Progress!

This has been a very good week for finishing things up and sewing! I think taking my little brother to his internship in the morning is probably the best thing that could have happened this summer ... all that extra time to sew is doing me a world of good!



First thing is that I FINISHED my Innocent Crush String Quilt Top! I haven't taken a picture yet ... I finished it at two in the morning on Monday (after two days of working on it nonstop), and haven't had a good time to take a look at it since. I'll upload a picture later. But it's done! Success!

I started on a quilt for my niece, a simple QAYG with fairy tales. But the fairy tales looked all mismatched and not right when mixed, so I switched those out with vintage sheets; I'm still not in love. So those blocks I did start are sitting in a closet, and I'm back to the drawing board on that one.

I've also started on my Nuno's Poseidon quilt, and I'm about three blocks in. It hasn't been getting much attention this weekend, but I'm hoping to get on a better pattern soon.


The reason it hasn't been getting nearly any attention? Because a certain stack of voiles ... those lovely Little Folks voiles have been calling to me! I admit that I cut into them. And that I've been sewing them into strips and working them into little patchwork squares ever since. And I plan on doing it later, too. How could I not? Seeing all of the quilts that have been made with it (and hearing the testimonies of how much those quilts were loved afterward), I knew I had to try my hand at it at last!

The voiles sew like butter. I've shortened my stitch length, changed my needle to a smaller size, and I'm using a 3/8" seam allowance instead of a 1/4" seam (to assuage my fears of fraying later). I also cut my strips at an odd size, 4 1/4", so that they'll finish around 3.5" when all is said and done. The voiles press wonderfully, too, which has left me wondering exactly how I'll go back to quilting with regular quilting cottons. (Although somehow I think I'll manage).

Movies I've Watched Lately:

-Candyman (good and creepy)
-Eskalofrio (excellent)
-Season of the Witch (great plot, but can we not mix a medieval setting with American accents?),
-Blood Night (not so great but at least there was a Greek guy going "ghamoto!" at one point),
-Deadtime Stories (kind of dorky, but I'll never look at mermaids the same again)

Other Non-Quilty Stuff:

- Got Netflix (obviously) and I plan on using it ALL THE TIME.
- After two years of living in my apartment building, I finally went to the pool.
It. Was. GLORIOUS.
- Last Week of taking my brother to his internship. Which means that it's the last week of me getting up at 7:00. I am okay with that.

rainy days and progress

It's been a really nice week so far. What started out to be an inconvenience - getting up at 7:00 AM to pick up my little brother and take him to his internship at the hospital - is beginning to be a blessing.

For one, I'm starting to get in the habit of getting up earlier, which is something I've been trying to achieve for a long time, but had difficulty doing unless I was forced.

Two, I've had much more time to sew!

- My Innocent Crush String Quilt is coming along nicely! I've got 36 out of 48 blocks completed, and I feel like that's a pretty big achievement. Only 12 more! I -did- have to order some more fat quarters of the line because the strings of fabric I'd cut out were nearly all "cool" colors and I wanted to have some more "warm" tones added. But I should have extra, which is good!

- I took some of my scraps and make a little ticker-tape quilt for myself to play around with the zig-zag function on my machine. It's so bright; I love it! Just needs binding.

- Also ordered a little bit of the AMH Innocent Crush Home Dec weight to play around with. Maybe for a cushion or something - who knows?

-Finished another block for my "Prince Charming" Log Cabin. I'm loving the way the colors are playing together and how quick the blocks are. Three down, 22 to go!

- Basted some more hexagons and pieced some more together. At last count, I had 2431 free-floating hexagons - not bad at all, I'd say, considering that I have approximately 700 pieced together. Definitely a "long-term" project!

I've got some goals for the holidays. One is to save money so that I'm not completely broke by the time Christmas DOES roll around.

The second is to piece and complete for quilts for gifts. A lofty goal, right? But only two are a "large" size, the third and fourth are medium-sized, and the quilting on these will be more on the "minimal" side, and done by hand so that I don't have to phenagle things with my machine. Also, most of the blocks on these are large, easy blocks I can complete quickly, but will still look nice.

Quilt 1 - A "Greek Cross" quilt for my boss, in the "Poseidon" Kona colorway, with white cotton background and back and seafoam binding. With this one, I want to mimic the feel of the Minoan art that my boss has in his home - if you haven't seen it, look it up. It's beautiful and light and very different from other Greek art I've seen.

Quilt 2 - Another "Greek Cross" for my other boss, in the "My Blue Heaven" colorway. My goal is to mimic the color and feel of Santorini with this quilt, with rich blues and stark white to emit the feel of the ocean and the beautiful buildings.

Quilt 3 - A fairytale quilt for my youngest niece, who is very much at the age where such things are appreciated. I've got some prints already picked out and I can't wait for Anna Maria Horner's needleworks to come out, because I may very well be using them on this project.

Quilt 4 - A patchwork quilt for a dear friend who's always been there for me. This one is going to be a little bigger than a lap size, maybe 60x60, and I'm looking for some fabric - namely Disney's Goofy - to make an cameo appearance somewhere in there, since he's her favorite. I'm still trying to figure out what kind of pattern to use on this one, but I'm thinking simple squares might do the trick.

So there's my goals. I'm starting on the first quilt - the poseidon quilt - tonight, cutting out fabrics to start it with and organizing them while watching "It". Tomorrow it's off to Hobby Lobby or Joann's to search for Goofy, and pick up some white cotton Kona - I think I'm going to need it!

Quilt 5 - A "Swiss Cross" quilt,

Wednesday

I have to say that, as proud as I am to be an American citizen and grateful for my freedom ... I am SO SO GLAD that fourth of July is over. I think nearly all of the folks who work in my neck of the woods in the tourism industry are glad. Summer itself is busy enough ... but fourth of July weekend is INSANE.

When thirty people are waiting outside, with the temperatures in the nineties and the humidity extremely high, and this isn't just for one restaurant but for nearly every restaurant along the Seawall, you know it's insane.

Although it's not like things slow down just because it's not a holiday. We've had a lot of things to do - work, of course, I'm working until Sunday.

There's also deliveries, and driving my little brother to and from his internship at eight in the morning, and driving my older brother home from work at 11 at night.

And baking cakes at 10:00 at night, too! (It was big brother's birthday yesterday. We baked him a chocolate cake and gave it chocolate icing and graffitied all over it with more icing, this time cookies and cream. We gave him said cake at 12:30 at night at a friend's house - secretly I think he loves it, however publicly he has said "You guys are evil" and to his friend "I told you they were gonna do this!")

But it DOES mean that the 13/14 hour days can stop, so I can move on to other pursuits now, such as ...


- the imminent completion of one Innocent Crush String Quilt! I've got twenty-eight more blocks to finish, which is just over half! I plan on doing at least three a night until I'm off on Sunday and then completing the rest then. Can't wait to finish it up and take lots and lotsa pictures :)

- Working on the boyfriend's long set aside quilt. I have a few ideas that I think will make its completion much easier. :)

- Cleaning my fridge (yuck) and washing the car (shiiizzz) cleaning my apartment (boo!) and putting up my laundry (whyyyy) and paying my bills (by selling a kidney) and generally being a Productive Member of Society.

- Possibly seeing Transformers. I was super excited about it until I realized my brothers had already seen it, and that my best friend had probably already seen it, which has taken my enthusiasm to watch it myself and shoved it down the drain. Oh, well. At least there's Harry Potter 7.

I'm back to my real job nao. Later days!