This just isn't going very well - Project 144 Update

This looks nothing like what I want it to look like. On the plus side, I found out that my serger does a great job with a gathering stitch, which will save be buku time. On the down side, the thread that came with the serger is cheap and breaks easily. Luckily, my brother- and sister-in-law gave me a set of serger thread cones for Christmas, so I'm going to hook those up and it should go much smoother. Also luckily, this is throw away fabric - if it doesn't work out, I didn't lose anything other than time.

I'm getting very frustrated with garbing, because I KNOW what I want the garb to look like but I'm not able to find a pattern that will work and I don't seem to be able to make it appear out of thin air. We are getting to where we are pretty specific in what we want and commercial patterns just aren't cutting it anymore.

I've got a couple books on pattern making/alterations and I guess I'm going to have to whip those out and start using them.

Jack and I sat down last night and made some (very long) lists of things we would prefer to get done before Ragnarok and talked about budgeting and planning. We decided that we are at the point where we have enough garb and gear to get us through a week of camping, so now it is time to take a step back and design and build the garb and weapons we want. This will involve higher quality materials and significantly more time investment per completed item. Thus, much of today was spent online doing brainstorming and research.

This was on my to-do list for January and it doesn't look like I'm going to get it done if I want to do it correctly, so I'm pushing it out to February.

I found another cross-stitch project to share. This one is a Dimensions pattern and will eventually have a castle and wizard and a fireball in addition to the eerie looking dragon. I've been working on the fireball this week.

The background is actually black but I was having trouble getting a good picture because of the high contrast between the thread and the fabric. I'll hopefully have a better one next time.

Remember, just keep swimming!

Check out these "Modern" Quilts

Ever since I finished the HST quilt this past weekend, I've been browsing around at "modern"-ish quilts.

First, it was very easy to put together and secondly, there is something strangely appealing about the simplicity of the pattern. I found a whole slew of amazing quilts.

Geometric Eames by Heather Joy of Joyofallcrafts.com

Celebration of the Hand by Angela Flickr of The Artists' House

Carson Too quilts at Black White Yellow

No artist listed, click here for original blog post

There are dozens more out there, a lot of them more complicated than the few I show here. I really like the Celebration of the Hand by Angela, because it combines quarter square and half square triangles.

Rustic Half Square Triangle Quilt

Check it out! Thanks to a three day weekend (and Jack taking off for a Red Wings game tonight) I actually pieced an entire quilt in one weekend. Okay, granted that it still need borders (which I don't have the fabric for) and it is a very small quilt at 36" x 45" but I still did it in ONE WEEKEND! GO ME!

Rustic Half-Square Triangle Quilt

I'm not sure what I'll do with this one yet. It is a good size for a baby but it is the wrong color scheme. It might make a nice wheel-chair quilt. Guess we'll see. Either way, I like it a lot. It is very different than all the other quilts I've worked on.

Linking up to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times

My Shoulder Angel

There I am, browsing around on the quilting message boards, generally minding my own business and not bothering anyone, when I came across this little gem.

"Amish Cropcircles" by Martina, as posted on QuiltingBoard.com. 

Oh. Me likey. Shiny!

I can't really say why I like it because its not my typical color scheme or anything like that but I do really like it.

Then I said to myself, "Self, you should make one!"

It went something like this - remember Kronk from Emperor's New Groove?

Shoulder Demon: You should make that quilt.

Shoulder Angel: Be strong of will. You have enough projects.

Shoulder Demon: Will-schmill.  It'll be fun.

Shoulder Angel: You don't have time for the projects you already have.

Shoulder Demon: You already have the squares cut. It will use up some leftovers - that barely counts as a new project!

Shoulder Angel: No! No! Don't!

Shoulder Demon: In fact, anything started from stash or leftovers doesn't count!

Shoulder Angel: Stop squashing me, mmmph!

And that is how I ended up using the leftover squares from my DP9 train quilt. They are 5.5" squares which I chopped in half and paired randomlyish to make HST units, trimmed to 5" square.

 Here is the first row. These are 9" finished blocks. I counted enough triangles to make 20 blocks total, which I think will make a very lovely 4 x 5 block layout.

Trouble Comes in Threes

Its been one of those weeks...

Last Thursday I'm just about to crash for the night when I hear a pipe running. I check the bathroom. Nope. Down into the furnace room I traipse and what is that I hear? The pipe going to the outdoor faucet?

So I put on my shoes and trudge outside. I have to use a shovel to dig my way to the faucet through about a foot of snow.

After checking it out, I determine that I can definitely hear water running and that the faucet is definitely not on.

More shoveling, this time around the corner to the crawlspace entry where I am rather unhappy to discover that the pipe under the crawlspace has burst.

Mind you, its about three degrees outdoors at this point.

I race inside and yell  for Jack to shut off the water.

Turn out that there was never a shutoff valve installed to the outdoor faucet, so we have to shut off the water main. To the entire house. And it is approximately 11 pm. I have to get up for work in less than seven hours.

The next day, we both left work early to get the pipe repaired. Got a shutoff valve installed.

And find that the water has seeped into the basement along the back wall.

We were very blessed in that we caught the burst pipe early, or we probably would have ended up with a completely flooded basement. We had to clean up the water and throw a few things away. We also used the opportunity to de-junk. We filled four trash bags to throw out and have a small mountain of donation items in the garage.

Then I come home today to this:

That used to be my hot water faucet in my shower. Apparently after I left for work, it wouldn't turn on and then completely busted open, spraying water all over the bathroom.

Jack took it apart and found this little gem:

That SHOULD be one piece. Jack is at Home Depot right now trying to get a replacement.

While he's working on that, I'm gazing longingly at my DP9 Train quilt top, wishing I could be working on it instead of helping him repair the plumbing and I see that one of the blocks is upside down.

That one, RIGHT THERE, right smack dab in the middle of the quilt. It couldn't be on an edge, because that would make the repair too easy. Icing on the cake. I knew there was a reason that I don't like cake.

Hopefully this weekend will be better, I have plans to spend Saturday with Astrid building robots in my newly cleaned basement and eating my weight in fruit and chocolate while the guys gather at the park to beat each other with foam swords in the below freezing snowy weather. And Monday is another Holiday (first time ever getting MLK day off of work) so three day weekend, here I come!