Hail to the King!

Finally! I got the last borders on Kiwi Twist and had a bit of a surprise waiting for me: it's a king! Well, it might be a large queen. (Does that make it an empress?)

Here's the history: I purchased the inspiration fabrics while on vacation in New Zealand three years ago. Then, two years later, I decided to go with the twist and turn pattern. Skip ahead to about four weeks ago when laying it out and I discovered that I had accidentally made 44 blocks instead of the 30 I had originally planned. Today I finally laid it out on a standard king mattress and it fits! (a little short for sleeping maybe, but...)

Now I have to get a back ready (time to dig into the stash!)---hoo-eee! Then it's off to Yuki for quilting!

An Amazing Gift

Last week, Therese decided to blow my mind and surprise me with a quilt top. She said that this scrappy version of this was my idea so she was giving it to me. THANK YOU!!!! I get to do whatever I want with it.... I am completely blown away. It's hard to make me speechless, but she did it! I was in such a state I couldn't accept that it was real until today, a week later!
It's a large lap-size quilt. I love it! (And I've got fabric in the stash to back it--woo-hoo!)

Below you'll see some fabrics that I think are muted. I want to use thiem in that muted fabric block swap I mentioned in my last post. But I don't know... do these seem muted to the general public? Each seems to have a grey or brown undertone. What do you think?

Cut it Up Thursday

Scrapbuster Alert! Cut it Up Thursday led to 30 blocks being made! The swap calls for Double 4-Patch blocks made with cream and muted colors. I'm not much for the muties, but I did have a few in my scraps. So chop, chop! I had a rough day yesterday and spent the mental part of today processing while my fingers did the walking...or the quilting!

I think I'll keep my 10 faves and send the other 20 in. Then I'll get 20 new ones from quilters all over the country! Fun 'n' games! The deadline's not for a while yet--Nov 12--maybe I'll make more!

I also had a chat with one of my very besties, Dawn. She's so good at keeping it real. And the best mom around! While on the phone, not only did I start the cutting, I sorted my "Unsorted Scraps" box. Now they're all in the right places: Light, Medium, Dark, and Bright.

Cleaning Day!

Stashbuster sets reminders for each day of the week. Today was Clear a Surface--have they been looking in my studio?

BEFORE
AFTER

And I was supposed to report if I found anything good.

1. 5 cents
2. 2 receipts dated from 2003
3. A ticket into the Vatican and one into Disneyland Paris
4. Nothing alive, thank God!
   

Scaredy Cat Ready to Go!

I finished the Scaredy Cat Tote with 3 hours 'til October--In the words of Perry Como, hoop tee-do! I really knuckled down and worked hard.

To keep me entertained, I picked up season 1 of the series, "Lost." Good show. Sorry I missed it.

Now I suppose I should get back to the New Zealand quilt. I'm thinking of calling it "Kiwi Twist!" I've got to do some frogging on it because I used the wrong black in the borders--arggh! (For those of you unfamiliar with the term, frogging or frog stitch means to take out sewing, so-called because you "rip-it, rip-it, rip-it!"

Scaredy Cat

Interrupting your regularly scheduled projects to present the current obsession: The Scaredy Cat Tote! I just adore the Beverly Cleary 1950's feel to the illustrations. It's a charm pack from Moda. Make me feel like a kid--can't you just taste candy corn? The colors are vintage-y, too. It seems I only need 1-1/4 yard of coordinating fabric--not like the directions, calling for, um, more. However, the charm pack only had 33 charms, while the pattern calls for 38. I just cut more from the coordinating fabric, but I only have one kind. So the inside pockets may look a little boring, if not odd. What's Hallowe'en without a little weirdness, anyway?

I know I'll only be able to carry this tote for the month of October, so I figure I'd better get it done in a big hurry. I started it this afternoon and, as we had guests for dinner, that took away a fair amount of working time. (Totally worth it: company always makes the food taste better!) If I work tomorrow, I can get it done in time for October 1st!

The Perfect Portable Project

I'm sitting there during open house, listening to teachers tell about their upcoming projects and what are my hands doing while the ears are doing their job? The perfect portable project:

Socks that only need one stitch, thousands of times. Knit, knit, knit, knit.... Bonjour, Madame French Teacher. Knit, knit... Howdy, Mr. Associated Student Body....Knit, knit... Good morrow, Mistress English, I like Midsummer Night's Dream, too.... Knit, knit, dodge ball, knit.... Yes, Coach, her P.E. Clothes will get washed... Knit, knit.... Algebra homework counts for how much?... Knit, knit, knit... Hey, Professor Science, did your wife put a flyer for her dental services on my car while I've been stuck in here listening to you? (sigh)

In other news, I finished another tote (that makes a total of 3!) and am working another. Here are the fabrics: I seem to be getting the technique down. I really like putting in the magnetic snap--it makes the bag look so professional!

Giddyap!

Horsey, Horsey, on your way
We've been together for many a day
So let your tail go swish
As the wheels go round
Giddyap! We're homeward bound! (Girl Scout song)

Yes, I did the horse today. The pattern calls for a brown horse, but my favorite coloring is buckskin! So why not personalize? This one's for me!



Yesterday was a bad day for thinking but a good day for goofy patchwork (i.e. stashbusting!), so that's what I did all day long! Now I have 36 of these blocks--enough for a lap quilt! I think the black I laid it out on would be good for sashing...or maybe a cream? Black would be more masculine and probably sharper, I think. What do you think?

On the cooking front: usually I don't really enjoy cooking, but tonight I got to sous chef for my DH and we made a divine lasagne. He asked, "Would you like this to be your last meal?" I responded, "I want this to be my first meal in heaven!" What a welcome, huh? Just inside the pearly gates are tables set up with all your pals and the most wonderful aroma...

New Zealand Major Milepost!

This morning I knew that I could not attend my daughter's soccer game (where she plays killer defense) because the sun was shining. No, I'm not a vampire, but sometimes I'm sensitive to sunlight. (Yeah, sure, tell me another one.) So I set myself a goal: get all the blocks set in the monotonous New Zealand quilt. I say monotonous because the sewing looks like this: one after the next after the next...

Stashbusting Alert! So, to keep myself sane, I pieced these from my strip box and my crumbs. If you look close, you can find where I used an actual 1" square of fabric. I'm very pleased with these little 6 1/2" blocks. I'm not sure what I'll do with them, but I still like 'em! I'm especially pleased because I worked with colors I'm not normally fond of: russets.


And so, after all that trouble........ Ta-da! Yes! The New Zealand Quilt top medallion is finished! (In Desirean, that means all the blocks are together but no borders have been added.)
And now I'm pooped. But I gotta make dinner. If I had smileys, I'd put a frownie face here. Chicken cooked with shallots and bacon and something...maybe biscuits, ratatouille, braising greens, vegetable soup... Sounds good.

Tiny Blue Heaven

This is a 6" version of Quilter's Cache Blue Heaven. (Their's is 12".) It's for Stashbuster's charity block roundup. I thought I'd give it a try and see if I liked it. They said ANY two fabrics and, I swear, the blue-orange-purple is only ONE fabric. I received it in a fabric swap... so it was an "Obnoxious Fabric" swap, but I think it works here. Still, I'm kinda glad it's used up!