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.