I’m slowly but surely getting used to using Ubuntu. It’s been rather frustrating at times but at this point I have no desire to return to windows, and specifically Vista, at all. I just need to figure out how to get my Sirius to work.
Anyway, here are the 2 more interesting fabrics I got at Fabricland. The first is the deer print I found on the table of Xmas prints. It doesn’t look that festive to me, but what do I know?
I’m planning on using it (and other green prints) to make a souped up version of Denyse Schmidt’s Hills ‘n’ Hollers quilt. I want it to look more like trees. At least, that’s the plan for now.
This stuff, I don’t know. It just appealed to me and I don’t have any black based fabric and now I do.
It’s pretty silly looking, I know, but once it’s chopped into squares or strips, it will look totally different.
I got rid of Windows from my computer. This laptop came with Vista installed, and while I had no real personal problems with it, my computer got seriously, virally infected on Saturday so we dumped Windows and installed Ubuntu Netbook Remix. It’s nice. It’s clean and free and (in theory) easy to use. Well. Easy if you know HOW to use it, I guess, but as a total n00b, I’m feeling pretty frustrated by a lot of it, including the fact that it doesn’t support Photoshop, the program I use to manipulate my photos. That I post here. Ugh.
So I’ve installed GIMP and that seems to be pretty close to pshop but different enough to cause a certain amount of frustration too.
I was going to blog about my exciting trip to Fabricland yesterday, the one that’s shutting it’s doors by the end of March in Lindsey and has all it’s fabric and notions on sale for at least 66% off (I spent $26 and came out with an enormous bag of stuff) but in order to go through my pictures I need more time than I have right now. I’ll take care of them later. Good practice anyway.
Here’s the ONE that I managed to whine my way through, it’s thread, obvi. But it’s pretty, shiny rayon variegated thread for quilting with and denim thread for…denim.
I hope it doesn’t gum up my machine.
I had such a busy day, I’ve completely sewn the top of the new baby quilt I started-get this-yesterday. No, I won’t post a picture of it yet, it’s a surprise gift for a friend who’s pregnant and if she can wait, so can the rest of the universe.
In lieu, here’s a picture of my sampler quilt, almost finished. I’ve done some of the quilting (and you can see my 8 million safety pins keeping all the layers together) and will finish that part on Tuesday at the workroom-my sewing machine can’t handle that kind of work. I’ve run pretty hot and cold on this project, but seeing it together in one giant lump makes me pretty happy and proud. And desirous of a new sewing machine, for real.
As for the three blocks that I haven’t posted yet, top left is called drunkard’s path, top middle is an appliqued block and bottom left is a pinwheel or somesuch. The dark pink between all the blocks is the top edge of an old sheet, the pink floral is the same sheet, the white with light pink and dark orange is ikea fabric. You can see the batting pinned in the middle, that’s the cream around the edge, and just a peek at the back, another old percale sheet. It’s soft and heavy and I can’t wait to snug up under this while watching a movie.
All I have left to do on it, after the quilting, is the edge. Woo!
I went shopping today because I needed a new self-healing cutting mat to slice up fabric for a new quilt I am working on. I wound up buying more stuff than expected-a set of sheets for our bed for example-but I also came home with three cutting mats instead of one. Oops. Whoever was stocking the shelves at the store was lazy and didn’t open the bag of three, leaving it as one big pack on the shelf. I didn’t notice ’til I got home.
The sheets are bright salmon/orange and I like them a lot. And for $25, I can’t complain. I also got lots of bright thread for quilting with, new blades for my cutting jigger and a bunch of gymnastic suits for Ari because they were on sale for $5 each, cheaper than Meijer even. Huh.
My final quilting class is this Thursday, I’ll post a picture then of the silliness I made. Seriously, it’s totally over the top.
That’s me in the middle looking worried. I wasn’t worried, it’s just that in the olden days we were forced to smile into direct sunlight to create a ‘good’ picture. I don’t know who that baby is. Just some baby. We’re at Fort George. Maybe.
Oh, and ps, the Werewolf movie is good in a silly way, I had the giggles all the way through, thinking about SCTV with Marty Short as Scott Baio as TeenWolf.
I had some narrow strips of fabric left over from my log cabin quilt block, so I sliced them in half lengthwise and sewed a miniature log cabin block, then made it into a pin cushion. Stuffed it, sewed it shut and embroidered my initials on the back, then I attached a little crocheted strawberry that’s been lumping around in my crochet case for a year.
Cute.
I also got a bunch of new yarn yesterday, for xmas. A ball of mini mochi that is so soft and nice (it’s #111, aka babyface), I’m making it into yet another scarf. Should be lovely. And a few skeins of sock yarn, plus 3 balls of sari silk yarn.
Lunch tomorrow, Jana?
Jana wrote the pattern and it took me about 24 hours all told to finish it. Easy. And it hurt my brain only a little.
Not the prettiest picture of me, I know.
Orange and lilac, if you couldn’t tell.
I kind of hate doing the sewing at home because it hurts my back. Well, and because it’s just more fun when there’s a group of like-minded people all messing around with fabric together. And, to be perfectly honest-and my mother can attest to this truth-I’ve never been big on homework. Ever. I think the last time I did homework, realistically, was around grade 3. After that? Forget it.
Here are blocks 3 and 4, a log cabin and a 9 patch respectively.
I had to cheat a little on the log cabin, the checkery green and yellow strip on the left side should run the entire length but I ran out of fabric so I put the darker green across the bottom all the way across. You probably wouldn’t notice unless you were a pro. The 9 patch is funny, the geisha fabric is this somewhat horrible fabric that was a nightie that I got at Value Village a million years ago, it’s got stains and paint on it and I had to back it with fusable…stuff. I love that it’s finally found a crafty home in my world.
While I am still doubtful that I will ever be a quilter, it’s been a fun class so far!
I started a night school course at The Workroom in Parkdale-the quilting sampler course. I’ve done plenty sewing in my life, but I will be first to admit it’s all been pretty slap-dash. Quilting is the polar opposite of slap-dash, you need to be very precise, measuring, cutting, pinning, all those things I’ve never been too careful about in the past. This is teaching me patience, for sure. The first block I made-in class-I wasn’t thrilled with. I realized, in hindsight, that the red/pink gingham fabric has elastic in it, BOOOO. And sew against shantung silk just made things go all twonky. So I started a new block, same pattern, tonight at home and it turned out marginally better. I still need to get a hang of pinning.
I also need to practice ironing. The second block I made used an old pillow case I had (the centre square) and a weird night dress I bought a million years ago (the pink/black triangles). The rest of it is new.
There was band practice tonight so Shannon and Ari built a nest in the tub and read more Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The looked super cute:
And I took a bunch of self portraits and this is the only one I vaguely liked.
Since switching (back) to knitting-from crocheting-I’ve noticed my attitude towards yarn has changed drastically. Because crochet is such a yarn suck, I pretty much used acrylic yarns exclusively. They work great for amigurumi anyway, cheap and bright. Now that old stash lays dormant in my bins, and I buy nicer yarn for knitting.
Here’s my current stash basket, full of beautiful yarn, needles, patterns, yarn labels, snips, magazines and candy-everything a knitter needs. It’s an old laundry basket, lined with cotton, and I sewed pockets from retired jeans around the perimiter to use as needle holders. I also got a makeup brush holder from Body Shop and use that for smaller dpn’s.
Ziploc bags are also a knitter’s best friend. The 2 big balls in the middle were a gift from Ashley, delicious chunkiness from Nora Allen. I’m thinking beret. Or mittens.
More stuff I love: I’m on a rose perfume kick right now. It started with a need for soap in the bathroom, we always have a supply of Dr.Bronner’s, usually peppermint because it’s nice and tingly feeling, but I bought a small bottle of the rose scented soap last time, just to try it out and I LOVE it. It’s so pretty smelling, not like granny underwear drawer at all. Now I also have rose perfume from Noah’s and it’s awesome.
Signed a little person up for her first gymnastic classes this morning. She starts on Wednesday and couldn’t be more excited about it. The gym is a block from our house, so that’s nice too. There’s actually an adult’s class once a week that I am seriously considering joining. Maybe baby.
Now I am off to buy cat food for the old grey rag!
I got this yarn in the mail (fishy wishy in a dishy, 105g, 400yds) yesterday from Seejayneknityarns. It is even prettier in real life, lemme tell you. The colours are crazy, now to decide what to do with it-and the other balls of yarn in my ever growing stash. I’m sure I will figure something delicious out.
I also spent 5 hours with Bill Baker yesterday working on my sleeve we started over 10 years ago. That was…fun? Maybe fun isn’t quite the word I am looking for-it was 2 hours of laying a stencil and drawing, 3 hours of tattooing. But I love Bill’s company and because we haven’t sat together in so long it was nice to catch up on all the local gossip. Is there a tattooer that doesn’t love gossip? If so, I don’t want to know about it.
I love the morning after scrub in the shower, pure bliss. There are 2 spots that are-unfortunately-lymphing still and despite my best, repeated efforts, still are gooping up. UGH. Back to the bathroom with me.
