What's On My Design Wall?

Well, it has to do with these scraps, and I thought I had taken a picture.....I just finished labeling 15 blocks and packing them up for class tomorrow. Photo after I do the sashing in class.

Speaking of class, that's where I've been. Last week was crazy.

Monday was the first class for Windmill Farm

Wednesday I started working on Mexican Star:

Eight more blocks to finish.

Thursday I learned how to do a proper binding, and Friday was a major disappointment.

I went to a Hunter Star class and once we started cutting I realized that the two background fabrics I had chosen to compliment my Timeless Treasure Indigo FQs was positively HIDEOUS. Not to mention it's very labor intensive and because I'm making each star different and each block contains the makings for 3 stars, it is also going to be very design wall intensive. Fortunately this class doesn't meet again until the 20th, so I was able to buy new background fabrics (another $48 investment into this quilt) and I've got some time to play catch up on all the cutting and piecing.

After Friday's class I was a late arrival at the neighborhood Happy Night where I learned that one should never drink rum and cheap red wine the same night. I don't know how I functioned in Saturday's class, which was an art quilt (applique) class. I do know that the pieces I cut out and pressed the edges under, which are ready for layout, do not look anything like a poppy when laid out. I stood to cut, I stood to iron, the teacher kept saying 'take a load off, have a seat while you cut those templates out, but going from standing to sitting with the mother of all hangovers is not conducive to remaining upright.

The splitting headache continued throughout the day. No number of ibuprofen, naproxen, Diet Cokes, granola bars, grapes had any effect. Finally around 9 p.m. I took a Percocet and it was gone this morning. If I had any sense at all, a little 'hair of the dog' might have ended my misery sooner, but I just wasn't feeling any love for Captain Morgan.

This morning I dragged my neighbor who may be interested in taking up quilting to a quilt show, and we spent the better part of the day critiquing the entries and playing with new sewing machines.

In test driving the new Bernina 300 series, they sat us down and we made these cute little zippered change purses that took 10 minutes and let us use different decorative stitches and change feet a bunch of times. (These Bernina's have snap on feet, but can still use the regular feet).

Of course I also spent equal time at the Babylock booth checking out the Sashiko machine and talking about the 12 needle embellisher while my neighbor checked out their sewing machines.

But...the biggest deal of the day? The only money I spent was on lunch and raffle basket tickets. I bought nothing at the show. (I must have been still feeling the after affects of Saturday.

(OMG....the only thing on TV is infomercials...what time is it? Crap, it's 1:30...need to wrap this up)

I've got the last Windmill Farm class tomorrow, and then I wound up in another waitlist class for a Garden Maze which has a kind of Celtic knot thing going on. Our anniversary is Wednesday and we're going to a British Invasion tribute concert at Strathmore Hall, so I should have more time to blog this week and maybe finish up one or two projects.

Oh, and let's not forget to mention that when I did get home from class on Saturday, the hubs had spent 5 hours in the kitchen prepping tomatoes and peppers for a salsa making session, so after an hour's veg out time, hoping to lose the nagging headache, he helped can 18 jars of salsa. And not just any salsa.....salsa so insanely hot that I'm putting a couple jars up in the medicine cabinet for winter, when I wind up with one of those head colds where I can't breathe through my nose...this will clear your sinuses right up.

I just don't understand men...let's use the hottest peppers known to man (Habarnaro) and leave the seeds in, leave the seeds in the Jalapenos, but remove the seeds from the Cubanelle and Poblano mild peppers. Oh, and we'll also add double the Tabasco sauce the recipe for spicy Salsa suggests as an optional ingredient. Well, on the bright side, we won't have to make Salsa again, since I don't see us using up this 18-jar batch in this lifetime :)

Well, it's off to the office for me tomorrow, and I need to go before I'm forced to buy a Magic Bullet....seriously, who doesn't want to invite 2 couples over to sit at my kitchen counter while I demo my nifty little chopper and make all kinds of crap.....oh wait.....they're making FROZEN DRINKS in it.....where the heck is the phone......

Have a great week! Stay cool, stay safe, stay sane (and sew if you can).