Pinwheel Quilt Along: Block One

On Sunday, I made PS I Quilt Pinwheel Quilt Along Block one!

It's beautiful!

but I learned something very important......

while the points may all match...the stretching that was done to accomplimsh it isn't the best.

I might be taking DM's advice and start over cutting the blocks then trimming them to guarantee that everything is the same measurements.
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But it's so much work!!!!!

*sigh*


STRAWBERRY UPDATE: Does anyone know what to do when your strawberry plants wilt like this?

I'm having some issues, on Monday I left them out in the sun but for one reason or another in a matter of an hour or so they went from reaching all the way up to he sky to link stems. D:

I transferred them to different containers and I'm using the plant food mixed with water every other day (when I replanted them I realized they were being over-watered.) 


what else can I do?!!?!??


--signing off for now--
dre

Say hello to my little friend

I used one of my fat quarters from the Arcadia fabric line to make this cutie. 

there was much room left for improvement. 

but I love him anyways

don't let the orange color fool you

this little guy is a boy. 

name is yet to be determined.

I'm testing out VooDude (Voo for short). 

Don't laugh! He's gonna end up with a whole bunch of needles anyways, why ignore the elephant in the room?!!?

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Oh wow, I just made a pun. >.<

--signing off before people realize how out there she is--

dre

Pinwheel Happiness

So one of the blogs I follow, PS I quilt, is hosting a Pinwheel quilt along . I'm absolutely in love with pinwheels, they're so happy and whimsical.
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I almost like them more than stars.
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almost
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I've been behind on my projects and I hadn't picked up the layer cake and solids needed to quilt along, so now (2 block tutorials away from finishing the whole pinwheel sampler).

I'm catching up.

What's my poison for this project?

Freebird anyone?!

Now, I'm going to put off my not-OCD-friendly buggy barn project and catch up to the end of this pinwheel sampler!!

After I make lemon bars and cupcakes. (who doesn't love lemon bars and cup cakes?!)

--signing off to mess up a kitchen--

dre

Strawberries!!

So, I went with la familia to a few plant places in search of our future lawn superstars. In our search I was sidetracked. I have always wanted to grow my own flowers/herbs/veggies/fruits/(insert produce here).My grandmother's garden in PR is the provider of much tasty-ness so I decided to try my own hand at it!

Let me preface this whole post with saying one very key character flaw, I kill flowers. No really! Carnations on friendship day in high school was a day of reckoning for all carnations that were gifted to me. (how was I supposed to know that a paper clip splint and scotch tape doesn't save a flower!!)

I was not blessed with the green thumb both my aunt and grandmother have.

So with very careful steps I decided to try and grow my own strawberries. The nice lady at Lowe's garden center told me it was one of the best starters for a container garden.

So wish me luck! I'll need it.

UPDATE: So....after 2 weeks of having my strawberries growing well, I left them outside for some direct sunlight and the texas wind messed up 5 of my 10 strawberry plants. I'm replanting them today. :(

Cursed Nine-Patches--AKA the Surf n'Turf Incident (Back-dated for your entertainment)

Opening Note: I was pulling up my strawberry post when I realized I forgot to post this when I got home! I am just letting everyone know now that this was meant to be posted on 2/2/2010.

Remember these from my last post?

I feel the need to explain--*mumbles* so that you people don't think that Series 7 Studying has completely wiped all sane thought processes from my brain.

So, about 2 weekends ago I went with DM to a Quilt retreat. During that time in the process of laying out my Wild Things From Oz quilt I snapped at the task of laying out the windmill-esque squares out. The isses was that I was having issues interspersing colors and patterns in a random-esque fashion (do you like my use of the ~esque to describe things? I do to).

In a cry of frustration I left Wild Things prone on the floor to think about it's insubordination--ie: not looking right when I laid out the blocks. And pulled out my back up project. It was a disappearing nine-patch project that cleverly dubbed surf and turf because the fabric lines I used had flowers and butterflies with fishes and seaweed. 
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get it?
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Surf n' Turf
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*crickets chirp* *sigh* w/e
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I angrily turned on my shiny new sewing machine (which currently has no name--will be rectified soon enough), and started sewing away. I was ironing out my seams still fuming about my Wild Things when DM brought to my attention that my seams looked awfully big. I scoffed at the thought that my *brand new* sewing maching would be messing up  my seams. Then I realized something that made me curse few time.
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My brand new sewing machine HAD been messing up my seams. BUT IT WAS ALL MY FAULT!! I took a deep breath, looked at the wild things on the floor and decided I would try my seams once more with a second block with a different way of measuring my seam allowance.
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success!!
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until I lined it up with the first one
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NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
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This happened 2 more times, then, after 2 seam rippings, a change of presser foot and a bent needle (the bent needle is a whole other nightmare). None of the blocks match and I STILL don't know why!!! This is why I've concluded that the nine-patch is cursed and has been banished from my sight until further notice.

Good bye cute-ness. 

Until I forget that I have to rip a multitude of seams to start all over. 

--signing off for now--

dre

Reporting above the clouds.

:D

I'm 15 minutes away from landing on terra firma in Dallas. Thanks to Airtran's credit card promotion I got free gogo wifi service--web surfing was fab.

Just thought it would be cool to have an Up in the Air Post.

I will report my misadventures in New England once I'm fed and at home. (I'll also post a grossly forgotten draft of a post that I feel compelled to share)
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but here's a sneak peek.
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IT WAS FRIGGIN AWESOME!
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now onto other news, the pilot is telling me to put away my lap top.


looking forward to watching a movie and tasty food with DM, but missing HTB like I didn't see him all weekend. D:

--signing off for now (they're getting serious about me putting away the lap top)--

dre

Post Exam Happiness

After partaking in new beers and finding my way out of the haze of "is it really over?" post exam doubt, I got down to business and finished two quilts, started a new one and in general started finding other things to do with the time I now had for fun rather than reading one of three phonebook-sized books.
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First of all, in the euphoric haze after my exam, I solidified plans with HTB for a trip to Boston. Which I'm going to in less than a week! *happy dance* He's officially done with school and we're celebrating!
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after plans were settled, I busied myself with the usual.
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This means I pieced a whoooollleee bunch of quilts.

Wild Things is officially done!! I floated both the pieced center AND the pieced border. (that's three borders if you weren't counting--in my opinion, while this is beautiful, my patience told me that it was two borders too many). 

I then finished trimming my Piece of Life blocks and sewed those suckers together too!!!! Here's the finished product.

Please take note of one singularly important thing about this super cute quilt. It is not the simple layout and fabric design nor is it that your truly finished it in 2 hours. 

Take note that there is no border!!! (didn't you just pay attention to what I told you about my Wild Things project?!)

After these two simple projects, I decided that I was ready for my next challenge.  It's a pattern from Buggy Barn's Gone Crazy  book.

I think it's complicated enough to work on. *nod*  not to mention it has challenged my OCD tendencies to keep blocks squared up. I've only pieced 2 blocks of 21, so I'll share more details about it in a future post. 

Beyond quilting, I've also started accumulating DVD/Blu-rays, here's what I've gotten so far. 

First I got Ponyo, I've already mentioned in a previous post, my obsession with Miyazaki films. So not long after this was purchased I got Kiki's Delivery Service. 

I first watched kiki's on Toonami movie Friday's back in the "good ol'days" where anime was played for 4 hours straight on cartoon network. *sigh* what happened?!

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What ever it was it happened to FOX Kids, when they started phasing out Season's one and two of Digimon. 

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I'm not bitter *cough* 

Along the same vein of Kiki's recent special edition release, I thought I might as well purchase My Neighbor Totoro. Alas, Walmart and Target decided that this 1988 animated feature wasn't worth being put into inventory. So today, to pacify my indignation that one of Miyazaki's masterpieces wasn't deemed worth on making it on to super store chain's inventory list. 

I went a bought myself The Last Unicorn. 

yes, I now have this in my DVD collection.

yes, I may or may not have an authographed cast of characters. 

yes, I'm still a 5 year old dressed up as a 22 year-old woman. >.<

--going to watch the last unicorn tonight no matter what you think :P --

--signing off for now--

dre

Much Has Happened!!!

first of all.... drum roll please.... *ahem*

*drum roll*

I passed my series 7 and 63 exams !!! This means that I keep my job and I am officially a stock broker! (did I mention that comes with a raise?....no?.....well it does. :P)

Since my last post much has happened!

I got this beautiful display for valentines day from HTB and had a dinner and movie date with DM.

(there's balloons too, but the teddy bear is soo cute!)

I got into an accident. (my mom posted on it on her blog.)

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I bought a new car (it's the same model, just 2010)...I dubbed it Ni, it means two in Japanese...I also chuckled at the Monty Python reference. (anyone who gets that reference gets a cyber hug from me)

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Did I mention I passed my Series 7 and 63?

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I did?

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Did I mention I get a raise?

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That too?

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Well I do! 

--happy and moving onto a second post she has for today--

--signing off for now---

Dre