Next!
Not quite that yellow in real life. The September rains have started and I am stuck with unnatural light. 
The flower print is called Sweethearts and the dots are Woodstock. Gonna be a cheery quilt for my couch.
Oh, and I also picked up this little number;
Nasty cats! Kitty print is Sebastien Ghastly and the contrast is Bramble Ghastly. So smitten with nasty cat looking nasty!
Posted in sewing
Got something in your life that’s been hanging over your for a while? Something you’ve just flat-out been avoiding? Need to get it done? Sure you do, and I’m here to help you achieve that goal in an easy two-step process.
1. Make up a playlist of music that makes you feel good. Songs you like to sing along to, preferably loudly. Loud enough to give the neighbours something to giggle at. I used this one*:
| Only the Young | Journey |
| Strong Enough | Sheryl Crow |
| S.O.S. | ABBA |
| Paralyzer | Finger Eleven |
| Money, Money, Money | ABBA |
| 1000 Years | Yukon Blonde |
| My Fair Weather Friend | The Blue Seeds |
| I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’ | Scissor Sisters |
| Fortune and Fame | Naked Eyes |
| Love Me Dead | Ludo |
| Brother Down | Sam Roberts |
| What I’m Famous For | Crash Test Dummies |
| Diggin’ a Hole | Big Sugar |
| Courage (For Hugh MacLennan) | The Tragically Hip |
| Sympathy for the Devil | The Rolling Stones |
| Syrup & Honey | Duffy |
| The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead | Crash Test Dummies |
| Oh My My | Jill Barber |
| Lager and Ale | Kim Mitchell |
| The Worst Day Since Yesterday | Flogging Molly |
| Someday Baby | Bob Dylan |
| Where Have All The Good People Gone? | Sam Roberts |
| Like a Rolling Stone | Bob Dylan |
| Reel ‘N’ Roll | Rawlins Cross |
| Bad Things | Jace Everett |
| Ocean Pearl | 54•40 |
| Parklife | Blur |
| In Your Hands | Charlie Winston |
| The Way | Fastball |
| When I Grow Up | The Pussycat Dolls |
| A Well Respected Man | The Kinks |
| How Bizarre (Mix) | OMC |
| Something Good Can Work | Two Door Cinema Club |
| Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You) | A Flock of Seagulls |
| What’s on Your Mind (Pure Energy) | Information Society |
| Crabbuckit | K-OS |
| Tubthumping | Chumbawamba |
| Inside The Horn | 54-40 |
| Song 2 | Blur |
| When You’re Falling [Featuring Peter Gabriel] | Afro Celt Sound System |
| I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow (Instrumental) | Norman Blake |
| Suicidewinder | Ridley Bent |
| Caught In the Crowd | Kate Miller-Heidke |
| Club Thing | Yoav |
| Little T & A | The Rolling Stones |
| Laid | Matt Nathanson |
| Too Shy | Kajagoogoo |
| Constant Craving | k.d. lang |
| The Trouble With Love Is | Kelly Clarkson |
| I Want To Break Free | Queen |
| Boom | Anjulie |
| Tick Tick Boom | The Hives |
| Little Bones | The Tragically Hip |
| I Put a Spell On You | Screamin’ Jay Hawkins |
| Let It Be | The Beatles |
| I Need to Know | Marc Anthony |
| We Can Work It Out | The Beatles |
| Something About You | Level 42 |
| Nice To Luv You | 54-40 |
| Blow At High Dough | The Tragically Hip |
| Dance Hall | Rawlins Cross |
| Flagpole Sitta | Harvey Danger |
| Shattered | The Rolling Stones |
| I Want You to Want Me | Cheap Trick |
| Flathead | The Fratellis |
| Love My Way | The Psychedelic Furs |
| Mi Swing Es Tropical | Quantic & Nickodemus |
| La Grange | ZZ Top |
| Shadow of A Man | Bedouin Soundclash |
| Big Spender | Peggy Lee |
| Happy | Leona Lewis |
| The First Cut Is the Deepest | Sheryl Crow |
| Street Fighting Man | The Rolling Stones |
| Feeling Good | Nina Simone |
| Taj Mahal | Sam Roberts |
| If I Had My Way | Big Sugar |
| Save It For Later | The English Beat |
| La Primavera | Manu Chao |
| Pastures of Heaven | Ridley Bent |
| Mercy | Duffy |
| All I Want Is You | Barry Louis Polisar |
| Always Something There to Remind Me | Naked Eyes |
| Duet for Emmylou and the Grievous Angel | Rah Rah |
| My Dick (Bonus Track) | Mickey Avalon |
| Another Bag of Bricks | Flogging Molly |
| The Second Time | Carolyn Mark & NQ Arbuckle |
| Oublie pas | Karkwa |
| She La | 54-40 |
| All the Young Dudes | Mott the Hoople |
| Love Plus One | Haircut 100 |
| Musicbox | Regina Spektor |
| How to Explain | The Cat Empire |
| Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da | The Beatles |
| Juicy | Better Than Ezra |
| Who’s Crying Now | Journey |
| Candyman | Christina Aguilera |
| Help! | The Beatles |
| And It’s Beautiful | Crash Test Dummies |
| Big Bird In a Small Cage | Patrick Watson |
| Fernando | ABBA |
| Shadowman | Afro Celt Sound System |
| More Human Than Human | White Zombie |
| Golden Sun | 54-40 |
| Mamma Mia | ABBA |
| Hello | The Cat Empire |
| Cecilia | Simon & Garfunkel |
| If It Makes You Happy | Sheryl Crow |
| Girls & Boys | Blur |
| Once A Killer | 54•40 |
| All the Times I Cried | Sharleen Spiteri |
| Sexyback | Justin Timberlake |
| Bleeding Love | Leona Lewis |
| Never Say Never | Romeo Void |
| Living in Jungles | Bedouin Soundclash |
| Islands | The XX |
| Don’t Stop Believin’ | Journey |
| How You Like Me Now (Single Edit) | The Heavy |
| The Only Thing That Looks Good on Me Is You | Bryan Adam |
Sure, it’s a little long, but I had a lot of work to do. Also, *please note, my playlist contains songs you may not want to sing loudly while your mom is around. Sorry mom! Arrggghhhh, this embarrassing. Anyway, your play list will I’m sure, be very different. It may not even make your mom shake her head sadly at you. Just saying.
2. Do the flipping task that you’ve been putting off. In the words of Nike, just do it. Right now.
That’s all there is too it! Congratulations, you’ve now completed our two step process. Would you like to buy the book or DVD series for use at home?
What? You think this is a sham? A ridiculously over-simplified and completely useless bit o’ fluff? Wrong! Just look what I’ve achieved using the Procrastinators CAN Get Things Done ™ series:
And the back:
And where it will be spending the remainder of its days:
See! You too could be getting stuff done with this wondrous system. 
Snork!
Oh, and I even had time to make the cats a new bed.
So far only Beentsy has decided it meets her very specific feline needs.
Want to make one for the cutey patootey feline in your life? Easy peasy. Take one polar fleece blanket, (Value Village and Ikea are super cheap for these), fold in half along the long edge. You now have one very long rectangle. Sew along the long edge to make a long tube. Roll the tube down over and over itself until you have a small feline containment ring. Voila, it’s magic.
I made this one using 1/2 polar fleece and 1/2 wool/nylon/cashmere fabric ends from Fabricland. Right now it’s brown from the polar fleece end. But it can be rolled from the other end and be all kinds of bright pink wool. Keeps the kitties from getting bored.
Happy Saturday.
For the second week in a row, tonight’s books are brought to you from my kitchen.
The reason for Friday night books being in the kitchen for the second week in a row? Bit of a storm rolling in:
I know that Brothel was in there last week too, but I didn’t actually get to it until yesterday. It’s really, really interesting book. Unfortunately, it also makes my blood just boil. Between the willingness of women to allow evil men to control them and the willingness of men to be that evil control I get very frustrated and sad.
Anyway, the quilting and gardening books aren’t being read, strictly speaking. More that they are very active reference books for me at this time in my life. Black Powder War and The Book Thief just came home from the library yesterday. The Book Thief is written in a very interesting style and the narrator is quite entrancing. I think, given half a chance, this would be a book you would stay up all night to finish. Apparently it’s to be a movie soon too (the movie trailer looks quite good!). Who knew? Okay, you probably knew.
Anyway, in other news, I didn’t work on the quilt of destiny at all today. It sat on my kitchen island looking like a great rolled up burrito.
All pinned up and ready to be quilted. Pat mentioned in the comments that she only ever pinned a quilt once. Then she used some sort of magical substance called ‘basting spray’ or ‘fusible batting’. Um, hello! I will so be researching these products before embarking on another quilt. LOL. Thank you so much Pat! Have you been to Pat’s blog lately? Her spinning and now her natural dyeing are amazing. Her quilting and knitting were already mind blowing.
Oh, and last but not least, I had my checkup today and all was good and golden. Erm, except my cholesterol was a bit high. 
And I need to lose a bit o’ weight. Sigh. Oh well, if I’m skinnier I’ll be able to knit a sweater faster, right? Snort!
What? Seriously, it’s the best title I could even remotely pull out of my tuckus. The sun finally came out today for a tiny little bit. The plants were all very happy to see it. My second poppy of the year started to open and unfold and is really quite spectacular.
It’s like botanical magic for that much flower to fit inside that size of bud.
The quilt is also entering the next phase of its existence. Today it was introduced to its back and batting.
Taped the back to the floor using painter’s tape, added a layer of cotton quilt batting, and then positioned the top over it all. Next, well next I attached all the layers together with safety pins. I am not a baster. I will never be a baster. Google led me to other people who sew that also are not basters. They suggested the safety pin method. Sure did take a lot of pins but it was much faster than basting all that. Also, since I’m going to be machine quilting it, basting was just an insane level of involvement.
Quilting in the ditch, oh yes, that’s the way for me. The lazy, I haz it.
a quilt back that is:
Difficult to take picis of on a windy rainy day. This big orange beast was the closest thing to sunshine we had in our neck of the woods today.
*Many apologies to Sir Mixalot. Go on click it, enjoy the ear worm!
Posted in sewing
with irrepressible sewing urges. What that means is that I’m not particularly good at it and it’s fussy as all get out but, but, but, the fabrics are so pretty! Anyway, here is the latest update. Tertiary squares, (my own personal system of quilt square measurement), into strips:
Wanna have some fun? Give an anal retentive control freak 53 ‘random’ quilt blocks and tell them to create an attractive set of strips. Yeah, that took awhile. Let’s play the hyper-critical game! Anyway, that took a fair bit of time that I’m never getting back. Finally I had 8 strips of 6 blocks each. You think it’s over, don’t you? No, no, no! Now we have to make those 8 strips work with each other. It was such a long afternoon, you have no idea. Finally, I just threw caution to the wind and ended up with this:
Stella was kind enough to pop in to give the project some scale. As it stands now, it is 47″ x 70″.
Overall, I think I like it. From a distance and in photos at least. Up close, oy. There is simply no fudging with this quilting business. Knitting – it has the fudging and I sometimes need that. I have to find a border, binding, and backing for this behemoth. Something pretty solid I’m thinking. The front is so very busy.
Tomorrow my lovely momma is coming to visit. We’re going to hit the fabric store and then be ladies who lunch. Holidays rule!
Oh, and then after neglecting the garden for two days I popped out there to water and do a status check. Um, yeah. Even in our cool and damp weather things are SO growing.
If we were to get two days of actual sunshine in a row, I’m pretty sure the green explosion would be audible out there. Even without, we’ll be having fresh salad with crunchy radishes within a day or two. Mmmmmm.
And now, I’m off to knit while the husband plays his new video game. I was disappointed to discover there are no zombies in it. Oh well.
First off, I’d like to thank everyone for their well wishes for my momma. She’s feeling much better now. Turns out she had a stomach parasite. Nasty. Thankfully the meds are doing their job and kicking it on out. I’m sure the healthful thoughts y’all were sending helped too.
Sorry, no lovely outdoor lighting for this Friday’s book picture. It’s very mild here but very much on the damp side. Therefore I bring you books on an island ( a kitchen island, unfortunately)…now avec wine!
Halfway through Throne of Jade and really enjoying it. I am quite liking this series so far.
Our new book this week is Brothel: Mustang Ranch and Its Women. The lovely Kelle suggested it for me after I suggested Thieves and Whores of the Worst Kind to her for thesis reading. Yeah, we’re all about the light reading. At least she has an excuse, she’s a criminologist! Sorry, in joke.
Oh, and all those little squares of fabric? Yeah, those are the secondary sets of quilt squares. They are just itching to be stitched into tertiary squares and from there, strips o’ fabric. Then, in theory, the strips will become a couch blankie for spousal unit.
I’m staring down the barrel end of a week’s holidays so with a little bit of gumption on my part I could get the bulk of this done before I’m heading back to the salt mines.
Happy Friday everyone!
and sew them together into bigger pieces.
Next, pressing…and more pressing…and yet more pressing.
That’s my mini counter top ironing board. Isn’t it cute? I found it at Value Village years ago for $5.00.
So, now all the primary square are sewn and their seams are pressed. They will next be linked to one another to make larger squares and eventually those squares will become strips. With more pressing thrown in for good measure. Truly and odd hobby.
Posted in sewing
There was some baking, three kinds of muffins. Four dozen in total.
Hubby worked on organizing his truck stock in his van. Abbie was desperate to assist.
We had a bit of sunshine which Jane took advantage of for a little impromptu sun bathing.
Then I flat out lost my mind and started making a quilt.
‘Cause you know, it’s spring and I have a huge garden planted and dogs & cats to take care of and work and blah, blah, blah.
Oh well, seemed like a good idea t the time.
And last but certainly not least, I’d like everyone to send out a positive healthy thought to my mom. She’s having a bit of a hard time health wise right now and I think a bunch of random happy thoughts would do her a world of good. Thanks.
Yeah, me too. Brutal week, yes? I realize it was a new moon on Monday but that was not a good enough reason for the level of general weirdness I was encountering daily out there in the world. But that’s all behind us now. It’s Friday and it’s all good. How good? Well, this is my dinner:
Best dinner in the world! Pot noodle (Ichiban, Mr. Noodles, your regional instant noodle soup name inserted here) with broccoli, carrot, and some thinly sliced leftover beef kebab. Nom, nom, nom! I swear, I could eat this every night of the week. Okay, maybe a break here and there for some fried rice or the occassional butter chicken. Oh man, I’m eating dinner and I’m making myself hungry!
Anyway, the papa had a little surgery of a nature I”m pretty sure he wouldn’t want me sharing here. Yes, he reads the blog sometimes. Hi Dad! He’s doing really well and should be home tomorrow. Be nice to Mom! Men make the worst patients.
I’ve been getting ready for the WIP’s Wrestlemania (Rav link) on Ravelry for the month of July. I think I’m being overly ambitious though. I’ve put up four projects that I want to finish, one of them is the Almost Safety Orange Featherweight cardigan in Malabrigo lace weight. Seriously! What am I thinking that I’ll finish that AND three other projects in one month? Meh, hope springs eternal.
I’ve also been sewing lately. I was inspired by the lovely Plae and her super cute fairy bag that she brought to our knitting group last week. Go have a look at it. I’ll wait here. See! adorable, right?
I’ve got one blouse cut out and I’ll be sewing that up tomorrow. I had to get lightweight fusible interfacing today. Look at all those weird words. Yet another new language I’ll have to learn. I’ll let you in on a little secret though, I could absolutely break the bank buying sewing patterns! They are like potato chips, you can’t have just one!
Okay, that’s me done. Y’all have a wonderful Friday night. Avoid the weirdness, unless you’re the cause of it of course.
