All purpled out

October 17, 2009 | 2 Comments

I posted some of the pictures of this quilt on Facebook already, but just for consistency (and in case any of my readers are still out there after this giant hiatus), here they are again.

Willy Wonka (the womb name) was born yesterday and this is his quilt. Can you tell his mom likes purple? I have to admit, I was very leery about making a purple quilt. I was worried it would be too purple. It really almost is, and I doubt I’ll use purple fabric for anything in the near future, but overall, I’m pleased with the outcome.

For the stars, I used a stack and whack approach. I started with 9 inch squares of fabric and these blocks ended up just over 6 inches when I was done. I kept swearing to myself during the first round of stars (I did 8 at a time) that I would photo the entire next set for a tutorial. Unfortunately, I ended up trying a different method on the second set. (If you look closely you can see that in some of the blocks, the points extend all the way to the edge. Those are the first batch.)

There were definitely not enough tutorials (here’s one and I can’t even find the other one) on how to do this out there, and I still have two stacks of squares left, so maybe — in my copious spare time — I’ll get around to making more blocks. Would anyone want those when I’m done? Because, I don’t know that I could bring myself to keep them. I’m just all purpled out. Gasp! Maybe I should have a contest!

Wow, that looks even ickier typed out than it did in my head. A contest? really? Someone call a doctor.

And just because I’m feeling daring, here’s the next project on the blocks (ha ha… no pun intended). Someone is having baby number two. I think she just wants another quilt.

You can see just how not purple it is.

Plotting demise

October 16, 2009 | 1 Comment

For some reason, I’ve decided to subject myself to the torture that is NaNoWriMo again this year.

This year, I swore I’d be ready. So I’ve been reading books about how to write (does anyone else see the irony in that? I mean, what kind of loser reads books about how to write?) and thinking thinking thinking for the last 4 months of a good plot. Yeah. Um. I got nothing. Well, ok, that’s not entirely true, I have about 25 “scenes” in a plot that is going nowhere fast. It’s the “journey” of a nine-year-old girl in a post-apocalyptic world. Here’s the trouble. I have no idea where she is going. I need some sort of major conflict to lead up to — as if the apocalypse isn’t conflict enough. I’ve got virtually no subplots either.

I want to write something with a hint of the supernatural. I’ve read so many books with ghosts and magic and whatnot lately that it’s just nagging at me. But what? I keep considering just picking a setting and starting, but last year that’s what did me in I think. I need a little bit more of a road map than just where to start.

Oddly, I’m not the only one who views the thought of banging out 50,000 words in 30 days as torture. (Actually, it’s not the word count that seems so daunting to me, but more the complete lack of direction.) There are so many posts in the forums dedicated to how much NaNo sucks. There is a forum named “NaNoWriMo ate my soul” that contains threads with titles like “101 ways to epic fail october”, “Adopt a Pessimist”, and my personal favorite “IHMAWTD Lounge” (that’s “I Hate Myself And Want To Die”).

Anyway, I’ve been hanging out in the aforementioned forums and I keep waffling back and forth between “I can make this work”, and “I suck so bad it’s not even worth thinking about”. I know reading posts in IHMAWTD is not really constructive, so I keep trying to plant myself in the plot doctoring forum. Problem with that is, either the other people’s plots sound sooo much more interesting than mine, or they are about zombies and vampires (retch).

A friend suggests I find my audience. So here’s where I implore you, is there anyone out there that even cares? Throw me a bone if you do.

Better than an A plus

October 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Alexis brought homework home for a parent tonight. It was this grid thing with letters down one side and numbers across the top, and pictures drawn in some of the squares. There were 4 questions (plus a bonus question worth 200 points). Each question was really just a “what is in square A3?” type of thing. Well, I made Chris do the homework, because well, I already played the subtraction card game with her — which was actually hard and kinda fun, but I digress.

So Chris answers all of the questions with her standing over his shoulder coaching him. When he finishes (and the bonus question was hard I tell ya — it was a trick question — there is no cell E1!) she looks at him and snatches the page and says, “I’m going to grade it now.” Which she does with very little fanfare.

As it turns out she was actually supposed to return this parental homework, but she left it sitting on the computer desk between us. I picked it up to take it to her homework bag — don’t ask me, I don’t know why they don’t just use a folder — when I noticed the grade she gave Chris.

+++A+++

Seriously. I guess he passed.

Alexis - A Conversation

May 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment

“Let’s play spin the chapstik!”

Apron Strings tied!

March 11, 2009 | 2 Comments

I’ve been busting my butt trying to get this quilt done for the silent auction and my daughter’s school. This is the first quilt I’ve ever machine quilted, and I’m pretty happy with how it came out. It was definitely faster!

The colored fabric (except for the binding) is Moda’s Apron Strings line from a few years ago. I bought a charm pack back then, cut out all the triangles, and shoved it all in a bag and left it there until about 5 weeks ago. I’m not sure what I was thinking trying to do a pattern with this shape, but it seems to have come out ok. I only frogged it about 3 times.

The binding was a major pain. I walked around my local quilt store for hours looking for something that would work because the main fabrics were no longer available. Finally, I admitted defeat and asked for help. The binding was the third fabric the awesome ladies at the quilt shop suggested. I didn’t notice it until I got it home to cut, but it’s actually a Christmas fabric. I’ll have to find something to do with it this year, since I’ve got a good 3/4 yard left.

I was thinking the other day, that I have made 3 baby quilts (though this last one could be categorized as a lap quilt) in less than a year. There’s another one in the works though, my friend Rebecca is expecting now!

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All purpled out

Plotting demise

Better than an A plus

Alexis - A Conversation

Apron Strings tied!

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