Wednesday, April 28, 2010

I am not a diva.



But I have a diva bag! The pattern is entitled "Diva Essential Designer Bag" and here is the website: http://www.thumbuddy-special.com/ The only change I would make is a couple of zippered pockets inside. The directions are pretty good, although I am left with a pocket that I don't think she ever told me to sew anywhere.

I started this last Saturday at a last minute sew-in. About four o'clock this afternoon, after drawing serious blood with the straight pins for the second time, I decided to finish it tomorrow. Then, after dinner at the Atomic Brew Pub where we had root beer (the only beer I like) and chicken pesto pizza, I decided that I was so close to finishing that I might as well. Stuck myself two more times with pins.

This is why I like quilting, I rarely have to use pins. And definitely not in close quarters like purses.

It's not a finished project until there is some blood on it somewhere.

Useful information: your own spit dissolves your own blood.

The first picture is how is looks to the average person. The second picture show just how much space it potentially has. I was hoping to put ultrasuede on the bottom to lengthen the life of the bag, but we don't have a real fabric store in this area. Just a Jo-Anns. And now that I know how to make the bag, I was too late anyway.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Someone erased the camera memory




Which included, of course, adorable baby pictures and one of me grinning maniacally over 1 whole kilogram (that's 2.2 pounds (at one standard gravity), for those of you who use archaic units) of grapefruit flavored gummi bears. Now over half the gummi bears have been eaten (I acutally shared this time) and I will have to wait until the next installment.

So, of course, we had to take more.

The first one is Lindsey and me after he got tired of trying to stand up. But he is really entranced with standing up and was laughing at the prospect. We will try to take a movie after his nap. The second is Jack and Lindsey looking at each other. I really really need a caption for this! I can think of the usual, like "..and that is how the leopard got its spots" and "No, grandpa, I don't believe a thing you said."

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

In which we discover...

...that Marion, who has been quilting for 20 years, is a complete imbecile when it comes to beginning patterns.

First of all, she forgets about something as simple as contrast. The original blocks had a medium turqoise print where the might turquoise is, and, as a result, there was no discernable pattern. At all. So she bought more fabric (At Full Price!) and remade all the blocks with the little squares in them.

In the meantime, she had made clothes for the daughter, and, since there was zigzagging, switched the presser foot. She neglected to switch it back. The difference is 1/16 inch. So the light turquosie blocks, which have 7 seams in them, are now short by half an inch. This means that all the other blocks have to be trimmed. She almost made the mistake of switching feet in midstream, but SomeOne Was Watching Out For Her and she didn't.

Third, when designing the quilt, she decided not to buy such a simple pattern and got some graph paper and drafted it herself. She finally decided the one square on the graph paper equals 1 1/2 inch finished. This entailed a little math to figure out the size of fabric to cut. Here we discover than Marion, who sailed through high school and college with straight A's in math through Differential Equations, cannot multiply or add.

Fourth, she cannot even count. There is one extra block.

But the cat approves, so the quilt will be finished.

So far, it is going together with minor adjustments and hopefully there will be no further problems.

Like forgetting to put the right presser foot back on when done with this one.

On the plus side, it is a day when the back hurts. On those days, it is bad news to sit in one chair for an extended length of time; it gets stiff and I walk bent over. So the best thing to do is move. The pattern: pick a block, iron out the fold, sit down and sew the seam, trim, iron, trim, and go get another one. I'm moving all the time. So my back got better.
In other news, people have been putting stupid comments on these posts that take you to strange websites. Since no one ever makes a legitimate comment, I might turn comments off.