I haven’t posted anything because I haven’t DONE anything.  I spent most of yesterday asleep.  The day before I ran a few errands and cleaned up a little.  The day before that I took two naps.  I don’t know if it’s the weather (barometric pressure) or what.  I literally haven’t gotten anything done except personal errands and making calls for our trip to SF.  Switching from AT&T to Time Warner for internet, etc.

This afternoon, I was reading through my google reader and read that Summerset ordered some fabric from Silk Baron.  Always looking for good sources of dupioni, I checked out their site.  OMB!  Love it!  New favorite dupioni source.  Now I have to save up for the samples.  $50 is a little much for me at the moment with a trip to SF on the way, but I will get it before Christmas, I promise myself.  Check it out, ladies!

I’m trying to beat out both Charm City (which came off the longarm on Wed to have some applique removed) and Gratuitous Use of Bling.  I spent 6 hours Wed night/Thurs early morning picking out stitching I didn’t like.  It’s very frustrating.  But, I finally broke down, got out the tracing paper, traced the current piecing and quilting, and sat down to sketch out ideas.  I settled on one last night, but I have to finish frogging the last few things.  About 1 more hour of frogging, then probably only 2 hours of quilting ahead until GUoB is ready to be embellished and bound!

In the meantime, I thought I’d share a picture of my favorite quilt of the week, by the lovely Heather.  This was posted on a machine quilter’s forum, but I love it for the piecing and colors.  Love, I say!  Love enough to put a copycat on my projects spreadsheet.

Anjea came over today to block one of her show quilts and we trekked to Joann’s while it was in the washer.  I bought 6 new thimbles to try.  SIX!!!It’s rediculous how I can’t find one I like.  I really only use it for binding, so it’s not like it’s been a hurry to find the right one.  But because I use a ladder stitch and I hold my finger a little funny, it’s difficult.  I do like the leather thimble (Nimble brand, I think) but it tears up fast.  I found one today that is intreaguing.  It’s labelled as a sashiko thimble.

And I just saw this one on the Clover site, too.

I’m curious..  what do you use for thimbles?  Or do you?

I didn’t get much done today.  Read an ebook.  Got the bias strips made for the stems on CC and the leaves all washed out.  Tried to stich them down only to find some of the same problems once again with the darn Bottom Line thread.  I gave up for the evening and will revisit it tomorrow.  In the meantime, I have some things that must be mailed and finished.

When I made up my project spreadsheet a few weeks back, I never dreamed I would come to rely upon it exclusively.  If it’s not on the list, I basically assume it doesn’t exist.  BAD IDEA!  I forgot to mail three things this week beccause they weren’t on the list.  And then I’m running behind on two others.  How dare the post office be closed tomorrow?  Don’t they know that I have things that need to be sent?

Just thought I’d share some pics of what I’ve been working on tonight.  We had Squad this afternoon and I tackled this towards the end and then up until just now.  I’m rather pleased.   All that’s left is to cut the bias strips for the corner laurels, dry the leaves, and sew it all down.  Then the quilt is ready to be washed, blocked, and have all its binding/sleeve/label stuff.  I shall share more technical details later.  For now, PICTURES!

For the past few weeks, I’ve been working on a custom clothing item.  I haven’t shared anything up to this point, because it’s not quilty or wearable art for competition.  Thing is, I realized that these *are* wearable art.  Just because they’re not in a show doesn’t mean they aren’t art.  So, without further ado…

This is a peacock-tail-like train made from two saris that my customer ordered from Bangalore.  She had this whole vision in her head — I just executed it.  I am so excited about how it came out.  I used two layers of Timtex for the waistband and it was perfect!  I think I’m going to order a whole bolt of the stuff to use in other outfits.  The back is four tiers total, if you count the shaped peplum.  I have to apologize for the pictures.  They’re not the best, since I didn’t think about posting them online until after the fact.  What does everyone think?

If anyone hasn’t noticed before, I tend to time everything based on what I was watching. Dyeing a 12 step color wheel in 4 gradations takes one season of Hustle. Summer Sunset, my first wearable piece, took the entire 4th season of Stargate SG-1. I can sew a Block of the Month usually in one episode of Holmes on Homes. Hmmm… maybe I watch too much TV….. Well, anyway.

Last Saturday, I cut and marked the crosshatching for Charm City while watching Definitely, Maybe and part of an episode of some new show with Erin Brockovich as the host. Neat show. But 2 hours to mark straight lines on a quilt that’s only 36″ square?

Then, it turns out that I didn’t like the way the even lines looked and went with uneven lines.  LOVE IT.  Finished it last night right after my post, btw.  While watching the convention.  I missed 2004, but have otherwise watched every convention in my lifetime.  And yes, I remember them.  Yes, I know I was 3 when Geraldine Ferraro was nominated for VP.  *But I remember it!*

Last night, I spent an hour or so plotting all the parts of the appliqué onto a Cartesian grid.  Am I a math geek or what?!  But it was very handy when I started attaching things this afternoon.  The green leaves needed to be stitched down with a color of Bottom Line and Lola is not-so-much as fan of BL.

I fussed.  I fumed.  I tweaked tension.  Finally, I decided to call Superior and ask if they had any suggestions….  WOW!  The gal I spoke with was all kinds of awesome!  She sat with me on the phone and gave me suggestions and answered my little questions as we went.  She didn’t make me feel like I was taking up her time and stayed with me until I got it running.  And now, I think I have the right combo for top & bobbin tension as well as sandwich tension and needle size.  Remind me, I must order some more size 19 needles if I plan on running BL or So Fine in the future.

Now Lola likes BL.  She’s still in love with MasterPiece, but we’re going to work on thread-polyamory.

pain in my tuckus!  But, on the other hand, I’m halfway finished with the crosshatching.  I’m not doing even-distances between the lines.  It’s “random-distance crosshatching” — which is a phrase I totally just made up.    See what I mean?

I offered to help out at Ready to Sew while Ronna, Mike, and V are in Switzerland.  They’re a little short-handed otherwise, as well.   Oh my bob, that was so much fun!  I felt a little strange just in that I don’t know the store-way of doing things and how they handle particular situations that always come up in retail.  But I really enjoyed spending the day in the store and am looking forward to helping out again on Friday.  Maybe they’ll need my help in the future, too.  I’d sure be honored if they asked.  I cannot say enough good things about everyone who works there and especially Ronna and Mike, the owners.  The store is expanding in just a week and I’ll post pictures when I go to the grand re-opening, whenever that happens.

Tonight, we watched King of Kongs: A Fistful of Quarters.

5 stars from the Tollerton House.  If you have any interest at all in video games or 80s arcades, give it a view.  And if you rent the DVD, make sure to watch all the special features.  They’re just as good as the rest of the movie.

I want to show everyone the progress I’ve made on Charm City and what techniques I’ve tried and fill you in on my frustrations and discoveries.  But I’m not ready yet.  Look for a post on sunday afternoon.

Until then, my loves!