I'm still here!

And I'm still working on the Red and White Snowball quilt.

I have not quit, I WILL not quit! I will finish this thing if it kills me.

I was feeling so proud of myself, I had thirty blocks left. Then eighteen blocks left! An end was in site!

I could do this! I could finish!

Then I realized that I still have the little half, or rather; third blocks left for around the outside.

Ok, no problem, I can do this.

So it's only...

40 more blocks. five pieces each, that's only...

Eight thousand, three hundred and fifty pieces.

OH MY GOD!!

It's the never ending quilt!!

But I will prevail, I have been cutting and sewing and cutting... and sewing...

Sigh.

So did I tell you about this FabFanatic site?

It's like a Costco for fabric. You place orders for fabric lines, and when they have enough orders to fill a bolt, they order it, cut it, and send it to you! No overhead; so cheaper prices!

I signed up for the "Stash Builder's Club", and here's my first shipment!

A little Nicey Jane, a little Park Slope, a little Good Folks...

Love it!

I should make something just out of these fabrics, to commemorate.

I can't wait for my next shipment. February's fabrics are Amy Butler! Can't go wrong there!

And when I just couldn't look at red and white for one more minute, I started making a baby quilt with this "Riley Blake - Wheels" fabric.

Cute, right? It's boy, without being BOY.

I like that.

And then, just because I was high on making straight squares, I started this quilt, for a friend.

It's from a pattern from Laurie Shiffrin's "Batik Beauties".

Me likee...

Now back to those (sob!) triangles...

We all have our demons...

So when my older brother was little, he loved hippos.

I don't know where it came from, maybe he had a book about a hippopotamus or saw one on TV, I don't know.

But he loooooved him some hippo.

Hippos, hippos, hippos, all about the hippos.

He would tell anyone who would listen,

"ME LOVE HIPPOPOTAMUS!"

So the circus came to town, and low and behold, they had ACTUAL HIPPOS there!

I can only imagine his excitement.

So plans were made, and tickets were bought, and he was going to see an actual, honest-to-God, live and in person hippo.

Eeeee! Can you feel the excitement?!

So the day finally arrives, and off they go.

There's clowns, and there's lions, and there's... I don't know, dancing poodles or something. I wasn't there. I'm MUCH younger. HA!

But the only thing my brother cared about was the hippo.

When it finally made it's appearance, my father took him down to the front to see the beast up close and personal.

I'm sure my brother wanted to wet himself from the thrill!

So down they go, and there they were, right in front of it...

And it opened it's huge maw and showed it's gigantic teeth.

My brother looked into that cavernous mouth and loudly proclaimed:

"ME NO LIKE HIPPOPOTAMUS."

Why do I bring this up, you ask?

Because I find myself saying very often these days:

"ME NO LIKE HALF SQUARE TRIANGLES."

This is what my work space looks like these days.

Other people's are neat and organized, mine have taken over the whole sewing cave. I have no idea how many of what I still have to make. I know I made way too many of the center strips, both red and white. I have triangles EVERYWHERE, squares EVERYWHERE, all sorts of the different components, in all stages of construction.

And every time I think, "Well, THAT was a lot of sewing! I must have made a HUGE dent!" I put them up and it doesn't look any different.

I am in AWE of the people who have finished!

Well done, ladies! Well done indeed!

I know why I took on this challenge. I thought it would be good for me to do something really structured. To have a project that I have to follow through on, instead of making five blocks and then getting bored and stuffing it away.

But come on!

I'm seeing half square triangles in my sleep!

And if you visit me in the cave, you can hear my muttered refrain:

"Me no like half square triangles."

And by the way, my brother?

Yeah, we still torture him about his hippo experience.

Cards, toys, "Me no like hippopotamus" whenever someone finds out they don't like something.

I think I'll email him this picture...

My Guitar Hero

So I finished the t-shirt quilt, and was all set to make the baby quilt for my co-worker.

All set.

But I couldn't find any fabric in my stash that I liked, and I couldn't decide on a pattern that I liked, and then things just snowballed and nothing was right, and nothing would ever be right again!

Auugghh!!

So what do you do in this situation? Do you ever HAVE these situations?

Is it just me?

It might just be me...

So what I did was pull out the guitar fabrics that I've collected for years and start hacking it up.

Let me explain.

If you had to buy a novelty fabric to signify me, you'd pick flamingos. If you were making something for The Princess, you'd pick dogs. Ok, not really. You'd pick dogs for me, but if you really wanted the Poodle's eyes to light up, you'd pick up something with pork chops on it.

Yum.

But if you met the Sweet Baboo, you'd nod and shrug and say

"Guitars. Of course."

So I've been collecting guitar fabrics forever, with no clear idea of what to do with it. Then the other day I was looking through Flickr, trying to get motivated for the baby quilt, and he commented, "Why are the zig-zags always going horizontally? Why don't people make vertical zig-zags?"

Good question!

Why don't they? And by "they" I mean "I". I've been thinking about working in series on things, doing the same pattern over and over until I really can say I'd mastered it, so why not start with the zig-zag?

So here it is.

The Sweet Baboo's guitar quilt.

This missing corner is where I ran out of orange fabric. Trip to Judy's is on the agenda for tomorrow.

Maybe some fret boards as a border?

He seems to like it.

And he deserves it.

He's a good guitar player, and an even better man.

Happy New Year Baby.

So Toasty And Warm...

I know, I know... It's been a while.

There were some holidays in there, and lots of work days, and some random laying on the couch in a semi-coma.

You know, the usual.

But I'm on vacation this week, so I've become reacquainted with the lovely Mr Pfaffey. He's so forgiving. Just takes me right back, no questions asked.

So what have I been working on?

Well, I got the kid's quilt back from the fabulous quilter...

It's gorgeous, right? They seemed to like it. They ooo'ed and ahh'ed appropriately.

Here's the back...

And some close ups of the quilting..

So that was good. We drove over and gave it to them on Christmas Eve and had a really, really nice time. I love those kids.

And then lately, I've been working on a t-shirt quilt for a friend.

Ok, it's for the Sweet Baboo's ex-wife, but people seem to think that's in the "strange" column, so I was trying to soften it for you.

She's a delightful woman, and we all go camping with shared friends each summer.

I think it's healthy.

So anyhoo, her mother passed away a month or two ago, and I said I would make her a memorial quilt. So I got that finished today.

Sort of finished. Are they ever really finished?

I haven't decided on a border or not yet.

Border of the same print? then the nine - patches seem to float.

That could be nice.

Little skinny black border, followed by the same print?

inch and a half black followed by the print?

Ahh... no. Ruled THAT one out.

What do you think? Any opinions? Maybe no border at all?

Next up is a baby quilt for a co-worker who's having a boy. I'm thinking zig-zag.

Well I hope you all have a wonderful New Year's! We've got a party to go to, but there's been a lot of this lately...

And this...

Soooooooo... we'll see if I can get dressed and out of the house.

Anything could happen.

I Am Grateful For Half Square Triangles. Really.

Nine!

I tell ya, it's so much more motivating when you can actually see some concrete progress, instead of just a never ending pile of triangles.

So there they are, in all their blurry glory.

Or rather... like this. Imagine their opposites in the spaces. White "snowballs" with red corners.

And I do so love little surprises.

You know what else I love?

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake.

Yes, yes I DO think it deserves the capital letters.

Chocolate. Peanut Butter. Cheesecake.

Booyah.

That's what I'LL be bringing for Thanksgiving dinner.

Hope you have a great one too!

Happy Turkey Day!

One

ONE!

Woo hoo!

Thaaaaat's right, one block finished.

Isn't she a beaut?

I know, some people have all their triangles finished, some have their whole top done! And congratulations, and good job! They are all turning out beautifully!

I don't want to point any fingers as to why I'm not further along, but if I did point, I'd be pointing down to about two feet off the ground.

The Princess and I had a deal.

I go to work and make money to keep her in dog toys and expensive vegetarian dog food, and she stays home and makes half square triangles.

All I can say is... one of us is not holding up her end of the bargain.

(Rolling eyes towards da pup)

As you can see, I decided to go with the red. A nod to my Mother; her two favorite colors were red and blue. When I first told her I would make her a quilt, and asked what color she'd like, she said blue. Or red. Or blue. Whichever. So I made her a blue quilt, but always had that red one in the back of my mind.

But honestly, what was I thinking?

Four hundred and eighty half square triangles.

480!

Good grief.

And because I'm cheap and lazy, and wanted to get the most out of my fabulous swap fabric, (thanks ladies!) I decided to try the technique that Nicole suggested, using 2 1/2 inch strips and the Easy Angle Ruler.

Easy Peesey.

Except......

Yeah, back to that cheap and lazy part, I don't actually HAVE the Easy Angle Ruler.

But I'm not going to let a little thing like THAT slow me down, right? So I used my Kalideo Ruler. It has a blunted off corner, it should be the same, right?

Yeah, not so much.

I ended up throwing away quite a few squares because they were too small.

I think if I use a very small seam allowance I should be able to salvage the rest of them. Which I'll have to do, since I've already chopped everything into 2 1/2 inch strips and don't want to buy more fabric.

Dang it!

But I persevere.

I think it's going to be a beautiful quilt in the end, and I'm sure I'll love it that much more for all the hard work. Right? And it's comforting to think that while I'm slaving in my sewing cave, there are forty-odd other women who might be triangling at the same time.

How do you feel about a red, cream and green quilt?

Very Christmasy.

Red, cream and blue?

Fourth of July?

We'll see. Just red is good too.

But you know what makes 480 half square triangles feel like a breeze?

More half square triangles!

Ha ha! I'm noodling with another quilt, using these fabrics.

Just call me a glutton for punishment.

Snowballs in California

So I thought I'd be one of those people. What are they called? Oh yeah, organized.

HA!

So I made a list.

A list of all the quilts I have, in various stages of completion.

Everything from ones that only need a backing, (Sultry quilt) to ones that only exist in my head (Dog quilt).

My last count was pushing 30.

30!!

That's obscene.

I need to whittle that down, finish some things.

So naturally, as one of those, what are they called?

Organized people.

Oh yes, as one of them, I decided... to start another quilt!!

I've joined this challenge

Cause THAT'S what I needed!

But, yes, I think it's exactly what I needed.

Isn't it pretty?

I'm debating what colors to use. I'm in the swap, so one of the colors will have to be cream/white. But red? Green sounds pretty. ORANGE sounds nice! But maybe it'll be red after all.

It's all up to the quilt. Whatever it wants to be.

It's an interesting pattern to me, because while it IS scrappy, there's not a lot of value changes. All the reds are pretty much the same value. Can I find a gazillon of the same type of red?

I guess we'll find out!