Who Knows Where the Time Goes

You know how sometimes the computer just loses it's allure? Particularly when you've got to work on it all day? Yeah, it's been that way for me for a few weeks. I am so far behind on the Blog, on Facebook, on my email (to the point where I just go and do mass deletes)---even on television. I've got shows stacking up on the DVR and the flash drives. I've been Forced Forfeited in numerous Scrabble and Words with Friends games. Technology is no longer a novelty. Sigh.

In the spirit of catch up.....

Vintage Rouge won second place in the large quilts category at the quilt show this past weekend. The awards are based on 'Viewers Choice'. Pretty cool. The challenge quilt won nada, but it has finally dawned on me that I am a competitor in the challenges, so I think that next year I'll submit an entry in the AQS challenge. I do believe my work is now challenge worthy.

 

Did I spend a ton of money at the quilt show? Of course. And what will we be making? Well, for starters there's this pretty cool wool 'thing'.

 

And without even trying it, I stocked up on some of that new Sulky 12 wt. cotton thread to use on my wool applique and hand embroidery. Yep, 25 spools. Up to this point I've mortgaged the farm on the 12 wt. Aurifil that comes in spools so large there is no way that even 2 generations of my heirs would sew their way through them. We'll see how these go, but I'm inclined to think 12 wt cotton is 12 wt cotton--it's hand sewing so it's a no-brainer. I can stockpile lots of colors this way.

 

And I couldn't resist this kit. I just love the colors (greys and yellows). Finally, a quilt I can make for my daughter that she'll really like. For now it's a surprise. I was thinking I'd give it to her for Christmas, and then I got a grip on reality and figured that I'd likely show her the pattern the next time she's over so she can then put pressure on me to finish it. (good motivation, no?)

 

And we all know that once I cut into my precious South African Indigo I was immediately led to regret my decision to render my stash into 2000 small pieces when I saw a beautiful William Morris applique quilt done entirely in Indigos. I looked at my few larger FQ sized pieces, at my hundreds of little 1x3" strips and said 'Girl, you have GOT to get more Indigo, so I did.

And I also laid in some more batiks...I'm taking a 2 day workshop with Spikey Deb Karasik this weekend (Inner Light) that requires 11 gradations of 4 colors.

Now I've got to spend Saturday afternoon cutting A Million Little Pieces to be paperpieced into scary-slender spikes. Did I mention that I've only paper pieced once in my life, and that was 5 years ago?

 

In between acquisitions I managed to put together another dozen or so blocks for the Indigo quilt. There's about 2 dozen more to be done and then we can go to the design wall.

 

And, since I've yet to use my Slice to cut any fabric, I thought it would be fun to pick up some removable vinyl and jazz up the sewing machine.

 

 

 Note that spiffy chevron pincushion I made to attach. Perfect place to deposit those pins while piecing. I put down a strip of the removable adhesive and stuck Velcro to it. Easily removed when I tire of it, or find that it gets in the way.

And not to be geeky, but I've enrolled in a few workshops in the upcoming months, so I thought it would be helpful to my instructors if I put my name on the back of my machine. That way they don't have to worry if they can't remember, or put their glasses on to read my name tag. When I'm done I can just peel the letters off.

And for tonight, I'm done. Have an excellent weekend. I'll check back in with workshop progress.