Its in the middle of the night when only Batman and I are awake.
Yet another night I cannot sleep. I try, but my tossing and turning only wakes my husband up. So I am out here in the living room trying to pass the time until I can make my body summit to a tiredness I will not feel until tomorrow afternoon when I try desperately to stay awake to be tired enough for sleep at night. This has been the cycle all week....
Tonight, after Miss Z was down to bed, I had this grand idea to pull out one of the quilts I need to top stitch with the hope that tonight it would be completed. This was going to be the proof that I did not completely waste this week (besides housework and babycare I meant). The last meandering stitched completed itself mere moments before my husband got home from Choir practice bearing a perfectly fresh hot McDonald's Apple Pie. My eyes closed in bliss over the first little bit and as those deliciously happy eyes opened it was to look upon the mess I had made of my quilt. The rich, sugary apple bits were like lead in my stomach as I saw an evening's work triple towards the future. Resigned I set off towards my bedroom and the seam ripper crackling in my head with delight as it once more became a tool to torture me.
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| Vlad the Seam Ripper |
On a happier note, a package came for me in the mail today bearing this lovely magazine! I have decided that I should be more modern in my quilting, plus I want to participate in the
Retro Rubies QAL @PileoFabric. Well except in true Shanna fashion I am going with Blues and so it will be more of a Sapphire thing. My first run at it will be with some scraps from my over-flowing scrap collection, mostly likely...
I already see several of the other projects that I will probably whip out tomorrow as I am sincerely depressed over my mutilating my Red-Eye Quilt when attempting to sew while tired. Its bad people, its almost like drunk-quilting, which is why I cannot bring myself to share a complete full-monty of the disaster! Hopefully you will understand.
Now back to the book/magazine...
My only real criticism right now is that I wish (for what I paid for it) that the pages were a bit stronger. With Miss Z eager to "decorate" with her crayons, this book is going to be put far above even my head, so high that I need a step stool to reach it. You may think that I am over-reacting, but my little darling dragged a small step-stool across the living room carpet, climbed it, found her mommy's secret stash of Walker's Butter Shortbread cookies in a closed pyrex container (on the computer desk tucked all the way to the back), opened said container, grabbed two cookies, dragged the small stool back across the livingroom to the comfy chair, climbed up and settled in to snack!!!! My fifteen month old is smarter than me, so I am not taking chances with the precious magazine. Well also in my defense, just in case you think I am exaggerating, she has already absconded with my baby knits book and has almost colored on every page and that book was hidden in my bedroom closet! What I can't figure out is where she is hiding the crayons. I mean I have looked, checked her person, but then suddenly she will appear with one out of nowhere.
Again I digress...
I am really excited about doing my first true curved piecing, but I am praying it doesn't turned cursed too. Have you checked it out yet? well, you should, Alyssa's super-talented. She is the one that is teaching/hosting that truly scrumptious Skill builder block series that I have pinned up there on the right-hand side. I keep thinking I am going to have enough time to finish the BOM's I already have on my plate, so I haven't taken the time to do more than long after the blocks on the flickr pages...someday...
Well, I am back to bed to try and see if I can make myself sleep...I will try counting fabrics, maybe if I focus long enough on that sleep and sneak up on me. Thanks again for listening to a midnight muttering!
*Shanna
So I told you a few months back that I went to the local Quilt Shop to pick up the Easy Angle ruler to work on Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street mystery Quilt. Well, what I ended up buying was the Easy Angle 2 ruler which the shop person assured me was the two rulers combined...let me tell you, they are not. Since this was my first experience in making flying geese this way, it was not instinctive on how to make the flaps. Looking back on other projects I had realized that I had incorporated flying geese in other projects, but just didn't know it! Most patterns have you make it with one rectangle and two small squares with the pencil line on the back. Needless to say I am feeling like an expert after this mystery quilt!! I had this idea of just completing half of the required blocks but I wasn't paying attention and ended up cutting and sewing the total amount of flying geese...
As You can see the colors I chose to do at first was neutrals with a cream background, with highlights of taupe and several brown fabrics in place of the purple she chose. It may come as a surprise, but I have been waiting to check out each step until the mystery quilt calls for it. I have glanced at finished quilts, but the picture is in no way solidified in my mind so I am not quite sure how this quilt will turn out. 
PS** It turns out I have had very good luck recently, so I am having a drawing for Four more traveling stash boxes!!! Please consider letting it visit your house. Check out my post (with pictures) HERE, leave a comment on that post to be entered in to win it (US Residents only, sorry). There are 2 more delicious boxes being given away, to find out more about those boxes click over HERE, and to read about the guidelines go HERE.
Still In Process:
3. Finish up the HST Quilt: It is my Scrap Challenge Project for January and I almost have the top completed. I really want to finishing making the Tutorial for it as well, but that might not all happen in one night!
