Random bits and pieces

I got stuck on the short bus for longer tonight than usual, which left me plenty of time to browse my People and People Stylewatch magazines, look out the windows and wince over too many potholes to count.

While looking at People magazine, I was thrilled to see a little feature about Tim Gunn from Project Runway, one of my all-time favorite shows. It was a look into his closet, and it was so surprising. Lots of wire hangers, a really ugly Hawaiian shirt and not much room at all. Since he was without a dresser, he even had to keep his socks in a cardboard box! Even though I am often wistful about moving to the NYC area, I guess I should be realistic about the chances I'd be able to afford a place that would hold all my clothes, not to mention the rest of my crap!

I got my hair colored last week - to red. And it turned out really red. Since then, I've been called Wilma and Pebbles Flintstone and Red at work. haha ... It is bright - I hope it fades a bit so I don't look so cartoon-y.

I'm hoping to get a lot of quilting and other miscellaneous crafting done this weekend. I don't have any concrete plans. I hope to watch lots of movies (I just got "Nadia" from NetFlix ... I can't wait to watch that. It's probably been at least 20 years since I've seen it) and I have some others around to watch. I also got some cool scrapbooking supplies, so ideally I'll actually use them for a project for myself. I recently finished a Craftster swap that involved scrapbooking, and I enjoyed working on it so much! But seriously, another craft? So much for "saving" all that money by embarking on a stashbusting year!

Here are some pictures of some of my projects in progress:

This is a dog quilt I am working on. So loud! I have added a couple of borders and am trying to piece the back (which is turning out harder than I thought!


Here's a closer shot to see some of the cute fabrics.


Love, love, love this! I know exactly how I want this to look when I am done and already have a quilting pattern in mind. Also trying to piece this back, but was deterred from the project a bit after running into issues with the dog quilt.

Some finished stuff

I haven't been terribly productive in the last week or so. I've been super tired with work stuff and, in more exciting things, a visit from the boy! My apartment is now jam-packed with stuff from the old house in Texas now that it has finally sold. So in good news I now have grown up furniture ... in not so good news, my apartment is so full of boxes and plastic tubs that it's almost ridiculous!

So craft-wise I haven't been doing much. I have finally gotten through my entire stash of 1.5" squares, sorting them out by color, trying to eliminate doubles and seeing how many I have. I think I have more than 2,000 -- my count was 2,100 but I'm allowing wiggle room for some of the doubles I pulled out. Then I stuck them all in two gallon-size Ziploc bags and mixed them all up. That was rather satisfying. I've drafted a pattern that I plan to use in my quilt, but haven't started sewing yet. I think I'll have to break down and buy some background fabric, just because I used to buy so many small pieces.

Anyway, here are a few projects that I've finished semi-recently, but pre-blog.

I made this wallhanging for my mom. She's been quilting for decades, but still doesn't have a single quilt that she made for herself! I am definitely not that selfless! I really liked this pattern ... I kind of saw something similar in a magazine then drafted my own pattern. I think the swirly pattern is called Indiana Puzzle. Kind of appropriate, no?

Speaking of seeing patterns in the backs of magazines then drafting my own version, this dog wallhanging was another one I had inspirational help on.

I also drafted these fire hydrant blocks, which were just insane ... like 18 separate pieces within a three-inch or so square. Sometimes I wonder about my ideas. 

I also quilted bones in the border, which I liked the effect of. 

This is a wallhanging I made for one of my friends for Christmas. I love this pattern, but it's really complicated. I have about five other of these blocks made (and of course plenty more black, white, purple and green material) but I haven't made any more progress on another project with them. Someday, I hope!