Saturday, March 20, 2010

Friday Night Sew In - March Edition

Last night wasn't quite as productive as February, but it was a good night.  I only got in about 3 hours of sewing, but I managed to make a second bag (this one we're calling a purse because I have no need for diapers, thankyouverymuch) and got about a quarter of Fencing Matilda done.

Here's the setup.  Sorry for the odd angle...it was hard to get the whole mess in.  What's that?  Why yes, that is a copy of Titanic ready to be played on my computer while I sew.  No, I haven't seen it in years.  No, it did not escape MOTU's notice or ridicule.  No, MOTU and I do not watch chick flicks together for that exact reason ("have they crashed yet? have they had sex in someone's car yet? she's wearing a dress, that means sexy time is soon, right?").  The one good thing about him leaving for 14 months is that I'll get to watch SO many chick flicks when he's gone.  It's a guilty pleasure of mine, don't judge.


Here are the two bags, finished and hanging for artistry.  I haven't decided which one is "better" so I can send it to Faith yet.


Like I said, 1/4th done with Fencing Matilda.  I'm hoping it doesn't look too much like an Italian flag lol.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do for quilting.  I'm definitely going to stitch between blocks, but I'm thinking of doing something pretty along the fences as well.  I'm nervous though because that means machine freemotion, which I'm not terribly good at yet.  We'll see, maybe I'll turn out to be a natural (last time I did it, I had my machine set up wrong).

I ended up with about 2 1/2 inches leftover on each strip of strips, so I played around with doing some disappearing 9-square stuff.

Here they are all in a real block.  I think it looks kinda nifty.

That got me to thinking.  I've been playing around a lot with little mini blocks from the scraps of real stuff I'm doing.  I think I'm going to start a collection of them and make a misfit blocks quilt when I have enough.  I have a few leftover 4-square blocks from the QFK quilts, a couple of 16-square blocks from Paddington, and some misc other attempts at creativity as well.  Maybe it'll turn out cool, maybe it'll be a trainwreck, who knows.

And since it's Saturday, and a sunny one at that, I've gotten a lot done today.  Here's my little indoor garden:

That's since become my window garden:
It's just not up in a window yet.  They all still look a little sad since they haven't realized where the sun's coming from yet, but they'll perk up.  Some of them are starting to look like the real thing...there are some textured sage leaves and some prickly cilantro and parsley leaves...I can't wait for them to really get going!

Of course, Grisgris knew it was nice out as well and was just BEGGING to get outside.
We might have tormented him just a little bit.  This is the kitchen window.  Eventually, he got out.

Later on, he was back inside and Shelby went outside.  I let him out again thinking that they could avoid each other just fine in that big ol' yard.  Next thing I know, I go outside to start my garden and what is that little brat doing??  He's STALKING SHELBY!  She has no idea and he's just creeping up on her!  I picked him up and he hissed at me!  I threw him (yes, he was airborne) back into the house and closed the door and Shelby ran under the neighbors' porch.  What a punk.

Now he's just chilling out on the plaid couch quilt we all love.

In addition to the garden, I also washed 3 cars, including Helen:

Phew!  All that, and we even slept in pretty late this morning, too!  What a day!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I did the Friday night sew in for the first time too...I love your bags and I think doing a mismatched block quilt is a great idea...I usually save them, then dont do anything with them......You got a lot done.....

Heidi said...

You got a lot done!! Very productive day. LOL on the cat story.

Wendy said...

Speaking of the free-motion thing...
Have i told you about this site:

freemotionquilting(dot)blogspot(dot)com

You'd need to go back to, like, September maybe? But she has tons of free motion tips, tricks and what-not. TONS of videos showing different free-motion "patterns"! Loads of help and support. If you have a question, she can answer it. She has DVDs too, though i wouldn't buy one because their all basically on her site, if you go back and look at everything. I've been following her since the beginning (August maybe?), so it's only been a couple of minutes each day, but to try to "catch up" to where she is now? I'd be *forever*!
Give her site a try!
I think you'll like it. AND you'll find some help if you want it.
=-)