra. The fabrics are all cut, except the blue which is the binding and the last 20cm, which is still in the machine, but I'm hoping to make a nice big dent in the piecing tomorrow once that's dried and ironed. It's all in bags of rows 1-5 (the thick lines) and the mid-thickness lines show me the various sized cuts of fabric from within them - it'll just be like a big jigsaw puzzle.

This will also be quilt #40. Obviously, as mentioned the other day, not all 40 have been finished, but it will officially be quilt top #40, and for about 8 months of quilting, that seems pretty good.

Baaargains. Love 'em.

Apparently, there are some people out there who don't like bargains. They worry that buying something cheap will make them look cheap, so they make a point of always paying full price for everything.

These people should be taken out the back and shot.

As far as I'm concerned, the existence of bargains means that every day can be a treasure hunt. They'd probably call it a scavenger hunt, but I've always thought that a scavenger hunt had to be planned and was usually to celebrate an event, whereas treasure is just there. What's more, with regards to scavenger hunts, I'm usually the one doing the planning. In the party of life, I'm on the committee. So the opportunity to go treasure hunting whenever I feel like it, with no planning necessary, is tops in my book. 

That's the double whammy of greatness that a bargain brings. Not only do you get what it is you're buying, but the joy of success and the envy of fellow bargain lovers.

Definitely my best bargain recently was a pair of brand new RM Williams jeans for $8 from the Salvos. I go there at least a couple of times a week and it's quite rare that I don't get something nice. These particular jeans have an RRP of about AU$170, making them 95.3% off. Baaaargain, but one of my best friends wants to kill me and steal them. She has baaargain envy, which can usually only be cured by her finding a suitably bargain baaargain, and then showing it off.

That said, I don't think the Salvos (or Lifeline, or whatever thrift/charity store you have in your area) are my favourite providers of baaargains. My favourite type of baaargain is the end of range baaargain, which comes in two varieties.

The that's so cheap I can't not get it baaargain. The other day I went to Spotlight and there was some jelly rolls, formerly $29.95 each, out for $5. Nothing wrong with them, they were just old stock. I got 4 for me and 2 for a friend, even though I don't know that either of us would use a jelly roll. This is how most of my stash has been born.

And there's the I was totally willing to pay full price baaargain, with the optional extra of well I'll get the whole roll then, thanks. I decided yesterday to have a go at making a wallet, and decided it would be excellent to try laminating the fabric first. Prepackaged iron-on vinyl was $33 for 2 yards, but they had a bit left on the roll at $17 a metre, so I decided to get about 20cm of that. When they scanned the barcode, the only thing in the computer was a non-quantityable $1, so I got over a metre for that price. I was willing to pay $3 for 20cm, so I'm totally willing to pay a third of that for five times as much, thanks.

Those bargains are the best, because they're so unexpected. I actively seek out bargains (I also got 25 big buttons for $6) but it's the ones that fall into your lap that are the sweetest. It's like the universe is rewarding you for being awesome.

Thanks, universe. I'll take two.

Never again (until next time)

Today, while we were waiting for some photos to be developed, Casey and I went wallet shopping. Strangely, she was the one who needed a wallet, but I was the one who bought one. Not a particularly nice one, but one I thought I might be able to copy.

I was wrong.

I should get a proper pattern and have a go with that, instead of just trying to make it up, but that's not really how I roll.

Anyway, having failed I decided to make myself some pouches. My first one was a bit crap but I got into the swing of it and my last one is seriously super nice. Except I used white thread instead of brown, but it's hardly my fault the bobbin shelf failed me, and there wasn't much point in only changing my top thread.

I really need to make a start on my swag quilt, since it's 3 weeks till Lake Charlegrath when I'll be needing to use it. The good pouch had some cute runching though and that's making me want to have a go at doing a quilt with a bit of dimension to it. Is this a terrible idea? Do I need warning off of it?

PhDs, WiPs And UfOs... Oh, and BPs...

So I found out last night that a PhD is a project half done.

I personally go with WIP (Work in progress) and UFO (Un-finished objects)

My belief (and there are lot of different ones out there) is that a WIP becomes a UFO as soon as you have all the bits bought and planned, but no intention of finishing it any time soon. This is excellent for me, as it means that any backless tops are NOT UFOs, but WIPs. This makes me feel much better. I currently only have three UFOs.

One is the purple quilt, which has been loitering since early August, 3/4 quilted. Then there's the one I've been gunna-ing on for the past two weeks - it's all quilted, I made the binding on the 15th, I attached the binding on the 22nd. Now I just need to flip the binding over, pin it and sew it. But.... I soooo can't be bothered. Dad's pieced quilt cover needs to be attached front to back, and the clipper strip attached at the bottom. Oh, I forgot, the Hawks quilt I did for the tutorial. It's basted. But since I couldn't actually get the two yards of brown I needed, I have no binding fabric for it till they get more in.

Now, as for the reason I consider my un-backed tops to still be Works In Progress is that, well, I am still working on them. My little head based Rolodex is on the lookout for all of them every time I go into a fabric shop, every time I log into eBay. Even when I'm not doing this, there's a little part of my brain thinking about how they should be quilted.

Works in Progress Are:

The Newsprint wonky quilt - The only backing I can find is a white dot on black, which seems a tad dull. And I might give it a border. I haven't decided yet.

The blue and green and purple big disappearing nine patch - I have lost the backing fabrics. They're somewhere in my room, waiting for mid February, when I'm taking two weeks off for a cleanout.

The Soiree Header quilt - I can't find a backing anywhere near as awesome as the front. I'm considering using some of the other fabrics from the bundle but even they're not quite good enough for what I kinda consider to be my Mona Lisa. But I might buy this for the binding. Maybe. I love a good stripe, but it might be too bright.

The red and green floral two tyred quilt, not that you'd know it was even pieced because the two fabrics look so freaking similar when you chop them into little bits and sew them together so really what was the point, and how the hell am I gunna find a fabric to back or bind them in that matches them? - see previous sentence.

The Autumn Nutmeg quilt - I have a big pile of fabrics ready to back and bind. But I'm not sure what I wanna do with them.

Big Plans:

Swag Quilt - Current top of my list. Fabrics all bought and washed, but they still need an iron. Also, I haven't come up with a design yet.

Old Jean Quilt - Desperately want to do one, possibly also for the swag. Have started buying big pairs of jeans from the Salvos for chopping up.

Quilt for Helen - Still not completely sure on fabric #9.

Black, white and yellow quilt - bumped down list, but still on it. To be done in the big disappearing nine patch I've been so fond of lately.

Southern Cross quilt (prolly for Casey) - need 1 more fabric, and I got struck by a realisation the other day that my pattern won't work, unless I have an extra 3 contrast fabrics to fill in the little gaps in order to keep the blocks the right size, so I'll need them too. Also needs a small bucketload of math, which is in short supply just right now.

Purple and Green Mingle Quilt - I have a beautiful double bundle but no ideas whatsoever.

Pink Quilt - Every time I see the fabrics together I play with them, and love them, and sit them next to one another, and then I get all scared, and put them back. Also, I have no pattern in mind, just a dozen really really nice fabrics.

~~~~~

So yeah. An unfinished object is one where all the thinking is done, and the actual work simply needs doing. A work in progress is one you still need to work on in your head.

If you ask me, anyway.

Top done.

I got my top finished...

I'm quite fond of it, even though I would have prefered something brighter. I've worked out an 18 by 18 block version with a full spectrum in both directions, and were it not for the fact that I'm a big fan of instant gratification quilts, I'd absolutely be having a go at that. But spending more than a day or two on a quilt top is beyond my tiny tiny attention span of late.

I've bought a heap of Kona solids from fabricshack.com ($6 international postage for 9 yards) but because I don't have a card, I've had to guess.

I've gone for Bubble Gum, Tangerine, School Bus, Corn Yellow, Chartreuse, Kiwi, Lagoon, Royal and Mulberry, if that means anything to anyone. I've also gotten Candy Pink and Cerise as alternatives to Bubble Gum and Sunflower as an alternative to Corn Yellow, just in case I don't like them. But that's still a few weeks away from arrival, and in the meantime, I have an Australia Day Pub Crawl to attend.

Hope you all had a lovely 'Straya Day.

Sigh.

As you've probably noticed I really quite much like to get my quilt tops finished before bed.

It's not, so I'm a bit bummed. But the blocks need to be trimmed before I can piece them together, and that's gunna take ages, so it can wait till tomorrow. They're all pieced and ironed and stacked neatly ready to trim, so there's probably only 2 hours work left, but it's 3 already.

Most of the fabrics are from this bundle I put together a while back.

With a few other reproduction fabrics from the same tub at Lincraft. The only fabric I bought especially was the hot pink, because I didn't think the ones I had were bright enough. But it only cost me $1.50 from Spotlight, so it's no biggie.

Anyway, I'm off to bed. Happy Australia Day everybody.

Tutorial: how to waste 2 hours of potential sleep.

So I get home from my 9 hour shift and go online. I see a photo of the contents of someones handbag and an invitation to show everyone mine, and I get all excited and I do it. I write the post and...

Now I'm a bit buggered. A sudden complete and catastrophic loss of motivation. It could be something to do with the two hot cross buns I scoffed as I lay out my handbag. It could be the long shift, or the fact that my laptop has warmed me up and and I've slid further and further down my bed so that now I'm practically lying down. It could be that it's 1am already, and I'm just tired.

About the only thing I've done is this.

It's what I did with the Newsprint Mingle, but I wanted to see if I could do it with a proper regular spread like I had originally planned. This works with the 9 colours following spectral order left to right, top to bottom in the big blocks, with the colours going clockwise around them starting at 9 o'clock. I'm fairly sure that no matter what point you start at, there will always be one colour connected to itself, though I haven't yet tested whether or not they will if you go counterclockwise. Logic tells me they still will.

30 minutes later and I've started playing around with the idea of the spectrum going lenghways, and seriously, how cool would it be if I could get it to go vertically as well. It would be like those boxes where you put the words in so they go up and down and side to side and you can read them both ways.

It doesn't work. This has 1 big square, 2 halves and 4 quarters of each fabric, and the places they have to be in wont let the same order of 9 colours fit. So I did them all in one direction.

Since then I've had a go using only 3 colours

And then I gave that a go on a standard grid.

Here they all are next to one another

I like them all, probably the second one best. But it would really only work if I found 9 nice graduated solids.

I have a folder on my computer full of these... Many many wasted nights on things that usually never get made, because I like them in the solids so much but I can never find them the right shade.

Ooooohhhh.... It's 2.30 now and I've come up with this.

I just thought it up but already I desperately want it. Perhaps made from 9 fabrics of this? Fluro solids that exactly match the picture would of course be preferred, but I could make this work. Or this, but it's a bit pastel.

And that my friends, is how to waste two hours and not really achieve anything. If you hit the design you like with ahead of schedule, spend the remaining time hunting for suitable fabrics onine.

To properly "waste" the evening, decide you don't like/can't afford any of them and go to bed.

Does anyone know where I can get one of those Kona colour cards?

She ain't heavy... She's my handbag... (actually, she's damn heavy)

Kate over at Foxs Lane took a photo today of what she had in her handbag. It was quite a lot, but I need two photos.

Top from left: Sunnies, Car keys (also has mini torch and 4G usb stick,) Bricanyl asthma puffer, Dell Axim x50 (palm pilot), Notepad.
Second row from left: Demazin, Coin pod (inside of a kinder surprise, filled with bum change) Ventalin asthma puffer, Roll on deodorant, Glitter*, Phone.
Bottom from left: Two Peppermint crisps and a half eaten Cadbury peppermint roll, Wallet, Mirror, Pens, Pimple killing concealer (it's that silver ball thing), Post office key, 3 more mini torches, Work keys (also contains permanent texta, torch, and 4G USB), Chapstick.

I didn't mention the blue and green tubs or the little fabric pouch, which contain:

Pouch: Business cards in holder, Spare phone, 4G USB stick.
Green: (Possibly) seal/walrus claw (found at the beach on my 21st birthday), Fluro button, A couple of rings, Hairclips, Small pack of cards, Dental floss, Fold up scissors, Bandaids, Hairties, Bulldog clip, Small bottle with pills inside.
Blue: Torch, Comb, Batteries, Tweezers, Cable to plug headphones into my phone, 2G USB stick with marble maze on the back, Foundation powder, Undies (unworn, and neatly wrapped in some masking-taped-together curtain lining), Lip Smacker, 4G micro SD card and adapter, Fold-out rotary cutter, Swispers (cucumber 5 pack).

There should be a nail file in there but I've obviously taken it out and forgotten to put it back. This will be rectified ASAP.

So yeah, that's my bag.



Most of that's always in there, except the Demazin (I've just come into hayfever season) the chocolates and the palm pilot (I'm re-reading some books on it at the moment)

As you can probably tell, I'm a bit of a preparedness obsessive. I have a similar collection of stuff in my car, as well as a change of clothes, chargers for almost every piece of technology I own and an emergency internet connection (I'm really not kidding right now)

If you'd like to show the world what crap you cart around every day, there's one of those linky-up things.


*I recently discovered that most people don't carry a small bottle of glitter with them at all times. This seems damn strange* to me. What if one day you need some sparkle? I mean, it's okay, I'll lend you some of mine, but what if I'm not there? Where will you get your sparkle from?


*And by strange, I mean irresponsible.