Midway Station

Quilt wise, I'm sort of in the middle of things. I've done a tiny bit more to scrap quilt I'm playing with, and I'm waiting now for more scraps from my Project Modern quilt before I start putting anything together.

I'm almost done with cutting all the pieces for the Project Modern quilt. Life keeps getting in my way though, in the form of "friends coming over" and "accidentally working really late".

I am looking forward to the guild sewing night on Saturday, because then I'm sure to get some stuff done.

Marvelous Anne

Inspiration is a tricky thing. I'm definitely inspired by shapes around me. It's often something that flashes into my head without warning. When inspiration does strike, hopefully I'm in a place where I can write it down, or draw it safely. It's more annoying when I'm driving a car, or drifting off to sleep.

I'm not quite sure what tipped me off for this particular quilt. I do know that I planned it before I started on my Hey Cherri sampler quilt, and it was set aside for that bit of madness. I realized after I designed it that it reminded me of a ride at the fair, so I named it after one of my mother's fair co-workers. I've been working on it in bits and pieces over the summer, and finally sat down a finished it. It's roughly twin sized.

One of the first things they told us in design school was not to criticize our own work in front of others. Our teacher told us that we had to stand behind our work, because no one else would. They also said that pointing out errors was the best way to get others to notice them, so, in essence, keep your mouth shut about any mistakes you may have made.

It's a hard mindset to get out of. I hesitate to point out things I find wrong with this quilt because of it. Quilting has a lot in common with graphic design, but it differs in that there is an element of sharing success, and commiserating over failure. Quilting is a community, rather than just a business. No one is grading me here, and there is no client to be pleased other than myself, so it would be alright to mention some pretty significant mistakes in the construction of this quilt.

Maybe I'll just let it go and remind myself to keep working on my precision and craftsmanship. All in all, I like the thing.

While I was waiting for the quilt to wash and dry, I worked on the scrap thing that is sitting on my "design wall". I think I'll sew together what I can, and wait for more scrap bits from my Project Modern quilt to round it out. It may take me making a few more quilts before I finally have enough scraps to make something resembling a twin size quilt, but that's cool. I'm in no hurry with this one.

Mistakes were made

Did you know that you can get 50 chicken nuggets from McDonald's for ten dollars? When Saturday started, I didn't either, but by the end of it, I knew all to well.

I got a call in the afternoon from my friend Foxx, who was in town and wanted to hang out. When she got to my house, she mentioned that her brother had gotten the 50 nuggets, and that it seemed like a pretty funny thing to eat. We were all hungry, so we decided to get the deal and split them between myself, Foxx and my roommate.

50 nuggets between 3 people comes out to about 16-17 per person.

My roommate Corky ate his 17 like a champ.

I struggled through mine, but managed to make it.

Foxx, however, couldn't do it, and gave up like a baby.

Although, maybe it was for the best. She probably has more sense than my roommate or I.

Later that night I went to Modern Domestic for the PMQG sewing night, and had a great time, even if I was overly full of chicken nuggets. I started cutting the pieces for my Project Modern quilt, as it was the only portable project I have going.

I've gotten a bit further on the scrap quilt, and I like the unexpected color combos I'm getting by combining things randomly.

While the boss is away...

My boss headed out on a camping trip this week, so I've been going to the office and finishing up a few time sensitive projects.

Since my boss is gone, I decided to take advantage of her nice big floor space to baste my quilt. It's a good trial run to see if the smell of basting spray is detectable the next day. If it isn't, then I can baste my quilts under the cover of darkness in the meeting room for my building.

I'd like to say I'll start quilting it tonight, but, you know, Project Runway is on.

Pleasure Cruise

Now, I have a quilt top that I need to baste. I cannot start my Project Modern quilt before I baste, quilt and bind that sucker.

La de da, I can't hear you! I'm going to work on something totally pointless!

I had a ton of scraps left over from my Hey Cherri quilt, and the quilt top I need to quilt, so I've just been sewing pieces of fabric together for the heck of it. I have no real plan. It's a weird feeling.

These will be something, someday. Maybe.

I also started my regular (non-camp) job up again today. It was okay. I like my job, but it's a painfully long time until next summer. My boss is out of the office for the rest of the week, so it's just going to be me. I think pajama work days are in order!

The Magic of 221 Colors

Yesterday I did something I haven't done in awhile and went fabric shopping.

I'm super excited for Project Modern, and am thrilled to have an excuse to make a quilt. Here's the color palette I'm using for my Inspiration quilt.

It's a little difficult to get from the graphic design mindset where I can have any color possible, to a quilter's mindset where things are much more limited. To help myself out, I created a kona cotton swatch set for illustrator so I'll have a better idea of what my options are. I can't resist trying to put them in rainbow order, so I'm sure I'll be fussing with this palette for some time.

State Fair Madness

Goodness, is it the end of the summer again? I guess that means it's time for the fair!

My dad asked if I wanted to meet him and his girlfriend there, so I was happy to have some company.

Here's my dad being a good sport, even though I was about an hour late. Sorry dad! It's a lot harder to get to the fair from Portland than from my old place in Salem. Congestion from the outlet mall in Woodburn, and limited turn lanes in Salem made for a very frustrating drive.

Now, when I was a kid, my mom worked for the State Fair. I don't remember what her exact job was, but I think she worked for the Oregon Wine Advisory Board. It was part time, but it meant we got free tickets to the fair, and if we were very lucky, sometimes we got free ride tickets too. We used to go almost every day the fair was open, so I have very, very fond memories of the fair.

There seem to be less quilts than I remember as a kid, but maybe the State Fair isn't where people display quilts anymore? I don't know much about the Oregon competitive quilting scene, so I really couldn't say. I took some pictures of quilts I liked though.

There weren't divisional labels on most of the quilts, so it wasn't always easy to determine what quilts were in the what category. That might have been helpful in understanding why some quilts had ribbons, and some didn't. Overall, I was underwhelmed.

A big part of the fair for me when I was a kid was the rides. We always used to dare each other to go on the Zipper in my family, as it was the twirliest ride we could think of. I only did it once with my dad and brother. A bit before we got on we saw some pretty sick looking people exit a car, and the attendants hosing it down, presumably because they puked all over the car. As a kid, it made the ride seem even cooler. I'm too much of a wuss to go on it now though. And I'm also too cheap. Ride tickets are pretty spendy for just a few minutes of fun!

One of my absolute favorite ride though, was the swings. The ride itself was fun, but I love the way the ride looks. It was always my mission to sit in a red swing, and under a pretty lady. I was happy that I got a chance to take some photos of the ride this year.





I think those two ladies are the prettiest. It surprised me a little that I love stuff like this, with super embellishments and curvy lines, but I've been making super geometric and simple quilts.

Speaking of super embellishments and curvy lines, another favorite part of the fair when I was a kid was the cake decorating competition. I would drool over all the elaborately decorated cakes. They usually looked something like this.

I guess that kind of cake has gone out of style. Almost every cake this year was more like this.

All of them seemed covered in fondant, which I don't find very exciting. I hate the way it tastes. I'm not crazy about cakes covered in it, because it seems to beat the whole purpose of decorative frosting by being sort of inedible. I'm just a grump about it though, and I'm no fun to watch cake related show with because I spend the whole time talking about how much I hate fondant cakes.