You win some - You lose some...

It was my brother in law's 40th birthday on Friday so I guess the question on everybody's lips is whether he liked the quilt I made for him.

You know- the one I've been blathering on about since about February? The one I vowed to finish in time for his birthday in July. The one I've been endlessly showing as I theoretically progress through to completion?  Yeah -ummm...that's still in bits. We copped out and gave him money in a card instead because apparently I cant finish anything when working to a deadline. Gotta say - Im not really arse kicking myself over it- I have come to dislike the putting together of that quilt intensely. Maybe it'll get finished and maybe not. I've never not finished a quilt before but the jury is still out on this one.

It hasn't all been doom and gloom and ignoring stuff on the quilting front . My Irish Chain quilt top is finished and I love how it looks. I have some cream embossed damask for the back that will pull everything together to give this an antique feel and best of all I'm sending it out to be quilted so in my head that means this one is almost done. I've even made the binding for it. My job is pretty much done! 

I waged an inner war with myself on Saturday over whether to unpick the 5 rows of the triangle quilt I'd already sewn because I wasn't really happy with the way they were sewing up into a top. I've learned that triangles cut on the bias stretch out of shape and by the time you sew stretched triangles into row you can end up with some very interesting results. (Curved quilt top anyone?) My inner perfectionist spoke louder than my slack arse personality and I spent Saturday unsewing and re-sewing and first time sewing and squaring all my triangles post sewing into little rows . (Does anyone else think this talk of squaring triangles sounds odd or am I just having a moment of silliness?) 

I got two rows sewn back together over the weekend and this is where I left the rest of it. I must confess looking at that pile waiting to be sewn into a recognisable quilt top makes me feel like I'm going to be mindlessly sewing triangles just about forever...

And to prove there's more than one way to skin a cat (ugh -I don't know why anyone would want to do that ) I finished this too. I saw this idea on Pinterest where someone had embroidered directly onto a paper map. I decided to go one better and print the map onto fabric and then embroider -but my hand stitches looked funky so I unpicked it and went the slacker way and used my machine. At this point I don't care that I sort of cheated ...its a finish. 

And in other creative type news ...I have 1 and a half of these left to do before I can start making them into a quilt top ...hallelujah!

Couldn't resist the lure of a new project ...started cutting scraps but since I haven't start actually sewing them it doesn't really count. This could be the one that finally tips me over the edge. 

Liar Liar ...Pants on Fire

Once  upon a time some smart arse geeks with nothing better to do invented the internet. Their ultimate purpose was to turn us all into zombies who sat on our butts surfing Pinterest , and randomly updating our Facebook statuses every 10 minutes because people who feel they are engaged in meaningful activity are less likely to engage in anarchy or crimes against the state.

I'm completely in love with the internet and my various electronic doodads so for me to announce that I was having a media free weekend was about as wild and crazy as I ever get. But we all know addicts are generally not all that truthful either and sadly it didn't take too long before I snuck into Hay Day and had a look at what was happening with my farm. Cow udders have nasty habit of exploding if you don't milk your cows when they need it. And I didn't want my crops to wither and die. I don't want to be accused of carrot cruelty.

I outed myself when I started pinning ...every man and his dog knew the jig was up when they saw my Pinterest activity popping up in my Facebook feed. For anyone who thinks we aren't being tracked and watched every time we go on the internet  - think again. And I wouldn't have needed to go on Facebook if everyone else lived boring lives and didn't post what they were doing - so really its all your fault. Whale Watching Nat? Really? Why can't you just be like the rest of us lazy slobs and spend the weekend in your pyjamas?

So how long did my computer free weekend really last? About 5 lousy hours.  I was like some sad addict who couldn't think of anything else but my next fix the internet. I'd kind of furtively dart in (like a Ninja) harvest my crops, check Facebook, pin a couple of things on Pinterest and get out again because if you're in and out silently it's like you were never really there. I'm so good at looking furtive I'm sure the CIA are going to be knocking on my door to recruit me any moment. 

Because I felt essentially pathetic, weak  and guilty  I did put in a decent effort over the weekend to move my UFO's along. As if somehow working hard on those projects would atone for my sin of being pathologically incapable of ignoring the internet. 

I appliqued some hexies (I'm getting so close to a finish there that I feel compelled to keep pushing on) and I worked on my very big pinwheel quilt which is also not on my list for a finish this month but I was busy avoiding doing the things that were.  

I worked on the Triangle quilt. So far 1/4 done. There is some very dodgy matching up of triangles in this top I can assure you but I'm going for overall effect here not perfection and so far I'm liking the result. 

The recycled shirt quilt top is coming along nicely. OK- perhaps nicely is stretching the truth a bit- there are a couple of huge stuff ups that I'm ignoring since it has to be finished in a mere 10 days. Mental note to self - when you work with recycled shirt fabric not all of it will be 100% cotton and there will be stretching along the way. This will require skill and patience to overcome. 

And the Irish chain quilt went from 3 finished blocks to all the blocks done and I've started to sew that together into an actual honest to goodness quilt top. 

So I suck at ignoring the internet but got an A+ for sewing effort. The big question is - will anything actually get finished in the next 15 days? 

Cutting ...of the Fabric Variety , not the Emo kind

I hit the mother load of cool T-shirts at the op shop on Saturday, after a very unsuccessful trip the previous weekend. The problem with not being a hoarder is that when I decide I want to make stuff out of recycled items (for example a T-shirt quilt-yes I really want to make one of those this year ) I usually don't have any of the very thing I need laying around. Coupled with the fact that Mr. P drops something on his front every single time he eats rendering every T-Shirt he owns in the "utterly disgusting" category by the time he has finished with it  and that means there is a distinct lack of old but useable T-shirts in this house. Mr. P also likes rude or weird sayings on his T-shirts and I cant see myself making a T-shirt quilt with sayings on them like "FBI- now give me all your drugs"  or "Man Whore ".

So I've spent a lot of yesterday cutting those shirts into useable shapes for the far off day when I have enough T-shirts to transform them into a whole quilt. Considering all the cutting I did it doesn't really seem to be that big a pile.  

And then because I'm a glutton for punishment , I went back to hacking up all the shirts I bought last week and started turning them into quilt blocks. 8 blocks done and only 41 to go. 

It wasnt all cutting fabric this weekend I actually finished something -my first finish for 2013 -and only 13 days into the year. Doing the virtual happy dance because I'm too lazy to get my bum off this chair. I wonder how long this motivated streak will last?

Take a plain bathrobe. 

Cut into your extensive chenille stash.

Appliqué like a crazy lady for a few hours. 

And you'll end up with a one of a kind robe.  Total cost : $8.00 bucks and items pilfered from your own stash.  It went home with Miss P . I really really wanted to keep it ....

I have to cram enough work into the next 5 days to feel entitled to have a couple of weeks off. I have  a plane trip coming up next Monday that's going to take me to a place where I'm probably going to be led astray. I'm looking at you Little Miss Sunshine.