Let’s suffice to say that when Deana’s house is out of order, Deana’s brain is out of order.  Which comes first, Lord only knows.  But Deana decided to do something about her brain, hoping that the house would follow.  So, she finally gave in and is now taking speed..  I mean, doctor-prescribed-legal-amphetamines… for her long-existing ADD.

Apparently one of the side effects is talking about herself in the third person.

In other news, Miss Scarlet took first place at the New Braunfels show (wheeee!)  Pictures may or may not be posted, depending on if the speed dosage is high enough to make Deana remember that she wanted to post pictures.

Now, question for you, dear readers…  does it now make sense why I can’t remember to post except in spurts and that I forget to read forums and other blogs for two weeks at a time and then do so in a massive burst?

I have that Discovery Channel commercial song stuck in my head, thanks to R and this morning’s xkcd.  I guess that’s better than the Mame theme song that was in my head when I woke up this morning.  The last thing I remember of my dream was a big dance sequence a la the Mame musical.

Oh, it gets better   Yesterday, while on the time-trap-that-is-wiki-my-love, I started out with Google Page Rank and ended up on Rickrolling.  And proceeded to buy Rick Astley’s Greatest Hits on iTunes.  It’s danceoriffic!

In quilty news, I got Gratuitious Use of Bling designed.  Spent about 6 hours in Illustrator yesterday and I’m going to warn you now, that its name doesn’t give you any indication of it’s coloring.  Kinda like Rick Astley’s voice

The blue diamonds will be dupioni silk, the pink and brown are quilter’s cotton (the pink hand dyed) with some of the pink covered with thread trash and then silk organza or tulle (haven’t decided).  The outer pink border will have beads, sequins, crystals, puff paint, paint, seashells, charms, and buttons.  The big brown area will have shiva paint sticks and metallic fabric paint while the green line you see will be stem stitch.  Using the green vine as a base, I’m going to make pink (I think) flowers with foil, solvy fabric, needlefelting, tyvek, angelina, and silk ribbons.

All on only 20″x20″

To make the center part, I’m using half-square triangles.  I want to make a whole sheet at a time to eliminate much fraying of the dupioni, so I had to draft my own triangle sheet.  I couldn’t find any for 1.5″ finished size, unfortunately.  If anyone’s interested, I’ll post the pdf on my site and link to it here.

Doesn’t that look yummy?!  It was.  Right after I took this picture, I heard an ominous noise from my desk area in the adjacent dining room.  This is what I turned around to find…

All the beautiful organizing work I had done on those beautiful shelves — gone!  They completely pulled out of the wall.  We used the right wall anchors, but I guess it just wasn’t a strong enough hold.  I’m going to take this as my chance to move my desk upstairs and out of the public areas.  It bothers me to have to clean my desk every time a customer or guests come over.  It’ll just be easier to have it upstairs.  And then I can keep the shelves!

I was hoping to have some pictures for you guys, but they’re not loaded on the net anywhere and R’s phone has lost it’s usb port.

Saturday, the 7th, the Austin School of Fashion Design had their annual fashion show.  Because I’ve been taking some pattern drafting classes there, my teacher asked me to put some pieces into the show.  So, I wore my wedding dress and managed to find someone to wear Miss Scarlet.

It went really really well!  I was pleased with how I walked and how Scarlet looked.  Afterwards, a blogger for the plus size blog Manolo for the Big Girl (manolobig.com) gave me her card and asked me to shoot her an email — that she wanted to talk some.

That last bit was my exciting news, but as I haven’t heard a peep from her, I’m kinda deflated on the topic.  I was really hoping to have something neat come out of it.  Guess not. 

Since I’ve started taking some pattern drafting classes, I find myself wanting to make clothes for myself again.  I get on a kick of wanting to make clothes, then I get frustrated with things not looking right on my body, then I give up and go back to quilts.   Quilts don’t require full bust adjustments and slashing the pattern for a swayback.  Well, some do

I had a customer quilt on the calendar for Sunday, and dinner with friends on Saturday evening, so I spent Saturday morning working on the muslin for Mrs Peacock. This is the Vogue pattern I’m using:

And this is where I am right now:

The blue would be the fashion fabric (dark royal blue dupioni) and it will be quilted in the center panel.  I had to stop because I didn’t have a long enough zipper in my stash.  Sunday morning, I ran to Hancock’s and picked up a couple and some “linen” fabric for skirts (I think).  It’s poly/rayon, but it seems nice and breatheable and only $3 a yard so I got a little.  I figure I’ll get the pattern worked out and then get picky about fiber content.

So yesterday, I got up at the crack of dawn and started working on the pattern for a circle skirt.  I wanted it long enough that I could sit without the back of my thighs being up against the material of the seat.  Turns out, that would make the skirt too big for the fabric I bought.  I did some math and there is a lot less waste with 44″ wide fabric, so I pulled some $1-a-yard-at-Moda’s-warehouse-sale fabric and made it up.

First, let me say how much I love my electric scissors.  I cannot express how much easier it is to cut out a circle skirt with electric scissors.  They are pure genius.

On the downside, the circle skirt looks awful on my body.  I think I’m going to play with a croquis.  I have an article about making one from a back issue of Threads.  If it works out, I’ll post about it.

Result:

So, apparently, my posts haven’t been publishing, but just sitting around as saved.  I have no idea what happened, but it’s fixed now.  In case anyone noticed that a whole month’s worth of posts suddenly appeared out of nowhere, that’s why

In other news, Fritz needs a new engine.  He threw a rod in the crank shaft.  No bueno.  I’m devastated by this.  I LOVE Herr Von Boot.  I wanted to keep him for years and years.  But it’s looking like that’s not going to be feasible.  We can’t afford to spend $6000 in the next 4 months on a new engine and the transmission work that will likely happen soon, too.  So now I have to decide on what car to get next.  Tall!boy and I had a few arguments about whether it’s smart to take out a loan.  It boils down to: he has a manual and I can’t fully depress the clutch (nor do I feel comfortable driving a stick) and his car is not big enough to be our main car or our only car.  No was just have to decide new or used and what car exactly.  After much research on Consumer Reports and talking with friends, I’m leaning towards a Honda Pilot.  I like my brother’s Malibu Maxx, but it’s not made anymore and I’m not sure if I’ll be able to find a used one.  It wasn’t a popular car to start with.  The Pilot, on the other hand, while it is more expensive, is also larger and will allow us to keep it until it dies.  We can haul plenty of baby stuff in there someday without sacrificing the dogs or my sewing machine.  And, it means we don’t have to rent a truck just to go it IKEA.  Like I need another excuse to spend money at that mecca.  hehehehehe…

Does anyone have any other cars that I should keep in mind?  I agreed to only buy something that is recommended by CR, both to apease my father and my husband.

Oh, yeah.  No quilty stuff the past few days.  I’ve been slightly occupied.  This is the exact reason why I wasn’t able to get a lot done after my accident in November!  I have to solve this and FAST.

I woke up at 4 this morning, with an intense desire to watch Anne of Avonlea.  I’m insane.  It’s fortunate that I own the video tapes.  I didn’t realize that the movie was 20 years old.  Suddenly, I realized that Jonathan Crombie (Gilbert) must be in his early 40s now.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that’s old.  It’s just that in my mind, he’s still Gilbert, aged 24.  le sigh….  I had the biggest crush on him when I was younger.

I get a lot more done on the longarm when I don’t have to watch the screen to know what’s going on.  AoA is one of those stories that doesn’t need you to look at it — it’s all dialogue.  Also, I’ve seen it so many times, I know what’s coming next.  It used to be on PBS every pledge drive, so probably 20 times before I bought the videos.  The result?

Teaser pics of Alli’s Graduation Quilt (yet to be named…)

Poor Fritzie…  on my way to $5 block this morning at Ready to Sew, he lost acceleration and the engine locked up.  At first, I thought that maybe it had run out of fuel, but after tall!boy came and got me and indulged me in my desire to try the fuel thing first, I gave in and called AAA to have it towed to the mechanic.  We’ll see on Monday what’s wrong.  Fingers crossed that it’s nothing major.

On the plus side, I got home after the Quilt Show Committee meeting and got a ton of stuff done in the studio!

So, I’ve been working on all my blocks for various $5 block of the month things and doing things on my checklist.  Last week, I mailed off the antique quilts that I repaired for my cousin and I’m very proud of how they turned out.  I hope she’s not disappointed by my inability to make them perfect.  I made the decision to preserve, rather than redo, the torn blocks.  I used MistyFuse UV and silk organza to preserve the torn sections, per some info from an old conservation professor I had.  I wish I’d taken some pictures before I sent them off.  The binding I did on the appliqued quilt was near-perfect.  I’m rather proud of it.

Last week, some of the girls came over a couple of times and then Anjea was over on Saturday.  It’s amazing how much more work I get done when there’s someone over.  Actually, I’m getting a lot done just with having tall!boy in the house all the time.  I don’t want to post pictures, because most of my projects are for other people that may or may not read this blog.  I’ll post them once I start giving the gifts away.  I’m excited to finish the things that have been on my list for months.  Once I bind the quilt that just came off the machine, I will be finished with gifts up to December 9th.  My goal is to get all the gifts through Christmas before I leave for Portland in three weeks.

While Mom and Dad were down last week, they taught Anjea and me to make jelly.  We made 2 batches of Pomegranate, which is delish.  Then, yesterday, Anjea came over and we made Apricot, White Grape and Pear Jellies.  Can you say YUM?

They turned out all sparkly: