hi again :)

Been busy and away from a computer...wish there was an iPhone app for Blogger!

In the past 2 weeks or so-
*pieced a brown/green quilt for a baby of an acquaintance. Need to get this quilted and finished before his parents leave the country! The focus print is giraffes-coordinates with the giraffe fur printed flannel backing.

*finally pieced together the striped hourglass top. This was a kit I bought from JoAnn's that was *supposed* to just be squares pieced together...I can't do anything that simply :) Even better-with the scraps left over, I created a 24x24ish log cabin/9 patch combo top that I'm going to finish into a quilt for Kaden. He's getting too big for his kitten blankie. Also-got a 9x9in block from *those* scraps! Not sure what to do with this one except add it to the odd block box.

*took the Kaffe 9 patches off the design wall (where they've been sitting for, um...a year???) and made a QUEEN sized top out of them! :D There's quite a bit of white (3" sashings between blocks, rows, and a border), but there's a lot of tealy blue & hot pink. I hope I can get this layered somewhat soon-just need to buy batting. So weird to need a queen sized batting and actually use almost all of it! This will be the largest quilt I'll ever attempt to machine quilt, so I'm nervous already. Not planning on anything fancy or majorly intensive-I want to love this quilt, not hate it because it takes so long to finish. Odd thing to say for something I let sit for over a year...

*finished one of the Chrysalis tops. I decided to keep the blocks separate & just have coordinating lap quilts out of them. Still need to finish putting together the jelly roll blocks, but the layer cake puzzle blocks were finished & assembled in one night. I like when I can focus & see a project through without the fun of being distracted-need more nights like that!

*started assembling the Hoopla blocks. Need to cut more setting triangles-this is my first time to set a quilt on point, so it's a learning curve.

I'm afraid that my little spurt here will leave a few tops lingering before they get quilted :/ I need to try finishing a project all the way before finishing another top, but it's always a lack of batting, backing, that *one* perfect border fabric... I should have enough scraps of batting to piece together for the Chrysalis & striped hourglass tops-I don't use pieced batting for tops with too much white or meant for someone else.

Going to baste the baby quilt in the morning for my Friday Night Sew In project! Parents are thinking they're leaving the 15th, so I need to finish this FAST. Batting scraps will be combined with Abby's scraps for Kaden's new blankie-he loves snuggling in blankies. Can't believe he's only 5 months old-thought he was closer to a year! Almost 7 pounds too, so we might have another chubby cat in the family :) It's amazing to see him jump across the room like he's flying-he's fearless. Stressful for mama though!

eBay is evil.

A necessary evil, however. Being a broke-college-kid-who-isn't-in-college-anymore, finding bargains are pretty important. Add in a desire to have "pretty things"-jerseys, fabrics, etc. Over half of my baseball jersey collection & almost all of my hockey sweaters are eBay purchases. Almost all of my fancy Moda fabrics are from eBay. I guess the key is knowing what your limit is...

Which I have pushed. Several times. Usually successfully. Barely.

I like to look at what charm packs, layer cakes, etc are available and for how much. I usually pounce on jellies & cakes that start around $20. I like lots of charm packs in one listing. (I noticed they only offer up to 3-guess because a 4th would basically be a cut up layer cake? Some lines aren't available in a cake at that time though...wish they'd offer an option to add a 4th.)

Uhh...where was I? Oh yes...shopping :)

I've found several lines that I'm trying to collect enough of to make actual bed sized quilts. I think I might have enough Chrysalis and Sugar Pop to work...need more retro Hello Betty and now I want Central Park. Basically all have some combo of teal, orange, brown-which I never thought I would like as a combo. Actually, it's a pretty grown up combo, if I do say so myself. Coming from someone who was *obsessed* with Bollywood type colors and wanted lots of orange, pink & acid green, I think this might be a step in the right direction! 

...assuming I actually *finish* the quilts. and paint the walls. and either frame or remove my Brad Nowell poster that I've had for 15ish years. and make some new curtains.

It's not easy trying to find pretty fabrics on a tight ass budget. Maybe someday I'll actually have a job that pays me enough so I can buy what I want at full retail price. Knowing me, however-I'll still troll eBay, thinking that extra money can buy me more ;)